Age and Weight

This is an unlimited weight league. This means your child will play with their peers.

Our Experience With Unlimited Weight
This is our opinion based on our experience

     Most of our Board Members and Staff have volunteered in both Weight restricted and Unlimited weight programs. The benefit with unlimited weight football is that your kids get to play with their age groups.

     Weight limit leagues will have up to a 4 year difference in ages on a single team. Some weight restricted leagues make your child lose weight to play down and "dominate" younger players. Kids will also have to lose weight in some cases just to play with their own age group or friends.  

     Some leagues make players weigh-in every week with a 1 pound per week allowance to gain.

     Some leagues only do a 1 time weigh-in at the beginning of the season. In my experience, I have witnessed kids lose up to 20 pounds to play down an age group then gain their weight back a few weeks after their initial weigh-in. The problem we have with this is that you will have both a heavier and older child playing at a younger age group. This is where the term "Older/Lighter" comes from. Although my example of 20lbs was the extreme, it is not abnormal for kids to lose weight to play down. 

     However, we think the greater concern is the age/maturity of players in combination with in season weight gain. Kids start to begin puberty from 12 to 13 years old. The major concern is a 9 year old or even a 10 year old being on a team with 12 or 13 year olds reaching puberty with more strength, speed, aggression, etc. We are talking about 5th grade kids on the same team as 8th grade. This is not what we want for any kid learning how to play football. 

     The concern from inexperienced parents, coaches, and organization staff is that bigger, heavier kids will be playing on teams with smaller kids.  Kids of all sizes are playing on a single unlimited weight team. I have seen and coached teams with 150lb plus 9 year olds. However, the reality is heavier kids have not grown into their bodies just yet. The inexperienced parents and staff will imagine exactly what is already happening in the weight limit league. (older/lighters) playing against younger kids. This is simply not the case. 

      I have found that in some cases, weight restricted leagues will also use this as a "scare tactic" to prevent families to playing in unlimited weight leagues.  As a former high school coach, I have too often seen unlimited weight youth football players come into a freshman program who have never had experience playing in a position where they belong. This is most important at the older age groups. I too often saw 130 lb kids come in and tell me they played right guard or right tackle for 5 years in youth.  When they are surrounded by 200lb freshman at those positions, I had to move them to where they would best benefit the team. We want to prepare kids to play at the next level, and not put them in situations that will turn them off from the sport or ill prepare them for the reality of High School football. 

We have received some questions regarding unlimited weight football leagues.  We wanted to add some articles that include scientific studies on this subject.  

What the evidence shows

Is it fair to deny or limit participation for larger than normal kids in the name of safety? 

The answer is “No, there is no existing evidence that unlimited classes are riskier than 

weighted classes.”

Everyone has heard anecdotes about the personal observations from administrators, coaches, and parents about the occasional  legendary player who is significantly heavier, stronger, and faster and who is the source of multiple injuries to much smaller players.

I’m not saying that these stories are not credible, but it is best to look to scientific studies 

on this topic to determine if these instances are isolated vs. common and to determine

 if the injuries are more severe than normal.

Please click on the link below to read the entire article.

http://www.sadlersports.com/risk-management/should-weight-limits-be-required-in-youth-football/

Please follow the link for the complete article.

USA Football article on weight limits

Age, not weight, should determine playing divisions