Building Skill, Character and Community Through Football and Cheerleading

 
Wayland Weston Youth Football & Cheer (WWYF) is built on a strong foundation - a purpose and set of values that members are passionate about, a clear appreciation of the unique contribution we provide to our kids and broader community, and a good understanding and dedication to nurturing what drives our resource engine.
 
Starting with evening practices in early August and running through eight Sunday games in September and October on the Wayland High School turf field and at opponents stadiums in eastern Massachusetts, WWYF attracts kids in grades 2 -  8 and their parents who love the skill, character and community building designed into the program.
 
American Youth Football, Inc., established in 1996, is a 501c (3) non-profit international youth football organization established to promote the wholesome development of youth through their association with adult leaders in the sport of American football. Rules and regulations are established to ensure that players play in an atmosphere of safety with a competitive balance between teams.  American Youth Football is on a mission to GIVE BACK to the community.
 
Parents and other volunteers in Wayland and Weston run our program, are trained to coach our teams, announce games, choreograph cheers, take game films, hold the chains and do other activities that keep them close to the action and their kids. An active boosters program makes the environment complete with tailgate parties, concessions, an annual adult social fundraiser and end of season awards banquet.
 
There are many opportunities to volunteer your time and donate your resources to WWYF. Browse this site, click through on the underlined links above or contact a member of WWYF's leadership team to learn more.

by posted 05/09/2012
 
Summer Practice Dates & Times

Football starting Monday, August 6 thu Thursday August 30.

Cheering Start date , Aug 13th.

Mon-Thur - 5:30p-7:30p

Location: Wayland Middle School (week of Aug 6th only) and Wayland High School (thru Aug 30th).

After Labor Day, practice days are: Tuesday & Thursday nights

Teams E1, E2, D - 5:30p-7:30p @ Wayland Cochituate Ball Fields
Teams C, B, A - 6:00p-8:00p @ Wayland High School
Cheer (All): 5:30p-7:30p - indoors at either Wayland HS Commons or Wayland HS Field House

Game Schedule dates for Home & Away (subject to change):

Game 1: Sep 2
Game 2: Sep 9
Game 3: Sep 16
Game 4: Sep 23
Game 5: Sep 30
Game 6: Oct 7
Game 7: Oct 14
Game 8: Oct 21
Playoffs start: Oct 28

Home Games Only (Game start times per game day, subject to change):

8:00AM - D (Turf Field), E2 (JV-Field)
9:30AM - C (Turf Field), E1 (JV-Field)
11:00AM - B Team
12:30PM - A-Team

Away games will most likley be the same time(s) and day but some teams play on Saturday. Official schedule will be out end of June.

--Shawn




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by posted 04/15/2012
 
Hi WWYF Families,

On behalf of the WWYF Board, I would like to welcome you all to the 2012 Wayland Weston Youth Football Season Registration. We are looking forward to another great year of youth football and cheer and with moving to American Youth Football, allow more children to participate in the greatest of team sports. We will be playing some of our neighboring towns (Natick, Framingham, Sudbury, Wellesley) and other towns (Needham, Newton, Walpole, Weymouth, Norwood, and Milton).
 
Some highlights for this year and registration info:
 
1)      This year, we are playing in a grade based system and your children will play with fellow classmates in their grade and will compete against players in the same grade. Also,  grade based has no limitations on weight so all players of size can play and don’t have to wait for high school to participate. We want all kids to be able to benefit of the exercise and team play with the great game of football.
 
2)      Since we have moved to a grade based system, we are adding a team (4^th grade) but are limiting the team sizes to 32 players total football (24 cheer). Based on last year’s numbers we will be able to satisfy the amount of players needed to fill each team and add new players as well.
 
3)      There will be an active waitlist for teams that fill over 32 players. After May 31^st, we will take a look at how many players are on the waitlist for each team and we can offer those players the opportunity to move up a grade, if there is room. If not, those waitlisted players are welcome to attend all summer practices up and until the first game. Many times players drop from the program in Aug or even before the first game. This will allow waitlisted players to step right in and be able to immediately participate in games.
 
4)      At the 3^rd grade football level, we will be filling up to 24 slots of former and new 3^rd graders and on April 15^th we will open the 8 registration slots for 2^nd graders. In AYF, most 3^rd grade teams are primarily made up of 3^rd graders but have a smaller amount of 2^nd graders. It’s really a 3^rd grade team with 2^nd graders invites. If there happens to be less than 8 - 2^nd graders, we will backfill with 3^rd graders and vice versa is there are less than 24 - 3^rd graders. For Cheer, we are holding 6 spots for 2^nd grade cheer at this time to participate on the 4^th/3^rd game squad. There will be 18 spots open for the 4^th/3^rd grade to accommodate the 2^nd graders. Moth 2^nd grade Football & cheer registration will commence on April 15.
 
5)      This year we will be equipment independent, meaning that we will loan out ALL of the required equipment (minus the usual cleats, mouth guard, and non-required equipment). No more $200 helmets and $60 shoulder pads to buy. With all of the fundraising efforts we have made from last year, we now have the ability to outfit everyone. You are welcome, of course , to continue using any equipment that you may have in your possession that you own, as long as the helmets are within the certification date. We would welcome any no longer used helmets and shoulder pads donated back into the program if they are no longer used.
 
6)      Although we welcome parents helping with concessions (2 hrs. per season) with concessions and apparel, we have decided this year to offer an opt-out fee of $30 for those who may find it difficult to make the time. This will allow us to backfill some of these positions with high school/other workers with compensation.
 
7)      This year’s registration fee is $250 (1^st member), $225 (2^nd member), and $200 (3^rd member) with all additional family members free of charge. We know that this is a small increase ($25) from last year but we are hoping you realize a much larger savings as we are now supplying loaned equipment. This small increase is to help offset the maintenance cost that we incur for the new and used equipment & uniforms.
 
8)      Payment will only be made by Credit Card (MC, Visa, Amex, Discover) through Pay Pal. If you have a Pay Pal account, you can directly transfer from your checking account. If you want to pay by check, and don’t have a PayPal account, you can sign up for PayPal (www.paypal.com)and link it directly to your checking account. We hope this offers more flexibility than previous years. Of course, scholarships are available and you can contact me directly for more information ( ).
 
9)      The paper work sections is not quite setup yet as we are still compiling the required documents we need for AYF. Those will be available on or before April 6^th. Please remember not to mail or email any paperwork. You will need to compile this is a folder and after you receive your child report card in June then bring all of the paperwork to our paper work night which will be sometime in July.
 
There will be more information updated on the webpage in the coming days. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to help.
 
Thank you and we are looking forward to seeing you all on the field soon.
 
Go Warriors!
 
--Shawn Fennelly
President, Wayland Weston Youth Football & Cheerleading

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by posted 04/09/2012
 
Hello WWYF Families,
 
Exciting news! For those who have been looking for summer football camps, we now have one in our own back yard. Wayland Football Camp!
 
Calling all Wayland Weston Warriors!  Wayland Football Camp is back this year and is looking for young, eager football players who are looking to learn the game of football, hone their skills, and have a great week of fun!
 
This year’s camp is being run by Wayland HS football coach Scott Parseghian and two Wayland alumni, Ben Sherry and Sam Breslin.  Ben was the quarterback of Wayland’s 2006 state championship team before going on to be a two-time captain at Trinity College (CT). Sam Breslin was a two-time captain of the Wayland football team, played at Colgate University, and now is an assistant football coach for Wayland. The camp will also feature other former WHS players, as well as members of the current Wayland team.
 
The camp will take place at the Wayland High School softball field from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Players will learn the basic skills for all positions, and then  move onto more advanced skills as the week goes on. The only equipment necessary will be a pair of cleats as we will be playing flag football. There will be a daily swim break at the Wayland Town Pool. Each day campers will learn new skills, as well as be challenged in competition against one another.
Session 1 will be the week of July 9-13, and Session 2 will be July 16-20. Each session will cost $200 ($210 out of town).
 
For more information or to register, please go to: http://www.activityreg.com/clientpage.wcs?clientid=WAYLAND&siteid=1 click Register For Activities then click Summer Youth Camps and Clinics. You’ll see Wayland Football Camp to register.
 
We hope some of you can take advantage of this great program.
 
Go Warriors!
--Shawn

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by posted 01/10/2012
 
Hi WWYF Family!

Happy New Year!

Yes that's right! I said WWYF Family! We are now Wayland Weston Youth Football & Cheer (WWYF). I mentioned the possibility of this move briefly at our end of year banquet in November.

As of Jan 1st, we have officially made the move to another program which offers our participants, regardless of size, to compete in a safe environment within their grade. 

Over the past 12 months, our previous board have studied the differences between Pop Warner and American Youth Football (AYF) so we’d either feel comfortable with where we are or move to a program which better suits our families and the size of our towns. 

In the end we voted (this past December) to move to the AYF. AYF and Pop Warner are both very similar and different. From practice, game day, league rules, and competition, they are about the same but from a participation standpoint, vastly different. They main difference between AYF and Pop Warner is that we'll be playing in a grade based system where all participants play with their grade. Also, we can open this up to players of all sizes. There is very little correlation between size of players and injuries but we discovered that there is a correlation between teams playing within different age groups and injuries. 
 
We will be joining the Bay State Conference this year and competing with the following towns:
Natick, Framingham, Wellesley, Needham, Milton, Walpole, Norwood, and Weymouth.
 
I wanted to share with you more details of the decision process so you all know the reasoning’s behind this move, we did an analysis on both football and cheer programs and we deemed both seemed better with AYF. For this message, I will focus on why we made the changed based on the youth football aspect.:


Older Lighter Rule:
Probably the one of the top reasons to move is the Older/Lighter Rule of Pop Warner.  Older/Lighters (OL) are players that can meet the minimum weight requirement to move down to the next level. At first glance this seems like a good rule to have but over the years it has turned into a more competitive advantage for the larger towns we played in Pop Warner (Billerica, Brookline, Dracut, Methuen, etc.). These towns are much larger than Wayland/Weston combined. The true spirit of the OL rule is to have much smaller players play down on what is perceived to be a safer. In most cases the OL rule was used to make sure teams would win. Players that were OL could play on their mean grade level team but where chosen to move down to make the lower team more competitive.
 
Also, in many cases, OL that move down, because of their maturity and coordination over this lower grade, seem to land in the higher skilled positions at that level reducing the roles for participants who fit in the mean age group at that level.

If we look back of the success of our teams (very few OL’s) over the past years, teams we played against that had minimal OL's we fared quit well with and were very competitive. Teams that had many more OL (40%-50%+) was not even a contest. Also, we sustained many of our injuries during those games. 
 
Our OL’s were mostly on the younger team as they weren’t heavy enough to play with their grade. They way that PW is set up today, the OL rule is used as a competitive advantage and this does not help small towns like Wayland & Weston.

The AYF conference we'll be playing in next year is grade based. There is no OL rule and all players must play with their grade (this even included players how may have stayed back a year in school, they still play with their current grade).
 
We are a small organization:
The population of Wayland/Weston combined is about 20K. That is the lowest of any Eastern Mass PW team.  We lose some kids because they are too big or small and can't play within their age group. I think as coaches we tend to see the kids as X's and O's and not so much kids that are out there through August because all of their friends are there as well. We had one first time 6th grader that was too heavy this year that could not play on the C-Team (too heavy & in his age group) or B-Team (too heavy) and the parent just didn't want him playing on the A-Team.
 
So with the size of our towns, we needed to find a program the encouraged the most participation. We lost a few experienced kids that could not play in their age group and weren't having fun.  With grade based, we hope to pick up a few more kids at each level to make it a better experience for all.
 
Development for our HS Program & allowing all kids to play:
Over the years, Pop Warner has seemed more of a "Team Building" program where some towns coalesce around a particular level(s) in hopes of making a run for the playoffs. We can see that, year over year, when we play some towns with one strong team and then 3-4 weaker teams. We want to move more into a "Development Program" for our high schools. We see youth football as a feeder system for our high schools and we feel that a grade based system will be the best way to achieve this. 
 
Pop Warner has served us well but it is also an exclusive club. Meaning that it excludes participant that are either too big or too small. Blocking participants based on size is not the type of program we want to continue with. Pop Warner based football rules is one of the only (maybe only) youth sport organization that excludes children based on their size. We can all agree that our children need more activity and excluding some can make them more inactive. Also, being part of a team really brings out the best in our children. This was one of the major reasons for this change.
 
From a competitive standpoint, playing at the Patriot division (Pop Warner’s only unlimited division for the A-Team only) this year really solidified our reasoning. We played teams that were mostly, if not all, grade based. It allowed 4-5 more kids so we could field a team. They had never played before and it was good to get them ready for high school.  We were competitive as well, we finished #7 of 20 teams in Eastern Mass. So to us, being grade based we are more competitive or at least know where we stand and each year get the same kids and work with them not wondering who is too small or big, year over year.
 
Safety:
This was one of our top reasons. We did a lot of analysis and although Pop Warner has an OL rule for safety reasons, we feel a lighter, older, faster, more physically developed player is more dangerous on the field then a player who happens to be 30 lbs. heavier than that OL and is not all that athletic or fast. 
 
So we have studied the difference between OL injuries and unlimited (within the grade) injuries the organizations with OL injuries we slightly more. I have a paper from the Mayo Clinic I can share with you that basically says there is little to no difference in injury rates in grade based program but more chance of injury in a weight based program.
 
In the end, those were most of the factors. AYF did not sell us, we reached out to them and did our own analysis. Pop Warner has done our organization well over the years and we are very grateful to have been part of it. As a board, we just needed to make sure that our organization is in the best program to develop our young players and offer this great team sport to children which previously may have been an option.
 
As much as we obviously feel winning is important, we feel the true success of our program is making sure we create an environment in which our participant sign up year over year.
 
Please feel free to contact me with any questions. We will get a FAQ (Frequent Asked Questions) link on our webpage.
 
By the end of this week, we’ll be able to share with you registration start dates and summer practice schedule.

Thank you for your time and attention,
Go Warriors!
 
On behalf of the WWYF Board,
Shawn Fennelly
President, WWYF

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