Pop Warner Football

I have a son who will be 10 in April and he wants to play football. Does anyone have an opinion on Pop Warner vs. Clayton Civitan? Also, how do you know which level - if his weight and age fall into 3 categories (Jr Pee wee, Pee wee and jr. midget)?
Thanks

 

i'm going to recommend pop warner.

full disclosure: i'm the community liason (read: pr/media guy).

www.clevelandwildcats.com

now, undertsand i say this without the benefit of having dealt with civitan, but just on the face of it pop warner is a local chapter of a long-standing, national organization. most of the rules and such are dictated by national, so you'll find consistency across the country. it's a relatively new team locally (cleveland), but is growing nicely.

my boy gained immeasurably from his first season in tiny mite. hard to describe how much, really. he is looking forward to this season, and would start today if we let him...

the age/weight matrix is on the website, as are details about registration, the incentive registration, and even online registration (new this year). registration starts soon! april 5th is our first date, and the cutoff is june 30th i think.

here's the current version of the 08 age/weight matrix. i have recently read that they are proposing taking all 7 year olds out of tiny mite and allowing them to only be in mighty mite, due to their mental and physical advantage.

Age/Weight Matrix - 2008 Season

DIVISION & WEIGHT​

​

AGES​

​

INCLUSIVE BIRTH DATES​

​

FLAG​

​

5, 6 & 7 year olds​

​

8/1/00 - 7/31/03​

​

TINY-MITE
(35-75 lb. Regular)
No Older/Lighter ​

​

5, 6 & 7 year olds​

​

8/1/00 - 7/31/03​

​

MITEY-MITE
(45-90 lbs.)
No Older/Lighter​

​

7, 8, & 9 year olds​

​

8/1/98 - 7/31/01​

​

JR. PEE WEE
(50-105 lbs.)
(60-85 lb. Older/Lighter)​

​

8, 9 & 10 year. olds
11 year olds​

​

8/1/97 - 7/31/00
8/1/96 - 7/31/97​

​

PEE WEE
(75-120 lbs.)
(75-100 lb. Older/Lighter)​

​

9, 10 & 11 year olds
12 year olds​

​

8/1/96 - 7/31/99
8/1/95 - 7/31/96​

​

JR. MIDGET
(85-135 lbs.)
(85-115 lb. Older/Lighter)​

​

10, 11 & 12 year olds
13 year olds​

​

8/1/95 - 7/31/98
8/1/94 - 7/31/95​

​

MIDGET
(105-160 lbs.)
(105-140 lb. Older/Lighter)​

​

11, 12 ,13, & 14 year olds
15 year olds ​

​

8/1/93 - 7/31/97
8/1/92 - 7/31/93​

​

hope this helps. if i can't answer a pop warner question, i guarantee i can find the answer or get you someone who can....

 

I havea question that I didnt see on the website provided, what's the typical season from when to when?

 

practice starts around august 1st, games the first week of september, regular season is over the first week of november i believe. the league announces the exact schedule.

 

thanks for that! :mrgreen:

 

Thanks for the information!

 

Dangerboy - I just PM'd you.

 

From my own son's experience, I voted on Pop Warner. We have some bad experience with Civitain. Trust me.

 

Go CATS!

WILDCATS all the way!

I don't know about Civitan, but we have been in Cleveland Pop Warner football for years now and we love it!! Just hope this August will be a little cooler for the practices than it was last year. Thought we would MELT!

 

I see that everyone seems very positive about Pop Warner. My son is very interested in playing; however I could do with out him playing. Either way, could someone tell me how this whole thing works out? Do they have try-outs or does everyone get to play? Do they make the teams even as far as strength/size? Any info from a parent who's allowed their child to play would be awesome!

Thanks!!!

 

there are NO TRYOUTS. you pay, he plays. and every kid plays a minimum number of plays every game. the age/weight matrix is posted above, so you can see what other ages/sizes your child would be playing with. according to a recent bulletin from national, the 7 year olds will probably be limited to mitey mite...

 

yeah, that was not good. and it forced cancellation of alot of practice, and national mandates a certain number of hours of practice before the first game, while at the same time limiting the length of the initial practices and the frequency...

 

FYI
Registration for Pop Warner is Saturday, April 5th from 9am till 12. The commissioner just asked me to post this on my reader board but he didn't tell me where the registration will be held.
Someone else can probably chime in on that.

 

old cleveland school, in the offices behind the gym. discount for signing up early!

 

Dangerboy, what if the kid fits into 3 of these categories? Which one is he then registered for? My child could be in Jr PeeWee or Pee Wee or Jr Midget

 

Cleveland Pop Warner

Thank you to Dangerboy for answering the questions asked about Cleveland Pop Warner and it is good to see the discussion going on about this subject. I am the newly elected Commissioner for Cleveland Pop Warner and will be more than happy to answer questions about our Association.
1. In regards to the age/weight question, if your child falls in between a couple of different divisions, what we will do is ask the parent what experience they have with playing football and assess what would benefit them the most. We are also very accommodating when it comes to children that fall into the same division that request a certain coach or if they have a friend or sibling that they would like to play on the same team. So the best way that I can answer the question is that we work with the parents and participant as to where they should be placed.
2. Our practices do begin on August 1st. The Head Coach will be in contact with you a couple of weeks before practice begins. It is a Pop Warner mandatory rule that we do 20 hours of conditioning before we start doing scrimmages against other teams and our first games against other teams is scheduled for the last Saturday in August and all of our games are on Saturday's and all of our home games are played at West Johnston High School. The furthest distance that we would have to travel for an away game is to Durham or Orange County.
3. All of our registration information is on our website www.clevelandwildcats.com. Our first registration will be this Saturday April 5th from 9 am - 12 at the Old Cleveland Middle School across the street from DR Wells. This registration is our Incentive Registration where we are charging $10 less for each child registered.

I apologize for being long winded.

 

Thanks for that additional info. If there are any other key events coming up feel free to call me again and I'll do my best to get it on our reader board for you.

 

Thanks Clive. Any help is always greatly appreciated. We will be at the Strawberry Festival on April 26th handing out flyers and talking with parents about our program.

 

OK, I've got a question. My son has zero interest in team sports. We did the Upwards basketball thing a couple years ago and let's just say, at that time he was not exhibiting any natural talent. Granted, he was just in the first grade. DH and I would both like for him to be more involved in sports, but not sure we should force him to do it against his will. Not sure if it's just shyness or if he really doesn't enjoy the sports. Should we "make" him go?

 

My personal feeling as a parent and also from a coaches and administrators standpoint is to absolutley not "make" him play if he is not interested. A child who is not interested in playing and is doing it just because their parents want them can make it difficult for a coach to be focused on the entire team because they are always having to focus on the child that does not want to be there. Also, because they are uninterested it is easier for them to get injured because they do not listen intently and they are unsure of what they should be doing.