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How many games? Bridgman Rocket Football Instructional Leagues season consists of six football games, which are played on Saturday mornings. Children 8 to 10 (the minors) begin at 9:30, and ages 10-12 (the majors) follow at 11:00. The games are played on the high school field of the host team, and are complete with announcers and concessions. Rocket Football Sign Ups The Bridgman Rocket Football program will be conducting spring signups on Saturday to be announced. Registration is open to all area youths who are between the ages of 8 and 12 prior to October 31, 2004. Please note that youths who will be 13 years old prior to October 31st, or who are entering the 7th grade in the fall of 2005, are not eligible to play Rocket Football. Registration fees are $50 per child, or $40 per child for families with two or more children registered to play. To register, you must complete the attached form and present it with your payment in full. For your convenience, you may mail or deliver the registration form and payment to either of the addresses shown above. Rocket Football is a full contact, instructional league consisting of two age groups - Minors (ages 8 to 10) and Majors (ages 10 to 12). The Bridgman Rocket Football program provides all equipment and uniforms with the exception of cleats (soccer shoes are acceptable) and specialty items such as forearm pads, gloves, etc. Rocket Football begins around mid August and runs through the last week of October. The season will consist of seven games this year. These games are usually played on Saturday mornings starting at 9:30 AM for Minors and 11:00 AM for Majors, and are generally played on the high school field of the host team complete with referees, announcers, and concessions. Bridgman Rocket Football is a not-for-profit program that is dedicated to teaching children the fundamentals of football, discipline, teamwork, and sportsmanship. Although we strive for and have had much success within our program, our primary emphasis is on having fun. We hope that you will encourage your children to participate in this exciting and rewarding athletic experience. Getting in shape. Summer is a great time for fun, but is also a great time to get in shape! Finger training on Playstation and XBox doesn't help a whole lot in your overall physical shape for football. (Although some football games can certainly help your overall knowledge of the game.) I would recommend getting outside and riding your bike, skateboard, rollerblades, and running. Being able to run is a very important part of football. Pushups, jumping jacks, and sit ups are all great strength training exercises. Try to spend at least 10 minutes a day on these simple exercises to be ready for the upcoming season. Overall, going running and jogging will be the biggest benefit to starting your football season with a bang! Rules on Shoes! Berrien County Rocket Football Association Rules on shoes: A. Every player must be equipped with the following shoes: Gym shoes or shoes with rubber cleats that are no more than 1/2 inch long. They must have a molded sole (no removable cleats). Metal cleats of any kind are not allowed. Flat rivets holding the sole to the vamp are acceptable (as long as there is no protruding metal.) Shoes should have a minimum of 10 cleats. Soccer shoes are legal as long as they meet the criteria noted above. Practice schedule Our practice schedule is typically 9 weeks long. The first two weeks we'll practice Monday through Friday for an hour and a half. These are conditioning practices. We will do a lot of running, stretching and agility drills. The players should show up in shorts, T-shirt, and football cleats. (See the post on footwear) Equipment will be handed out at the beginning of the second week of practice. Once everyone is equipped, we will begin contact practices. Mouth pieces must be formed and worn for players to participate in contact drills. On the third week we scale back to three practices a week. Typically these are Monday and Wednesday for an hour and a half, and Thursday for an hour. The Saturday after our third week we have a Jamboree, where we scrimmage other teams in the Rocket program. From the fourth week on, we will continue the three a week practices through the end of the season. It is very important to attend all practices. We teach different skills each day. We also assign positions to the players and put them in groups (i.e. orange offense, or blue offense). For these groups to learn their assignments, and learn to work together, everyone needs to be at practice each day. We understand that there are times when someone will miss a practice, and we ask that you let the coaches know in advance. Parents are welcome to stay and watch the practices, but we ask that you don't "coach" from the sidelines. Details on the specific dates and times of the practices will be announced when we have the schedule for the season provided to us from the league. |