Dear football family,

I am thrilled to announce that after three years in the Youth Football Program, two years as Team Manager and the past year serving on the Board as Treasurer, that I will be taking over as Board President. We are all grateful for Meredith Cervantes and her many years of leadership and extraordinary commitment to our Youth Football Program. Thank you Meredith!

As you are well aware, football is in a challenging and transitional time right now. As a Club we are committed to creating the safest environment possible for our players. To do this we have a three-pronged approach. 1) Ensure that kids are wearing the safest equipment possible. We bought all new helmets and shoulder pads last year. We are continuing to stay abreast of new helmet technologies and are investigating ways to purchase new helmets for our older players who invariably hit harder. 2) Mandate that all coaches have gone through critical training so that they know how to teach kids the safest ways to block and tackle. We also bought several more tackle dummies last year so that kids can better practice their new skills. 3) Advise players and families on which team will be the best and safest fit for them. While the Ute conference mandates the weight cut-offs, we are given the opportunity to Y-up and Z-down players. For many of our players this is a fantastic opportunity to play with similarly sized players, be safer and more competitive. 

We received incredible feedback from over 46% of our parents on our year-end survey. Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey and for your thoughtful responses. The great news is that 93% of your kids had a positive experience this past year and 91% were satisfied with their coaching staff. On the whole you felt that coaches were knowledgeable, respectful, gave kids an opportunity to try out multiple positions and communicated effectively. The couple of areas where parents voiced concerns were around 1) Concessions – where was it and could they serve healthier fare? 2) “B” teams – how can these teams be more fairly created and coaching staffs better supported? And 3) Volunteer Hours – can we offer a wider variety of options to make it easier for parents to get their hours in? I think that those are all fair points. The Board is committed to responding to them and making improvements for 2019. As we get closer to the season, I will report back on our plan to address these concerns and others.

In addition to the concerns above, over the off-season, the Board will be interviewing coaches, bringing them up to speed and assisting them as they start to develop their practice strategy and game plans. Tim Chesley is the VP of Coaches and already has two training sessions planned for new and returning coaches. I know that we don’t say it enough - we are so thankful to our parent-coach volunteers for the hundreds of hours that they dedicate to coaching and mentoring our kids. Please consider becoming part of our coaching staff. Whether you have ever coached before or not, we need your help! Email Tim Chesley at tim@chesleyelectric.com if you would like to become part of our phenomenal team. 

The Board is also seeking a few new members to help out with myriad opportunities. We have jobs big and small. If you are interested in joining, please email me at betsybwright@gmail.com The Board meets once per month in the evening, approximately 10 times per year. 

Last thing – I’ve already received a few emails from parents wondering what their players can do over the off-season to stay in shape and get ready for next season.  We are so fortunate that John McCurdy and a host of other football-minded parents have put together a Passing League which is independent of the Ute Conference. This is a non-tackle program where kids focus exclusively on throwing and catching, zigging and zagging. Registration opens February 15th and closes March 14th, with an evaluation day for 4-7th graders March 14 from 7-9pm at Basin Rec.  Games will start March 24th . Please go to the following www.parkcitypassingleague.com for more info.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your Board President. I am always available to listen to your feedback and any ideas or concerns you may have. Please do not hesitate to reach out via email, phone or text.

Happy holidays!

Betsy Wright

PCMYF Board President

betsybwright@gmail.com

(415) 244-6841