FOOTBALL IS ALIVEand well in
That might be a bit of an understatement, though.
The Katy Youth Football league currently boasts a football and cheerleading roster that numbers almost 4,000 participants ranging in age from four to players and cheerleaders who are in the sixth grade.
“We just keep continuing to grow,” said Katy Youth Football’s Diana Porter, who said the league has grown at about a 15 percent clip per year.
“We’re growing not only in terms of number of kids, but in geography as well. We go 25 miles now out to the west. We stretch to the south to
One major draw for the league, which is based out of this town 27 miles west of
“Teams tend to stay together from year to year instead of having to draw out of a big hat every year,” Porter said. “People like that.”
Making sure coaches are as prepared as possible is also a major point of emphasis for the league, which is in its 29th year of existence. USA Football provides coaches throughout the country with chances to gain knowledge and tips at various coaching seminars. In 2007, 4,000 coaches were trained at 19 USA Football seminars. Here’s a look at this year’s schedule.
“We’ve got a stringent process for coaches,” Porter said. “They go to clinics and workshops before the season starts.”
Preparations for this popular league tend to get started in the spring.
“We start spring training in April,” Porter said. “And our season doesn’t get officially started until the end of August. It helps get the kids get in some conditioning before it gets to be 110 degrees outside. They run drills and do calisthenics. They wear helmets and shorts, but no pads. Spring training lasts up until early July. A lot of teams will do 7-on-7 during the early spring. There is also flag football in February.”
The league also helps prepare kids for football at the junior high and high school levels.
“A great number of kids go on to play in junior high and high school,” Porter said. “They stick with it with their friends. The junior high coaches will come out to scout our senior varsity games and see how the players are doing. It helps integrate them into those programs. When they get to junior high, it’s not the first time they’ve played football.”
It also helps that Katy has an overall big reputation as a football town.
“Soccer, baseball and softball are big here, too,” Porter said. “But none of them draw what football does. On a Saturday afternoon here our fields are absolutely packed to the gills. We have several policemen come out and help with the parking. It’s an emotional sport for fans and parents. They come out with their giant boom boxes and banners and flags and giant blowups. They go all out here.”
Katy Youth Football has also been recognized on a national level in recent years. One of the league’s photos (entitled “Superman”) was the grand-prize winner two years ago in the Canon/Pro Football Hall of Fame Photo Contest. The league’s “A Shoulder Pad to Cry On” photo was the grand-prize winner this past season.
The “Superman” photo was featured all year on NFL.com, in Canon ads and was displayed in almost all the NFL game programs across the country. Both photos were also displayed at Super Bowl XLI in
Volunteers like Porter are vital to an organization as large as Katy’s.
“Our board of directors is all volunteer,” Porter said. “There are almost 40 of us and that’s still not enough to get everything done. There’s email lists and maintaining fields. We’ve got teams playing on 10 different fields every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. That’s a lot of football games.”
And Katy Youth Football wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
Photo courtesy of Diana Porter/Katy Youth Football.