Pop Warner

[stewbertwilloughby]

Here is a question I've pondered for a while. With Pop Warner football being established in Oregon a few years ago (or at least brought back), will the talent of Oregon high school football players begin to rise? I know I wasn't allowed to play tackle football until I was is 6th grade, but now kids can start playing in kindergarten. My elementary school days were all about playing AYSO, but now I see it shifting to football, similar to schools in the south.

[gofightingducks]

Here is a question I've pondered for a while. With Pop Warner football being established in Oregon a few years ago (or at least brought back), will the talent of Oregon high school football players begin to rise? I know I wasn't allowed to play tackle football until I was is 6th grade, but now kids can start playing in kindergarten. My elementary school days were all about playing AYSO, but now I see it shifting to football, similar to schools in the south.

I played high school football as a freshman and sophomore in Texas and in Utah as a junior and senior. Needless to say the talent level and passion for football in Texas far exceeded that of Utah. The kids started young in Texas, whereas soccer was the sport of choice for young kids in Utah. However, There has been a fair amount of top talent come out of Utah the last few years (there have been a few that have become Ducks, including Haloti Ngata). So the talent level has increased a ton since I was in high school here in Utah and I would imagine Oregon is the same.

[alabamaduck]

Having kids start playing at a younger age can only help.

Here's an idea of how important football is in the South: As I've mentioned before I live in Hoover, Alabama, home to Hoover High School. All the youth league teams and even the middle school teams in Hoover wear orange, black & white (Hoover's colors) and run the same offense that Hoover High runs. Basically by the time these kids are freshman in highschool they all know the playbook, terminology and techniques that the Hoover coaches teach and use. Basically their entire youth football career amounts to anywhere from 6-8 years of practice so the kids can be ready to feed the Hoover Football machine.

[MFRDuckFan]

When I was a very young kid in the 70's in Los Angeles area, my brothers played Pop Warner almost from the day they could walk. It was part of the culture. That is a VERY big reason Southern Cal is so deep in talent. Nurture it & make it home grown.

[ducksball]

I grew up and am still growing up in Portland. And up until 5th grade i played Vista Soccer, and thats what everybody did. Until 5th grade, then tackle football starts. I did CYO football after that, but most kids from portland play for their respective high school. But it is much different in other parts of the country in regards to football intensity with youth. Its interesting that in oregon the best high school programs are generally Private, but they do not have teams that they raise and they dont run pop warner teams, thats the public schools. Just an interesting thought.

[neezy3]

I think it will help in the long run, we just dont have as many people to draw from as the more populated states. We're starting to see more kids go D1 every year though so i think things are changing.

[eagleduck]

I grew up and am still growing up in Portland. And up until 5th grade i played Vista Soccer, and thats what everybody did. Until 5th grade, then tackle football starts. I did CYO football after that, but most kids from portland play for their respective high school. But it is much different in other parts of the country in regards to football intensity with youth. Its interesting that in oregon the best high school programs are generally Private, but they do not have teams that they raise and they dont run pop warner teams, thats the public schools. Just an interesting thought.

Pop Warner is coming to Portland soon. Its up in Clark and Cowlitz counties in WA and we're helping to get it started in PDX this year. I think Gresham and SE Portland are going to be first.

[RuhlandAsherBestEver]

Pop Warner is great for the kids. It is amazing the jump start
that they get and how much they pick up at an early age. My
signature is my son age 9 playing in Vancouver Wa. When I was
in school we didn't start playing until 7th grade.

[MFRDuckFan]

The interesting part in the Los Angeles area when we were kids was the quality of the coaching. You'd get some top notch guys coaching these little guys with the full knowledge that those little kids will be so far ahead of the pack when they get into the system, especially high school.

[Limerickob1]

The Portland Metro area has one of the largest youth football programs in the country. It is called the Tualatin Valley Youth Football League. The program covers grades 3-8 and has strong support from the for the local HS programs. I am not sure how long it has been around, but I do know that it has had a big impact in the quality of play in recent years. The Southridge program had over 300 kids involved last season, and it has had a huge impact on the success of the high school team in recent years.

If you have kids that are interested in playing football, you should check it out.

http://www.tvyfl.org/

[buckmarkduck]

Quality of coaches is a big deal just look down here in S.Oregon. When the Old SOC had coaches like Jim Nagel, Thurmon Bell(when he had great assistants like the HC of Southridge) and even Rod Rummery and Larry Walker, SOC teams were in the State title game just about every year. I think in the 80's and 90's the SOC had a rep in something like 17 or 18 of the state title games. Now with the below avg coaches running programs down here the level of play has dropped allot. It's to bad because more than maybe anywher in the PNW, in the Rogue Valley HS football is king much like a mini Texas as far as the amount of fans that show up every Friday night.

[RuhlandAsherBestEver]

BuckMarkDuck,

You are right on I played football in Bandon and everyone in town came to the games.
Little kids would mimick the team in the endzone. It's not the same passion in Vancouver
I miss that community sense of pride in their teams. I can't say enough good things
about our Pop Warner program though great coaches and parents that care about their
children.

[nogerO]

Having kids start playing at a younger age can only help.

Here's an idea of how important football is in the South: As I've mentioned before I live in Hoover, Alabama, home to Hoover High School. All the youth league teams and even the middle school teams in Hoover wear orange, black & white (Hoover's colors) and run the same offense that Hoover High runs. Basically by the time these kids are freshman in highschool they all know the playbook, terminology and techniques that the Hoover coaches teach and use. Basically their entire youth football career amounts to anywhere from 6-8 years of practice so the kids can be ready to feed the Hoover Football machine.

So when a kid who's been in the system for several years transfers to a school in your league your screwed!

[buckmarkduck]

Hey when I was at S. Medford in the mid 90's we played a game against GP and we were ranked 2 and GP #3 at Spiegelberg stadium and they had to bring in bleachers for the end zone. I think the attendance for the game was just under 12,000, football is a big deal down South and a lot of fun to grow up watching.

Pop Warner is going to increase the level of play for sure around the state but having quality HS coaches in place is really key also. Remember in the 90's and early 2000 S.Oregon produced UO greats like Rich Ruhl, Chad Cota, Matt Smith, Seth McQuen and David Faaeteete as well as players who went to UO but were lesser know special team kids. Oh and also a bunch of players who played at OSU . Now were just not seeing that level of players down here right now and that's hurting the UO. I hope CK gets a little more involved in Oregon HS football because there may not be a ton of kids but with better opportunity I would guess the state could produce another 5 D1 type players a year.

Remember Gang Green had 5 players starting on it from the state of Oregon. I think the athletes are still in Oregon they just need to be coached up better.

[alabamaduck]

Having kids start playing at a younger age can only help.

Here's an idea of how important football is in the South: As I've mentioned before I live in Hoover, Alabama, home to Hoover High School. All the youth league teams and even the middle school teams in Hoover wear orange, black & white (Hoover's colors) and run the same offense that Hoover High runs. Basically by the time these kids are freshman in highschool they all know the playbook, terminology and techniques that the Hoover coaches teach and use. Basically their entire youth football career amounts to anywhere from 6-8 years of practice so the kids can be ready to feed the Hoover Football machine.

So when a kid who's been in the system for several years transfers to a school in your league your screwed!

Never thought of it that way, but yeah I guess so.

Speaking of coaching a lot of Hoover's assistant coaches coach youth league teams. Then not only are they teaching kids "the Hoover way" but they can start to spot the kids that with extra coaching can turn into studs when they hit highschool. When Rush Propst was here I saw him at youth league games quite a bit...I guess he was scouting!