USA Football Releases Youth Football Rulebook
March 9th, 2010
Originally found at www.usafootball.com
Written By Michael Kuebler
The USA Football Rules Committee’s goal of formulating standardized rules and regulations has been finalized with the USA Football Youth Football Rulebook, now available for implementation during the 2010 season.
Consistent with its mission of developing youth football, USA Football released the inaugural 2010 copy of its USA Football Youth Football Rulebook today.
The Rulebook, which can be purchased for $5.50 for individual orders or at a group rate of $4.00 each on orders of 15 or more, was the project of USA Football’s Rules Committee. The eight youth football commissioners and two officials on the committee also worked with representatives from the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) to write and publish The Rulebook. Coming from across the United States, the committee members brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table that rendered the important task at hand devoid of major challenges.
“There was a great deal of respect that everybody had for each other’s viewpoints,” USA Football Officiating Consultant and the committee’s Rules Editor Bill LeMonnier said. “I thought it really ended up being a great, great group of people with different backgrounds, different perspectives.” (Off-season Training Important for Officials)
When any challenges or disagreements did arise, committee member Dean Layman believes that it was the members’ unanimous commitment to the main values of The Rulebook that kept them on track. One of these was forming the rules in a way to promote safety.
“I think the concentration on safety being first and foremost was very important to us this season,” said Layman, director of the Columbus (Ind.) Police Athletic Activities League and a USA Football Commissioner Member. “We talked about player safety, not only the big issue of concussions and things like that but also player safety in terms of the free blocking zone and how are we going to handle that and keep kids safe from unnecessarily hurting each other. So safety was key.”
Along with the theme of safety, one other key feature of The Rulebook is that it’s an easy read. The committee focused on making it simple for the sake of correct interpretation when in the hands of not just officials but also volunteer coaches and parents in the stands. (See example)
Another highlight of the rulebook and a driving force behind creating it is the uniformity it constructs. The book introduces a common ground and language for rules and regulations within youth football across the board.
Most youth football in the U.S. is being played in independent leagues that don’t play with a uniform set of rules. The USA Football Youth Football Rulebook now provides a level of consistency. Committee member Leroy Hollins welcomes the new options The Rulebook will afford to teams and leagues.
“It gives every league that’s an independent organization an opportunity to maybe cross over and play different leagues in different states,” said Hollins, commissioner of the Louisiana Youth Football League based in Baton Rouge. “With the fragmented rules that we were using, it might have been kind of tough to do that. This leads to a lot of national events for the independent leagues.”
At the same time, however, the rulebook does leave some room for league-by-league customization.
“This book isn’t written in stone,” Layman said. “There is flexibility within the rules to cater to the local organizations. Some leagues still kick the ball off; others don’t. There’s enough leeway and latitude in there that you can pick it up and adopt it to however you want it, but the meat and potatoes of the game are right there.”
After two and a half years of work, the committee is satisfied with its final product. During the process, drafts were distributed at 2009 State Leadership Forums and to the Fairfax County (Va.) Youth Football League to test its implementation and it received positive feedback. Everyone is looking forward now to putting the final version to use.
“I’m very excited about it,” Layman said. “It’s just awesome.”
The committee cannot completely sit back and relax now, though. A rulebook evolves and requires updates at times. Additionally, it is the job of USA Football and the committee to promote the rulebook now.
“The people who were on the Rules Committee need to make sure that their organizations embrace this thing and take it forward,” LeMonnier said. “It’s really critical that they be able to sell this to their groups, and then it’s got to branch out and grow from there.”
Youth football commissioners, coaches, officials and parents can do their part and bring the USA Football Youth Football Rulebook to their leagues and teams by visiting the USA Football Shop and ordering today.
