2018 Central KY Wilderness Trace Youth Football Conference Rules

(Updated August 14th, 2018)

1. Members: Wilderness Trace Youth Football Conference is made up by a board of directors from the following organizations:

2. Board of Directors: Each member league will nominate one representative yearly to serve on the Conference Board of Directors. High school head football coaches associated with conference leagues may serve as ex-officio Board members.  The Board will develop and enforce conference rules and regulations. Conference rules infractions will be handled by majority vote of the Board.  

3. Rule Changes:  Rule changes or additions require a majority vote by all CKWT Youth Football Conference members.  Each league gets one vote.In the event that a director of a league is replaced on the board of directors for the conference, that member will be a non-voting member for 1 year until acclimated to conference procedures.  

4. Age and Residency Requirements / Restrictions:

Penalty: Ban from post-season play possible suspension

5. Team Formation: Teams must include players from each grade in an age division.  When more than one team exists within a league, the teams must be chosen by draft, school district, geographic location, or a combination of these to prevent loading talent on specific teams. Any League conducting a draft may only consider the immediate family of the head coach as a protected roster member. All other players must be drafted with no exceptions including assistant coaches’ children. The intentional or unintentional concentration of better players on one team is not permitted.  Players returning to an age division may return to the same team or enter the draft. 

Penalty for teams not drafted accordingly: Total ban from postseason play.

6. Conference Rosters: Rosters for all conference teams consisting of head coach and assistant coaches, player names, jersey number, pre-season weight, date of birth, school and home address must be submitted to the Conference before the first scheduled game of the season.

 

7. Weight Restrictions on Ball Carriers: Weigh-ins will be handled at the league level. Each player will be weighed once preseason to verify eligible ball carriers.  Players will be weighed without equipment.

7A. Verification: All players weighing within 5 pounds of the weight limit must be weighed on video and sent to conference for verification. Any player within 5 pounds of the weight limit who is not video-weighed will be declared ineligible to carry the ball.  Any play will be declared dead if an ineligible ball handler purposely retrieves the ball at any time during play.  Players must be weighed and/or re-weighed between August 1-September 1 each season.

7B. Weight Challenge:  A weight challenge cannot be made during the game.  A ball carrier that is subject to being challenged must be reported to his league president by the head coach on the next business day.  All leagues must be informed of the challenge and results.  A challenged player found to exceed the weight limit will be ineligible to carry the ball and the game in question will be forfeited.

 

7C. Ineligible Ball Carriers:

8. Start of Practice: Teams may begin practice in pads no sooner than August 1st. Early conditioning, camps, and conditioning have no start date.

9. Scheduling:

9B. Rescheduling:  Conference-league re-scheduling will be prohibited once the schedule is set and agreed to by CKYFC board.  Intra-League re-scheduling may be granted and administered under the discretion of the League President.

9C. Cancellations:  Cancellations are at the discretion of the host league.  Notification should be given to all conference members as early as possible.  Notification by the traveling team must be within 24-hours.  If the traveling team fails to give notification of forfeit, their league will be held responsible to compensate officials for that game. 

10. Admission: Admission fees may be charged to fans for $3.00 per person/12 and under get in free. All coaches, players, cheerleaders, and sponsors shall not be charged admission.  

 

 

11. Game Rules:

A. KHSAA rules prevail in all situations not covered by the below Conference rules.

B. Field Dimensions: 80 yards in length.  Chains - 8 yards. Penalties 4, 8. & 12 yards.

C. Game Length

D. Halftime:

E. Mercy Rule: The clock will run continuously when a 30-point lead has been established. The clock will NOT revert to a controlled clock if the lead becomes less than 30 points.  The leading team cannot call timeout during a continuous clock.

F. Overtime: Overtime will be conducted according to KHSAA rules with the exception that the ball will be spotted on the 8- yard line instead of the 10 yard line. Each team will have a possession of 4 downs from the 8 yard line in each overtime. A touchdown will be followed by an extra point attempt per conference rules.

G. Timeouts:  Timeouts length is 60 seconds.  

 

H. Play Clock:  

 

I. Coaches on the Field: Coaches must keep a safe distance from the play (behind deepest player).  Instructions cannot be given until the play is dead.  Officials can remove any or all coaches from the field for the betterment of the game. Penalty: Delay Of Game

 

J. Sidelines: 6 total coaches permitted per team.   Team coaches should be identifiable by common coaches’ name badges.  Only official coaches, players, and managers are allowed in the team area during the course of the game.  This includes pre-game and halftime.  If a game must be stopped to remove someone from the team’s area or sideline, a delay of game penalty will be assessed.

K. Footballs:

 

L. Cleats: Only rubber-molded cleats may be used.  NO metal, nylon, or screw-in cleats allowed.

M. Helmets: Only clear visors allowed.  No Dark Visors and NO Bandanas.

N. Jerseys: League Issued Jerseys will be worn at every game that match the submitted roster (no alternates)

O. Officials:  Every attempt will be made for all officiating crews to include at least one certified official. When only one certified official is used, he will serve as the head referee.  League or KHSAA official certification accepted.

 

 

P. Kicking Game:

     P1. Kickoffs- 

P2. Punts:

 

P3. Field Goals:

 

P4. Extra Points:  

 

Q. Offensive Rules:

R. Defensive Rules:

R1. Formations:

R2. Blitzing:

First offense: warning.  Second offense: 4-yard penalty.

 

R3. Linebackers:

R4. Interior Defensive Linemen

 12.  Post Season: Postseason games will be hosted on a rotating basis between conference members in alphabetical order-Anderson, Danville, Frankfort, Garrard, Jessamine, Lincoln, and Woodford-with the host paying expenses from the gate.  

13.  Tiebreaker: The tiebreaker procedure will be used if necessary to determine postseason seeding.

In the event of a two-way tie in the standings, the head to head score will be used as determining factor.

​In the event of a three-way tie (or a tie involving more than three teams) in the standings, the points allowed will be used to determine seeding.