Sports Organization of the Week Article

Subject: Mississippi Youth Football
Newspaper: Wayne County News
Date: September 15, 2010

Mississippi Youth Football Is More Than a Gridiron League

SUMRALL, Miss. (CSD) – Tom Polk has spent the past two decades building a remarkable youth football league that now features more than 200 teams and approximately 4,000 kids. But those are just numbers to him.

“If all we’ve put together is a football league, then I’ve wasted the last 20 years of my life,” said Polk, Commissioner of Mississippi Youth Football (MYF) since 1993. “We don’t think of this as a football league. Football is a tool that we use to bring in kids. Our motto is, ‘It is easier to build a boy than fix a man.’ There are many life lessons that kids can learn from football, and we want them to learn those lessons as soon as possible.

“We teach them that in order to be successful in life, you have to set goals, you have to make plans to achieve those goals and you have to expend the energy to work your way toward those goals.”

MYF covers a region of approximately 308 square miles, from the Gulf Coast to Lexington, Miss, in Holmes County and from Butler, Ala., to Hines Co., Miss. The 2010 regular season began September 18 and will continue until December 11 when they play their State Championship at the USM Roberts Stadium (THE ROCK).

Mississippi Youth Football also host a State Championship for the smaller leagues called “The Little Eight State Championships” that will be played on December 4th at East Central Mississippi Jr. College.
“We try to keep our teams playing other teams within a 50-mile radius during the regular season, but in the playoffs, teams may have to travel further than that,” Polk said.

There are 168 teams in the MYF tackle football league, with age divisions of 7-8 (Rookie), 9-10 (Midget) and 11-12 (Pee Wee). A 22-team flag football league for kids 6 and under is accompanied by a 12-team tackle league for that age group called the Tinamite Division. Approximately 600 coaches are involved with the league this fall.

MYF was launched about 40 years ago, expanding in 1974 when the Mississippi Legislature passed a law declaring that schools could not conduct organized athletics for kids in sixth grade or lower.

Polk said that the league is strong because of its volunteers.

“We have a lot of parents who get involved because of their kids, which is typical of many leagues, but then we have a huge number of people who stay involved five, 10 and even 20 years after their kids have come and gone,” Polk said.

“There are so many good people who have sacrificed so much of their time to make this league work, including a couple of doctors who have sat on our board and our attorney, Paul Walley of Richton, Ms. who has done so much work for us without charging us.”

For more information on Mississippi Youth Football, or if your community is interested in forming a league contact Tom Polk or visit www.leaguelineup.com/welcome.asp?url=myf.

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