Manchester Rec Football and Cheer Change Leagues; Registration Event Friday

The Manchester Hawks Youth Football and Cheer teams last week joined a number of neighboring towns in voting to leave Pop Warner and join the American Youth Football league.

According to Hawks president Renee Hourigan, the move to American Youth Football and its more flexible weight classifications will benefit both larger and smaller players. 

"It's more about the children and what the children can do," she said. "There's not a lot of weight restrictions with this versus Pop Warner." 

Finances also played a part in the switch, as Hourigan said AYF offers lower fees for maintinance, insurance, dues and competitions.

"So that's less money we have to ask parents to try to help raise," she said. "In essence, we're not going to be nickle and diming [parents] through the season saying, 'can you sell this, can you sell that?' "

The official vote for the change was March 1. Of the 36 teams in the Jersey Shore Conference, 30 towns, including Manchester, voted in favor of joining AYF, one abstained and five opposed the switch.

"It was pretty clean cut," Hourigan said.

Hawks league representative James Ruocchio said that AYF "offered a lot of benefits to enhance our program."

A registration event will be held on Friday at at the Ridgeway Volunteer Fire Department on County Route 571 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. for residents of Manchester and Lakehurst.

Registration fees for football and cheer are $160 for one child ages 7-15, $275 for two or more children under the family cap and $75 for ages 5-6 flag football.

 must also be paid, depending on league level and if the registrant already owns a jersey. The fees, which Hourigan said have not changed the past four years, are again the same for this year. Parents unable to pay the entire registration fee in full can work out a payment plan, she said. 

Football players and cheerleaders are supplied with most equipment.

"The only thing they have to supply are cleats and their own game jersey. For cheer, we give them their uniform, they just have to purchase the accessories that go with it," Hourigan said.

The Manchester organization will hold a parent meeting on March 17 at  6:30 p.m. at Manchester Township High School, to discuss the change from Pop Warner to AYF.  

A call to Pop Warner headquarters in Pennsylvania for comment was not returned.

In a statement on the Pop Warner website, Executive Director Jon Butler wrote that, "We are disappointed to see part of this league leave Pop Warner" and pledged to continue operating in the Jersey Shore region. 

"We have a rich 51-year history in that community and will continue our commitment to our youth football and cheer and dance programs in that area," he said in the statement. "We believe the Pop Warner approach to academic standards and quality football teaches fundamental values, skills and knowledge that our young athletes will use throughout their lives. We value our coaches and regional staff and when one team decides to leave the organization, we take that to heart. We wish those that have decided to leave the best of luck in their next season."

Pop Warner's weight restrictions could have meant denying some children from joining, Hourigan said.

"There were about 15 boys we would have had to turn away because they were overweight or underweight" had the league not changed to AYF, she said.

Ruocchio said that Pop Warner had been resistant to change.

"Pop Warner hasn't worked with us for years," he said. "There was no movement with the weight classes."

According to Hourigan, Pop Warner required that players are 80 pounds in the older level.

"We had some kids who weren't going to be able to play because they were 79 pounds ... whereas AYF doesn't have a minimum weight. It benefits the little guys and the bigger guys," she said.

"For our bigger boys, they would have to cut weight to make the minimum weight to start, and then they were allowed to gain one pound per week for the next eight weeks," she said.

The new league also has weight regulations, though they are not as strict, Hourigan said.

"AYF gives you those nine pounds up front, so the bigger boys don't have to cut the weight," she said. "They can maintain the weight. It's healthier for them to not have to cut it down."

The new league also begins practice one week earlier than Pop Warner, which those concerned with safety say gives teams more time to learn the game.

"We're doing this for the kids, it's about the kids," Hourigan said. "We want to make sure that the focus is on the kids."

Last year, Manchester's league had 125 football players on seven teams and 75 cheerleaders on four squads.

Manchester teams play opponents throughout the region every Sunday from September to October. 

AYS is a nonprofit organization that was established in 1998, has the backing of the NFL and has about 600,000 youth participants on 17,700 teams. 

Pop Warner is a nonprofit organization with 425,000 youth participants and was founded in 1929.