The St. Mary’s County Recreation and Parks Citizen Advisory Board held a regularly scheduled meeting Thursday night, Sept. 3, which was immediately followed by a presentation and discussion on youth football.
Presently two independent, non-profit leagues with registered kids playing and participating in cheerleading are active this season, a third is inactive. Various issues between these leagues has created a public awareness that all is not well in the world of youth football. Recently, the county’s Recreation and Parks Department proposed getting involved.
Director, Phil Rollins gave a presentation detailing what role the county plans to play. He explained the department is “not proposing taking over and starting a new league” but hopes to instead provide administrative oversight for the program. Rollins said, “I think it would be of benefit to the youth of St. Mary’s County to have a county-wide league.”
The county’s governance, Rollins suggested, would provide accountability and stability to a program with a rocky past. He pointed out that surrounding counties have a football operation and said, “It seems logical to me that the same model would work in St. Mary’s.”
Representatives of the St. Mary’s Youth Football League, the Pax River Raiders and the now defunct Pigskin organization were all present. A dispute over ownership for the Pigskin league and its equipment between Raiders President Chris Pixton and former Pigskin leaders Don and Trude Kemp is now in the hands of the courts and the county has locked up the equipment pending a resolution.
Pat Murphy of the SMYFL and Pixton went before the board, expressing that they are not supportive of the county’s involvement. Murphy said the proposed oversight is unnecessary and would require substantial funding and time on the county’s part. Murphy explained that both he and Pixton previously had ties to Pigskin, but decided to start their own leagues because, “we wanted something different.”
Pixton stressed that, “A lot of the things [the county] is trying to put in place is stuff we already do.” The league’s volunteers participate in the Raising Community Standards Program, which requires background checks for anyone working with the youth. Pixton described his involvement with Calvert County’s R & P, indicating that the fields are great and he has a great working relationship with them. He expressed doubt that SMC could take over the task. “We won’t support it,” he said. “It’s just a chance and we don’t feel the county can run it.”
The board also heard from Don Kemp who operated St. Mary’s Pigskin for over two decades. Kemp said he supports the county’s involvement, “for the sake of continuity, for the sake of the kids.” Kemp explained that he could no longer run the Pigskin league because of his declining physical health and said, “for the last four years we’ve been trying to get someone to step up and run Pigskin football.” Kemp also said that when they were done with litigation, “Pigskin will be back.”
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