St. Mary’s County Dept. of Recreation and Parks’ will launch its club model football league this fall, St. Mary’s Youth Football League, according to Recreation Division Manager Arthur Shepherd. The four initial clubs will be Southern Maryland Youth Football League’s Mechanicsville Braves, Lexington Park Hornets, and Hollywood Raider, with the Pax River Raiders recently coming on board.
Shepherd said within the next couple weeks, meetings with each organization’s leadership will help hammer out the specifics about boundaries, weight, home fields and the like. Each club will have a voting representative on a board of presidents, with the County having final say. This board will establish the rules and regulations for youth football, but each club will be responsible for their own fundraising and registration. The Pax River Raiders club, until recently, played under Calvert County’s R & P umbrella, with President Chris Pixton unwilling to re-establish in St. Mary’s. When Calvert disallowed the Raiders to continue playing,Pixton passed his presidency on to Harold Berg.
SMYFL Director Pat Murphy has been working with the County and said for his group the transition simply means a season much like last year with more oversight from local government. Murphy indicated one goal of the County should be making sure these non-profit clubs follow guidelines, eliminating sketchy behavior or lawsuits.
Murphy told TBN that he and Pixton had recently struck a deal that went sour. Pixton said he wanted to continue with a flag football group only. Believing SMYFL would gain the Pax River Raiders, allowing “all tackle football to be under one roof”, Murphy says, they redirected all flag football registrants to Pixton’s site. More than 840 visitors, looking to register their kids for the upcoming flag season through SMYFL, were sent directly to registration through Pixton for $75. When Pixton instead put his tackle club in someone else’s hands, Murphy and SMYFL re-launched flag football registration with a $25 fee.
The group is attempting to re-contact families that were misdirected, advising them to ask for a refund and play with his group if they choose. Murphy said he considered but declined taking the “disheartening” flag football fiasco with Pixton to court. When reached for comment, Chris Pixton said concerning flag football, “There is a difference between both leagues.”
Pixton said the difference in registration fees is due to paid officials, jerseys, painted fields and trophies. He said his St. Mary’s County Youth NFL Flag Football is in its fifth consecutive flag season with over 400 kids playing. For more information on flag football in St. Mary’s County, visit St. Mary’s County Youth NFL Flag Football’s site at http://www.stmarysflagfootball.org/ or SMYFL’s 2010 Flag Football Program at http://www.smyfl.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=59
Shepherd hopes these four clubs will provide a good foundation for youth football in St. Mary’s and said the volunteers that operate these teams, “do a super job, but local government can make their jobs easier.” With the county tending to more of the administrative tasks, Shepherd says volunteers will be able to spend more time concentrating on the kids and their individual football programs. He added, “This year we’re still in transition, but in 2011 all the clubs will be independent.”
Murphy said he
