SOUTHERN MARYLAND – Just weeks before the start of the youth football season, several club presidents and coaches are trying to set the record straight about a rule that’s causing concern for parents and may keep some athletes from taking the field.
According to the Southern Maryland Youth Athletic Conference (SMYAC) website, the rule states that “Organizations may only accept three players per age group a year from another SMYAC youth club.”
SMYAC President Greg Disney says this rule is nothing new. It has been in place for several years, and every club in the league, whose president is on the board, makes the rules, votes, and enforces them.
“This rule is in effect in every major league in the state of Maryland. It’s for competitive balance. You can’t have a coach – who doesn’t get his way – get an attitude with the organization and leave and go somewhere else and take all the kids with him,” says Disney.
The coach Disney is referring to is current Mechanicsville Braves coach Michael Hebb. Last year, he coached for the Leonardtown Wildcats. Because of conduct issues, Coach Hebb was suspended by SMYAC and kicked off the Wildcats board.
So this year, Hebb went to the Braves to coach and took his ten former teammates with him. But, according to the rule, he can only take three. The other seven would have to return to the Wildcats or find another SMYAC team that doesn’t already have three transferred players.
Coach Hebb says he notified the Wildcats organization in February to inform them of the children that would not return to that team this season.
“I communicated and was very transparent about my intentions for the 2023 tackle football season. I understand the rule of three players not being able to transfer. However, this rule has caused conflicts due to the increased number of children leaving one organization,” says Hebb.
Huntingtown Hurricanes President and SMYAC Board Member Sean Queen says the coaches and presidents of each club met in February and had a rules meeting in May. Queen says Hebb did not discuss his intentions for taking those kids with him at that meeting.
Queen says the Braves didn’t ask for a modification to the rule or an exception to his team. He was established with the Braves in February.
“He knew from the get-go that this was not going to fly. I think they tried to get the Leonardtown Wildcats’ current 10u to fold in order for all the kids to be free to sign up anywhere,” says Queen.
Queen says the rule very well could have been petitioned at that meeting in May, but the rule violation wasn’t discovered until a week before practices started.
As for exceptions to the rule, the conference has only made one due to families relocating. It was voted unanimously to allow two additional kids to transfer to another program because of relocation.
Terrance Stoutamire’s stepson is one of seven kids who will not be allowed to play with the Braves because of the rule.
“This rule is personal. It should be taken out of the rule book. It’s hurting the kids. I say let the kids play,” Stoutamire says.
Disney says the rule isn’t personal at all. It not only keeps a competitive balance but also prevents Division I teams, who are winning most of their games, from returning as Division II teams with another organization and beating their competition by several points each game.
“We had to sit down and get creative. This rule wasn’t put in place to mess with people. There were a lot of people complaining at the time about how the games were being played,” said Queen.
Hebb says moving forward, he hopes this rule will get overturned, saying the parents should have the right to decide which organization their child is best suited for.
“As a parent first and a football coach second, I ultimately want to see the kids play football and have fun. I pride myself and my coaching staff on teaching our players the skills of the game, accountability, and leadership,” says Hebb.
Meantime, the Braves President Stephen Yerkes is apologizing to the club, players, and community about the ongoing concerns affecting youth participants within their organization. He posted the following on the Braves Youth Football & Cheer Club Facebook page:
“We would like to set the record straight about some false news and comments on social media recently. We failed to monitor registrations and subsequently became aware that ten kids signed up from the Leonardtown Wildcats in mid-July after being contacted by the Wildcats President. This was ignorance on our part, as we knew that a coach had joined our staff from Leonardtown. Mechanicsville violated the rule, and SMYAC enforced it. We would like to apologize to the kids and parents this has affected. We would like to apologize to the Leonardtown Wildcats and SMYAC for the negative publicity and false narratives that this mistake has caused. This will not happen again at Mechanicsville.”
There are 14 teams in SMYAC. Queen says several of the clubs had to turn away kids because they followed the rule.
“So why would we allow him to do that without going through the proper process,” said Queen.
All of the team’s final rosters will be posted on August 21st, and games will begin in September.
Contact our news desk at news@thebaynet.com
Wah wah wah
Cheaters are losers
As a parent of football players I have never heard of this rule or signed anything that states my child can’t go somewhere else to play. This is NOT the NFL nor are our children getting paid to play. They should be able to sign up with ANY organization we as parents sign them up to play on. As for the D1 and D2 stacking teams etc. The whole D1 and D2 thing is a joke. I remember having a winning season, coming back the following year to several first time players and having to list as a D1 team..so that to me unfair, just like not allowing these kids to play is unfair. They left Leonardtown Wildcats for a reason and unfortunately I see alot of kids not playing before they would return there. I say suck it up and let them play football!
Only those kids left. The Leonardtown Wildcats are the 2nd largest organization in SMYAC for a reason. People want to play here.
Why is this ‘news’??? Why did I read this?