1. Equipment pick up date has not been set yet. We are hopeful the last 170 helmets we are waiting for will arrive this coming week. Once everything has arrived, and has been stocked and inventoried, we will push out equipment pick up dates and directions to teams.

2. Please talk to your player: Some of our players have never played a team sport, many have never played a contact sport. It’s very important that every parent tells their child these items below at least twice between now and your first practice. These are to ensure SAFETY of all players. Coaches have the discretion to send a player home who is not being SAFE (if this happens, the player loses required practice time).

• Anytime a coach is talking to the team or an individual player,  stop what you are doing, look at the coach and listen. Do not talk to or touch teammates when coaches are giving you directions. Do not talk when coaches are talking, raise your hand if you have a question.
• Never tackle, push or touch teammates outside of times coaches specifically tell you to during drills and practice. Injuries are far more likely to occur when kids are horseplaying than during structured contact drills. This is especially important when players are waiting for practice to start each day.
• Always stop when you hear the whistle
• Always, always, always play with your HEAD UP, SHOULDERS BACK, and HIPS LOW
• If you feel any of the signs of a concussion that were outlined in the Concussion Acknowledgement, speak up and tell your parents and coach. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

1. Opening Practice week: All teams will begin practice the week of August 15th. Your coach has put your practice days and times on Sports Engine (maximum is 4 days w 2 hour practices). 

2. Attendance & RSVP: Attendance is taken at practices as coaches have to track hours for each player before they can put on pads later this month. Please limit absences, but when absences are necessary, please let your coach know and please go in the Sports Engine Schedule and RSVP “NO” for the practices you will miss. This will help coaches when they are doing attendance. 

3. Sync your team calendar: You can click on the icon in the upper right when viewing the Sports Engine Schedule to sync your team calendar to your Apple or Google Calendar

6. What to bring the first week of practice: A full water bottle (or two) WITH YOUR PLAYERS NAME ON IT and cleats are required for each practice. Optional: applying sunscreen before you come to practice, bringing a dry shirt and/or a towel to dry hands off. All of the fields we practice on are donated, so please make sure your player picks up any  trash and takes every item of theirs home when they leave practice each day. Once teams have their equipment pick up date, they should also bring their helmet, chin strap and mouth guard (must attach to facemask) to all practices including the first two weeks.

7. Physicals: If you received a notification that your physical is not uploaded, your player can not attend practice until that step is complete. The league will send reminders every few days to families that have not uploaded and coaches will be notified as well. 

8. Team Store: We have set up a team gear store via Threads and will send out the link this week once active. There will be a short turnaround on this in order for you to have team gear for the first game. 

9. What size football do we play with? 3rd/4th grade uses “Junior” size, 5th/6th uses “Intermediate” size. No TCYFA teams use “pee wee”, “mini”, “youth” or “official” size footballs. 

10. August 20th - Please make sure the Team Picture & online fund drive date is on your calendar and you plan to attend with your player. This is critical to the continued success of this parent-run, non-profit experience for kids.

11. Other Schedule / Event Reminders:

• August 15 optional practice & conditioning week (4 practice days - check SE schedule): Plan to attend these four days. You should expect that an equipment pick up day & time will be pushed into your calendar for this opening week at the YMCA South.  We are still waiting for reconditioned equipment to return so we can't set the schedule yet. 

• August 20 Team Picture Day (West Middle - the specific time for your team is on your sports engine calendar now). Every player attends this event (even if you don’t play to buy pictures). We will also launch our online fundraising drive on this day. If your kids play other sports, you know that $130 is very inexpensive for a full season with all equipment provided. Our organization is a 501c3 non-profit that relies on fundraising to keep it accessible to all kids. Based on the jumps in enrollment each year, we need to add more equipment and that costs about $480 per player (not including reconditioning costs). Our hope is that each of our players can help recruit at least $150 in donations via an online donation drive we will launch on Picture Day. We will not be selling any items door to door this year; just the online donation drive. 

• August 22 - mandatory  practice & conditioning  week  (4 practice days - check SE schedule)

• August 29 - regular practice week (3-4 practices)

• September 5 -  *regular practice week - 3 practices (game on Saturday of this week)

****Game opponents, locations and kick off times for the first 3-4 games will not be released until a week or two prior to the 1st game. Scheduling is done on a regional basis with dozens of towns from across N. Michigan. TCYFA does not make the game schedule but we will enter it in Sports Engine as soon as we have it. Plan on Saturday games on the dates below:

September 10 - Game 1

September 17 - Game 2

September 24 - Game 3  

October 1 - Game 4

October 8 - Game 5

October 15 - Game 6

October 22 - Game 7 / Jamboree