FOOTBALL

Are You Ready For Some Football?!

For years youth football organizations have risen to the level of competition that easily rivals the excitement and competitiveness of Collegiate Bowl games as well as the grand daddy of them all, the Super bowl. Problem is the championship games would only pit the champions of just one organization, hardly an event that would prove who is the true head honcho in that weight class. Until now.

The Amateur Athletic Union, America's perennial leader in youth sports is embarking on an endeavor to bring the nation's Youth Super Bowl beginning this year. An opportunity to crown once and for all the "Top Dog" of youth footballs grid Iron.

Leading the charge is Charles Matthews, Governor of the Southern Pacific Region of the AAU. "This will be a great thing for the kids," Matthews said. "There hasn’t been an independent football league that has put all the different conferences together. We wanted to get the conferences talking to each other and have a school-type tournament through AAU football."

The Southern California "Superbowl" will include all five weight class divisions and match up Champions for any and all youth football organizations from around the country.

These Juggernauts will begin the move to a national title beginning with Conference champions from California. The Junior All American Football Organization, Snoop Youth Football League (an organization created by the hugely successful rapper Snoop Dog), and Pacific Youth Football in Santa Barbara County. That encompasses over 200 cities and about 10,000 players.

"We’re meeting with the different conferences now and we’re looking to have the Superbowl on December 22^nd, the Saturday before Christmas," Matthews said. "The response so far has been excellent. The conferences all (have their own championships), so we’re trying to bring them all together. We think this will be a big unifier for everybody."

Matthews asked Charlotte Singletary-Lyles, Chapter Athletic Director of the Fontana Generals Junior All American Football League, for help.

"I think it’s great," Singletary-Lyles said. "It’s good for Junior All American that we have a championship between all the conferences. This is something that people have been talking about for a long time. I’ve enquired about it but (we didn’t make progress). It was always said that it couldn’t be done due to insurance reasons and things of that nature."

Singletary-Lyles noted another good reason for the Superbowl.

"A lot of these kids have a lot of potential, but they don’t get the recognition that kids in Pop Warner have because Pop Warner is a national organization," she said. "So that’s the reason I jumped on board with Charles--to say this can and should be done."

Matthews has loftier goals in sight.

The overall goal is to bring AAU into the picture, but also to have these independent youth football organizations hook up with a national organization for visibility and credibility," he said. "The AAU will eventually have a national championship and these teams can be a part of that." KSNN has agreed to televise these games nationally which will go far to bring these events and it participants the recognition that they deserve.

All the money generated by the playoffs and Superbowl will be given back to the conferences that are competing.