LB-9

No offense intended Big D 95, I was merely referring to your earlier quote of "Then you get more crying and cheating accusations." I used to play Junior Cardinal Football in Beaumont in the late 80's. We were required to weigh in every game with both coaches and a board member present. I was a running back and my weight was in question every week, because I was tall, but I made weight "with my pads on none the less." (Senior Tackle) The point I am trying to make is that both coaches were present to see mine and every other players weight that was in question. Not one time was their ever an accusation of cheating amongst any of the coaches or teams we played. It was set up so that there was no way to bend the rules. Any player that any opposing coach thought was overweight, was weighed and the air was cleared right then.

You are right, STJFL was formed with this cert. at each game being one of the driving forces that pushed us away from POP Warner due to parents and coaches starving kids all season prohibiting their natural growth and even sweating down players before a game having them dehydrated before even stepping onto the field. The weights are fine at the end of the day you just have to play nothing will ever cover every situation. In response to captainclaude, starving and sweating out kids to make the the first weigh in already goes on. I don't see your point! Besides, any coach or parent that would starve or sweat their kid out all season just so they could handle the ball, should have their head examined! I don't have to tell you how unhealthy that is! Why not monitor players weights so that they could play at their natural weight and no one team could have a unfair advantage over the next. Their could be a rule set up to allow a player to gain one pound per week up to a maximum of 8 lbs. for an 8 week season. Use the players original weigh in cert. card as a starting point for his weight to be monitored by. Leave the weighing of a player or players up to an opposing coach, just like the mpr's are done.

I can see your concern, Big D 95, over the additional work and effort it would take to monitor players weights on a weekly basis. However, is it not worth the additional effort to make sure that the rules are followed and there is safe playing environment for all the players involved? It seems to me the league was created for the kids, not the parents and coaches. As for your issue about gameplannig all week and then having a player not make weight, that is no different than having a player out because of injury or sickness at the last minute. As a coach, you have to adapt and overcome! You are right about having an STJFL board member present at the weigh in, and both coaches should be present to see the players weigh as well. Calibrating the scales is not that difficult and can be done by an independent company where there is no bias. Also, the scales cailibration can be checked by the attending board member and propspective coaches before the weigh in. If the scales calibration is in question, i.e. 1 lb. over, then it is the same for every player that steps on the scale! This is more and to the point to make sure there is no foul play....! You are only making the playing field more even for all that is involved. Why even have a weight limitation if it is not going to be enforced throughout the season? Besides, usually the people that are "crying" are the ones that are already cheating and can't bend the new rules to work in their favor. Am I not right?

These are interesting points about the weight limits! I have been an observer of the league for a while and have friends involved in coaching. I have been to several STJFL games throughout the years, and was at the Superbowl weekend this year, which included 3 Great Games. After reading the first post about the weight limits, I feel as the though the current weight limits are correct with the exception of raising the max weight in junior to 135lbs. The LO weight limits in the other 3 weight classes look fair to me. This brings up another interesting point. Why is there not a league policy in place to monitor players weights throughout the season? I have noticed in several games where I questioned whether or not a runningback was under the allowable weight limit for their respective division. It would seem to me that this poses a major safety issue for the rest of the players on the field, not to mention opens the league up for a major liability law suit. I have been involved in the insurance industry for 20 years and have seen such law suits on several occasions. I would propose a system by which any coach from an opposing team could weigh an opposing "questionable player" before game time to make sure that the player still meets the league's weight limit for that division. This would in turn enable the league to monitor the safety of the players more closely. Also, this would keep coaches from having prospective players to diet for 3 months before the season just to make "one" weigh in so they can handle the football. I feel as though players should play at their natural weight rather dieting down before weigh in only to put back on 10 or 15 pounds after the weigh in. Players that have to diet to make weigh in, and want to handle the football, should step up to the next weight division so that thier skills can be challenged by players of equivalent size and talent. This only makes the players better!