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#Post#: 93956--------------------------------------------------
Weight Limits - I'm Just Saying
By: reyesar Date: September 30, 2022, 9:21 pm
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This hit home.
�I wish I could just eat real food.� These are not healthy words
you want to hear from your 8, 10, or 12 year old but they are
what a lot of parents in my area are hearing this time of year.
If you�ve been following me for a while, you know youth football
is one of my family�s passions. On the football field is where
my boys have experienced their greatest struggles as well as
their greatest triumphs. My husband has coached since my now
Junior in high school was in 3rd grade.
But things are not good or safe it took until 2 weeks ago for me
to really see it.
Our league is the only youth sports league in our area that has
a maximum weight for players. And at 5�11� tall and nearly 14
years old, my youngest son started the football season well over
that weight.
Before the season started, we tried to convince him to join one
of the many other leagues around that don�t have a weight limit
or explore the possibility of moving up to the high school�s
Freshman team but he didn�t want to do any of that.
He wanted to spend his last year of youth football playing with
his friends in the league he�s been in for the last 7 years.
And so we supported him on a workout plan and helped him clean
up his eating. For 6 weeks he worked out every day - on top of
the team�s regular workouts. He skipped cake at birthday
parties, ate grilled chicken while his friends ate cheeseburgers
and fries, and always chose water over any other drink option.
At 13 years old, he showed more dedication than any adult I�ve
ever met.
But, it didn�t matter.
The first game of the season came and he was still 4 pounds
overweight.
He was devastated and when I saw his face after the weigh-in
process (which happens off to the side of the football field
about 30 minutes before the game), my heart broke. I cried. My
husband cried. My son cried. He would not be able to play the
game he loves because he weighed too much - no accounting for
his height, stature, or bmi - just because of a random number on
a scale.
Then he shook it off and stood on the sidelines for the entire
game, helping his teammates.
He�d try again for week 2.
One week later he made weight. He walked away from the weigh-in
shed after being told he was light enough to play. But he wasn�t
beaming like I thought he would be. His face was expressionless
really - maybe relief, maybe happiness, but mostly exhaustion.
Right there on the sidelines, I started crying. Partly because I
was so proud of him but also partly out of guilt and anger. Why
are we part of something that feels so unsafe and unnecessary?
We already know the risks football carries with it - why are we
adding other potential risks on top of it? Is it really safe for
teens and tweens and 8 year olds to be focused on a number on
the scale?
After just a few minutes of play, he took himself out of the
game as he was about to pass out. It was there, in that moment,
that I decided it was time to learn more about weight limits.
I spent the next week, while on vacation, combing through
research and what I found was shocking.
There is no research that supports the use of weight limits in
football. None. It does not actually keep smaller kids safer
despite being told that by various members of the youth football
community for years.
There is, however, lots of research that suggests that weight
limits in youth sports lead to things like disordered eating,
depression, and many other physical illnesses.
I shared the research with other parents and received email
after email and text after text from parents with children like
my son who just wanted to play football with their friends but
to do so had to �cut weight.�
I reached out to the president who oversees the entire league of
28 towns to find out if he could share the research the league
uses to support the weight limit.
After 6 days and 2 emails, he reached out to me and admitted, in
writing, that there is no research used by the league to back
their decision around weight limits. Instead, he shared �there
is a large part of the league that believes for every weight
increase we allow, or bigger kids we let play, there will be an
equal number of smaller kids who will drop out due to the size
disparity."
Armed with the undeniable confirmation that the weight limits
are not in place to protect anyone and instead are there because
maybe smaller kids won�t register to play, I compiled all of the
data, research, parent commentary, and signatures from parents
throughout the league and submitted it to the league director,
all of the presidents throughout every town in the league, and
each town�s league representative.
Officially, my 20+ pages of research and insights has been met
with silence.
Unofficially my phone hasn�t stopped ringing and my email box is
flooded with story after story from parents, coaches, and board
members from many towns throughout the league who are frustrated
like me and want to see change but find the current channels of
change aren't working.
Their stories have made me cry each day - confirmation of
players with disordered eating, depression, and even suicide
attempts linked directly to not making weight for football.
Unofficially I�ve also had multiple people share with me that
the president of the league will not be calling a special
meeting, will not be acting on any of the safety concerns
presented to him, and will not be forced into doing anything
because of me.
This story doesn�t have an ending yet but I�m not going to be
quiet. I believe so strongly that what our children and teens
need are programs and sports options that challenge them in
healthy ways, that present them with obstacles that can be
overcome by hard work, effort and skill, not trash bag runs,
saunas, starving themselves, and public shaming about their
weight.
My biggest regret in all this is that I didn�t say something my
very first year in youth football as I watched 8 year olds
struggle to �make weight.� My gut knew then that it was wrong
but I went along with it because surely any league providing
sports opportunities for our kids must be making their decisions
from a point of safety, right?
What I�ve learned is that when your gut tells you something is
wrong but people around you tell you it�s fine, it�s ok to trust
your gut and see for yourself.
It�s ok to speak up.
It�s ok to reach out.
It�s ok to shine light on the dark spots in our life.
It�s ok to make noise.
It�s ok to be labeled as a parent who is stirring the pot.
It�s ok to want better for our children.
#Post#: 93967--------------------------------------------------
Re: Weight Limits - I'm Just Saying
By: AllIn21 Date: October 1, 2022, 8:10 am
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Complete BS. I�m not a fan of weight limits, but there isn�t a
kid in 7th grade being forced out of playing football, because
there is no max weight limit. Your story doesn�t hold water.
#Post#: 94154--------------------------------------------------
Re: Weight Limits - I'm Just Saying
By: Mav3834 Date: October 4, 2022, 6:16 pm
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As one of the 28 presidents I can tell you I didn't get your
email but even if I had it would have been met with silence.
#Post#: 94320--------------------------------------------------
Re: Weight Limits - I'm Just Saying
By: SharkBait Date: October 8, 2022, 10:38 pm
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Our club didn�t receive an email from anyone regarding weight
limits. And your �almost 14 year old� must be an older 6th
grader, barely making the age limit also. Seventh grade doesn�t
have a max weight limit. Maybe you could use your research to
propose removing the 6th grade weight limit to accommodate the
schools that move to school ball in 7th grade. We have had
several kids play up due to weight over the years & some even
require the special sticker but our club is not opposed to the
weight limits in general.
#Post#: 94325--------------------------------------------------
Re: Weight Limits - I'm Just Saying
By: forrest283 Date: October 9, 2022, 7:09 am
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[quote author=SharkBait link=topic=10515.msg94320#msg94320
date=1665286721]
Our club didn�t receive an email from anyone regarding weight
limits. And your �almost 14 year old� must be an older 6th
grader, barely making the age limit also. Seventh grade doesn�t
have a max weight limit. Maybe you could use your research to
propose removing the 6th grade weight limit to accommodate the
schools that move to school ball in 7th grade. We have had
several kids play up due to weight over the years & some even
require the special sticker but our club is not opposed to the
weight limits in general.
[/quote]
6th grade doesn�t have a max weight.
I�m in favor of the one and two stripe rule but I personally
don�t like the max weight for each grade. But it�s the rules in
the league we play in so we�ll follow them or find another
league.
#Post#: 96327--------------------------------------------------
Re: Weight Limits - I'm Just Saying
By: GOTTALUVFB Date: November 13, 2022, 8:36 am
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Can we get a follow up for the end of the season?
Or was this a practice is creative writing?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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