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7

Aug, 2024

WE ARE BACK IN FULL SWING!!!

To say it was a slow off-season....
Would be a complete lie....like big time

So in the spirit of transparency, this may be a semi boring, but informative post. However, as an organization we wanted to let everyone know what all happens behind the scenes of BPE Football. We aren't just pretty faces that show up on July 29th and open the doors lol.

It may sound cliche, but planning and conversations happened as soon as the party ended on December 2nd, after the Championship gathering at the Rec Center, to celebrate the 8U and 12U teams going undefeated and bringing home the big hardware.

Lots of ideas, plans, aspirations and long term goals were discussed and honestly most of them have been placed into motion, or have already been accomplished.

I guess this first two orders of business were Varsity Jackets for the two teams, and packing up and shipping out of ALL of our helmets. (not only do we purchase each helmet for approximately $175-250 EACH, but in order to ensure the safety of all the children in our organization, we pay to have each helmet inspected, certified and reconditioned to brand new standards EVERY TWO YEARS. Helmets are certified for 10 years from the factory and never have to be touched....we have them worked on every 2 years to ensure the utmost safety is given to our kids)

Next on the list was celebrating our championships. Contrary to rumors...WJYFL does NOT pay for anything that has to do with jackets, rings, or banquets. They DID pay for the trophy handed out at the game, but that's where it ends. BPE did not have to pay for jackets for the kids, or rings (more on that later)....but our kids worked their tails off so they deserved them and even more.

We did a few quick fundraisers to offset the cost of the jackets (approx. $15k), and got them ordered in. As an added bonus this year, an anonymous Coach and Wife duo from the 12U team decided to pay for the championship rings for ALL THE KIDS...yes, the generosity of our own BPE family donors decided to purchase them for the organization. It's a slogan the kids chant often during breakdowns...."Family on me, Family on 3...1,2,3 FAMILY!!!" And that is for a reason...#WeAreFamily

After the jackets were handled, we slid right into organizational housekeeping and updating how we operate. We cleaned up our meeting schedule, shifted the board around slightly to better align to each organization (football and cheer) and set an executive board to oversee it all. During this, we landed on a great new website, registration, and communication platform you are using right now through a company called SportsConnect. This company also offers the mobile app GameChanger which our teams are utilizing this year as well. The two platforms "talk to each other" so information on the website transfers to the app seamlessly. Once we learned the system and built out the platform, it was time to open up registrations...a few weeks later than we wanted to, but we hit the ground running in late April and was a great success with honestly very limited hiccups actually.

Next up was football uniform designs and vendor selection. Fun...but not fun lol. Lots of great designs, a bunch of voting, some learned lessons, and landed on our design for this year. And with that, we have some reserves of design ideas for the upcoming years as well.

We narrowed down the vendor selection and landed on a vendor we thought provided a quality product, at a fair price, without breaking the bank. This led to us purchasing "Sizing Kits" so that we could try the exact materials and sizes on our players to ensure the best fit possible for both jerseys and pants.

While this was happening we said...hey let's organize the equipment room. Emptied it all out on a Saturday afternoon, cleaned the room, reorganized and counted all that we had.

Once that was handled.... hey why not remodel the upstairs announcer's booth and coaches box. Pulled the old carpet, re-drywalled some areas, painted the walls and trimwork, installed new carpet, had a mural painted, and are currently looking for furniture (anyone wanna donate a sofa and love seat ???....we are a full 501c3 Organization so it's tax deductible)

Ever visited our world-renowned snack stand??   Doesn't deep clean itself!! So that was another project. Scrubbed, swept, vacuumed, mopped, cleaned, power washed, polished and cleaned again.

None of these above-mentioned projects included areas of air conditioning, and for some reason there have been a few heat waves that seem to follow each of these projects. But we pressed forward and prevailed.

Along the way, our registrations kept rolling in the background and we started to see an increase in the number of kids signing up which is AWESOME!! Luckily, we did our equipment organization and recounts earlier and saw we may be short on some equipment sizes and purchased a bunch of new equipment. ALL WHILE KEEPING REGISTRATION PRICES THE SAME. (Yes, it was a larger upfront payment, but the same money at the end of the day as last year, and still one of the lower priced organizations in the area)

Next was fitting all of these kids in new uniforms. We used a new vendor this year, so there was no way to use old uniforms to measure up each kid visually or from prior years....so we offered uniform fittings to ensure all kids were wearing the right size jerseys and pants....may have upset some people, but it was done as a courtesy to the children. Being in that hot room was not fun...at all, believe me. This alone took 4 large sessions, along with smaller groups all throughout the month of July, and even up until this week.

Then it was on to equipment handouts. In prior years, we attempted to do this all in one shot during a practice. We gained 30-40 kids year over year, and tried our best to make sure each child was getting the correct sized equipment as best possible. doing it like we did before was not going to work out. Could you imagine....fitting each kid, handing out equipment to each kid, collecting equipment deposits, and having to remain organized....nope!!

We EASILY purchased over $10,000 worth of new helmets, shoulder pads, practice pants, and practice jerseys along the way. Practice jerseys we knew about and planned early for.... having to find not only youth helmets, but the correct size helmets, and as many as we could in the color purple....let's just say we likely covered all vendors, distributors and websites in a concerted effort to get our kids what they needed. Some vendors do not carry purple anymore, some manufacturers only carry certain sizes, some helmets only come with a certain facemask, some are on a 3-4 week backorder, some are twice the price, some ONLY come in black or white now....and to get them properly painted and not void the certification would take another month.....but we did it.

It was a lot of behind the scenes work that most don't see....all on volunteered time...but we made it work.

Now that we have the prep work done and accomplished....we have 140+ players to coach. Luckily some new faces stepped in to help coach, ran some joint practices together to run efficiently, and are gearing up for a great season. With 25+ kids on ALL LEVELS this year, it seems likely the teams will have enough kids to run a JV Game Schedule.

These games are not provided or coordinated by the league. Our coaches spend time reaching out to coordinate these games with other teams. Some in our league, some from outside our league. BPE pays for each referee to be at these games. If your child is signed up to play in Bellmawr, they will play football. We can only put 11 kids on the field at any given time. No way around that. The game clock is a "running clock" so to pull 11 kids off, to substitute 11 kids in....not happening.

6U is the only level where a coach can be on the field to move kids around and help them and moving everyone at the same time is impossible...even with help on the field. If a child does not play much or at all in a game, the coaches are trying their best to get them on the field in one way shape or form. Whether it be in a varsity game, JV game, 5th quarter, or even just on special teams....the coaches are trying their best. 25+ kids are a lot to remember who got in, who didn't, who is playing on Wednesday compared to Saturday, who is a rotational player, who just plays defense vs offense....especially during the heat and excitement of a game...we are all humans.

There are no scholarships being handed out, NFL scouts hidden in the crowd, or NIL deals being negotiated. We are here to have fun. Let the kids have fun, if there is an issue, speak with a coach privately, not as a screaming match on the sidelines or on a public/group message board. I can honestly say...I played football for many years...couldn't tell you the final score of any game, number of plays I was involved in, or who started for the A, B, or C team....we all just went out as a team and had fun.

In the moment a child may get upset, a parent may feel slighted, or that little Tommy or Timmy didn't get the same playtime as little Johnny or Joey. It will happen, there is no way around it, it's just human nature. However, it is both a learning and a teaching moment, rather than a complaining or problematic moment. "Why isn't my child the starting quarterback/running back/lineman/linebacker". It is a loaded question. There are a million scenarios to explore...not going to go down the rabbit hole.

Even when you are doing everything right... Life is not always 100% fair. If you want something, work for it. Work REALLY hard for it. Sometimes you will succeed, sometimes you will fail. Work hard enough that no one can criticize you for simply failing. Sorry for getting deep, hopefully the point is accomplished.

Now let's shift gears....for a season prediction...mark this post...we will have 3 or more teams making deep playoff runs. And in December, hopefully we are trying to brainstorm on where to find the money to celebrate some championships!!!

Website Manager

Bellmawr Purple Eagles Football & Cheer

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7

Aug, 2024

WE ARE BACK IN FULL SWING!!!

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Bellmawr Purple Eagles Football & Cheer

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