[jtsafety]

The Union team was set up because, as noted in the thread, there is no Boone Co middle school football program and due to the draft system that was in play at the Boone Co. PeeWee league. (The junior and senior teams in BCPWFL drafted players that required some to drive 30-40 mins one way to practice 4 days a week. And even then, only 13 of 25 players got to play at all, as most of the BCPWFL is about winning, not instruction) Only this season did BCPWFL try to allow the Jr/Sr teams to let kids go that would play for the various high schools they would go to. Sadly, several teams shut down due to the defections to Ryle/Cooper/Conner programs that were set up out of frustration/need to compete.

The Union team draws from the Ryle High School district which cuts through the far western edge of the Ockerman elementary/middle school district, so they don't really have access to the whole population of Ockerman. We have a friend who goes to Ockerman and wanted to play for the Raiders but the coaches wouldn't let him because he will go to Boone Co High.

There are Sr 8th and 7th grade squads that compete in the middle school level. These are the seasoned/experienced players who live within the Ryle district, go to a public school (Most to Grey and few Ockerman) and played last year. The other squad playing in the NKYFL is a group that lives in the district (some are home schooled), wants to play closer to home and maybe does not have the experience level of the other teams. In the spirit of a team rule that players need to play rather than stand on the sideline or be practice dummies, they formed this team to give them playing time and experience at a level closer to their current abilities.

There has been no mixing of the squads that I have seen all season.

Ryle will have a great pool of talent to draw from for the next few years thanks to a little foresight.

Congrats to all the teams that made the playoffs and good luck to all that are left!