Time is now for Chiefs and Warriors to find peace
So, the Warriors and Chiefs package finally hit the pages this week. I found it a compelling story at the onset but it also made for some tough thought when it came to putting it all together.
I got a lot of cooperation from both Bruce Dryfhout of the Chiefs and Sheldon Sobol of the Warriors for the piece and I appreciate it greatly. I also got a lot of testimonials from parents with kids in both organizations and tried to use as much as I could from them. Not all made the package, but I'd like to thank everyone who participated for their time.
When the preliminary drafts were finished, much shaping and re-working had to go into the story — both editorially and for spacial reasons.
Essentially, for those looking for the CliffsNotes version, here's is the overview.
Once upon a time, the Chiefs were the only youth team in town. That was fine but, as the town of Morris began embracing football as part of its identity, more and more kids wanted to play before entering high school. As a result, a lot of kids around town were left on waiting lists and never got to play.
Six years ago, the Warriors were founded and the waiting lists not only became a thing of the past, but both organizations had enough players to fill out all four rosters. For those unaware of the youth teams as they are set up, there are four teams in each organization, ranging from the super lightweights to the varsity.
Now it is not unprecedented for a town to have two teams, but those towns are generally much larger than Morris. In the River Valley Youth Football League [where the Warriors play]; New Lenox, Bourbonnais and Frankfort have two teams and Oswego has three teams. Where this becomes something of an issue from Morris and not for them is that those four cities have a signup and then have the ability to disburse the players to the other individual teams. It's a way that they can ensure competitive balance.
The Chiefs are a member of the Tri-County League where none of the towns have more than one team. As a result of the teams being in two different leagues, player dispersal in terms of competitive harmony is nonexistent.
Essentially, what has happened is that both teams are needing to recruit kids in order to be competitive on the field and not just field teams.
The Warriors recognized that right away and marketed the team towards training their group of kids "the Redskins way". To this day, the organization still utilizes that similar philosophy and it's been highly successful drawing kids to its way.
There is little doubt that a rivalry developed right away and it wasn't necessarily a healthy one for the kids. The fact that one began is not that surprising but the prevailing fact would seem to be that the adults let things go too far without stepping in, stepping back and thinking about what is best for the kids involved.
"One of the biggest disadvantages of two programs is that these boys will eventually all play together under the high school flag, and they all bring different levels of skill, philosophies and goals," Warriors parent Stori Phelps Hart pointed out to me. "These differences often hinder the teams’ ability to gel together in a timely manner. The extra amount of time that is spent on melding the boys into one team, can often delay the forward progression of the program as a whole."
Having said that, she also voiced a similar theme as many in town who see having two teams as something positive.
"People like having a choice ... Parents like to know that there is an opportunity to move to a different program if their son’s current program is not a good fit," she said. "I also believe that having two programs gives the boys more opportunity to get field time."
The Warriors reported 120 players and 30 cheerleaders on their teams this year and the Chiefs have 102 players and 20 cheerleaders, so neither is hurting in terms of participation, though most of the Chiefs' players are in the youngest two levels.
Having tackled the story, I found a profound sense from those involved that they want to make the situation work for both teams because having two teams is largely a good thing. Considering the resolve of the people involved, I'm not so sure that a peaceful accord is not at hand and not something that could happen down the road.
I'm fairly sure that's a pretty good read on the situation.
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