After demise of old league, Blue Devils forming new youth football program in Winter Haven

LAKELAND — When Winter Haven Youth Football disbanded in the spring, it was the end of an era. The long-time youth football league was the feeder program for Winter Haven High School and produced many of the Blue Devils' top players over the past decades.

A new era, however, is beginning as Greater Winter Haven Youth Football has been formed with the focus on developing fundamentals in the players who come through the system. 

Former Santa Fe Catholic head coach Zach Shelby, a Winter Haven grad, is the league president and has been excited by the response of the community as the new league was being formed. Shelby said that as soon as word got out, he was receiving calls from parents wondering what was going to happen. Where could their kids play?

Shelby got together with Cody Meadows and Tim Schaal and began forming a new lead. Community leaders with a football background were asked to join the board, and the formation of the new youth league was underway. Meadows is the vice president, and Schaal is the treasurer.

The board members include former Winter Haven football coach Flip Farinella, current Winter Haven coach Carl White, Robert Scott and Leo Goodrum.

“Not one person we asked to be on the board said no,” Shelby said. “They all wanted to jump in and help out. We have a great partnership working with the city to get us the use of Sertoma Park and to get us the schedule and things like that.”

Shelby said it took until May to get everything up and running.

“Once we got the use agreement signed, we started advertising for signups in June,” he said. “Typically we would start in April. We're really a month, a month and a half behind.”

The jamboree is scheduled for the first weekend of September, and Shelby said they’ll be ready to go.

The goal was to have 275 players signed for the first year. On Friday at a workout at Denison Stadium where the Winter Haven High School players and coaches worked with the players, 216 players were signed up. Shelby expects that with the final push, they’ll reach or even surpass the goal.

The new league will have flag football for players under 6, and four divisions for players from ages 7 to 14. In recent years, he said, there weren’t enough players for each division so players weren’t always playing in their normal age group.

Games will be held during the week at Sertoma Park.

“We're really really excited,” Shelby said. “There's been some super positive folks getting involved outside of the board. Everybody wants to help. Nobody says no to anything. They're just happy about the league because believe it or not, people don't want to take their whole Saturday driving all over the state of Florida to try to find a game.”

Shelby was referring to the youth football travel teams.

An aspect about the league that officials are most excited about is how practices will be held with the focus on developing skills and fundamentals being emphasized.

Shelby said all the practices will be held at Sertoma Park. The field will split into thirds with a different station every 25 yards. Players of all age groups will participate at each station.

“By the end of the practice, the whole field will be full of different drills going on so that way the young kids can learn from the older kids, the younger, less experienced coaches are buddied with experienced coaches so it leaves no gaps whatsoever for learning and development,” Shelby said. “And that's really what the whole purpose of this. It’s to develop players, develop coaches for the future so we can continue this and it doesn't fizzle out. … We want to develop the kids so when they get up to high school, they’r ready to play. They have all the fundamentals, starting from stance to knowledge of the game.”

After players got through each drill they will then split off with their respective team for team practice.

Shelby said it cost about $70,000 to get the league going with an estimated $50,000 coming from donations. Insurance ate up about a third of the costs. The league bought new helmets and new shoulder pads, and players will get to keep their jersey and pants.

The league also has brought back cheerleaders for the first time in many years, Shelby said, and about 50 have already singed up. Brittney Pearn is heading up the cheerleaders.

“She's doing a fantastic job with that, and people are just starting to hear about that,” Shelby said.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Former Blue Devils forming new youth football program in Winter Haven