A disagreement on the interpretation of rules locked 52 Roanoke Rapids Yellow Jacket Midget football players out of a league-wide jamboree this morning.
The dispute comes down to wording that rules can be amended at any time, in this case the 40-player limit, and left some players in tears, parents said.
The ruling that Halifax-Northampton Midget Football Commissioner Darrell Whittle stands by means the Jacket midget team will schedule games outside regular league play, coach Brian Bohanon said outside the field at Gaston College Prep, where the jamboree was being held.
While a vote was taken in a preseason meeting that ended with the league not allowing Roanoke Rapids to carry more than 40 players, Bohanon contends that since bylaws say the rules can be amended at any time, he obtained unanimous approval by coaches in the league this morning to allow the Jackets to participate in the jamboree.
Players were ready for the jamboree.
Bohanon would have had to cut 12 players from the roster to participate. “I can’t split the team,” he said. “I can’t do that.”
“My son was out there crying,” said Linda Powers. “It’s heartbreaking.”
“This was my first year,” said Josh Freeman. “I wanted to play.”
Darrin Mallory, playing his last year for the team said, “It’s devastating for me.”
The team had been practicing since August 7, parents said, and were looking forward to the jamboree.
Whittle, in his second full year as commissioner, said Yellow Jacket coaches knew this was going to happen today when they came to the jamboree after the preseason vote in which three coaches voted against the proposed rule change and one voted for it. Another coach was absent.
While the league can’t tell the coaches to split the team, Whittle said the league would accept it and it would make the league more competitive.
The league has become popular in the Roanoke Valley, Whittle said. “It was started to give kids something to do. Now it’s become a feeder program for the middle schools and players who go on to high school.”
Bohanon contends the rules can be amended at any time and splitting the team is not an option because it’s difficult to find volunteers to coach.
Now the team will schedule its own games and already has some scheduled. “Nothing will change,” he said.
By not allowing the team to play was probably a $500 loss to the league, said Jay Carlisle, whose son is on the team. “You’re talking $4 to get in, 52 kids and 52 parents plus 30 cheerleaders and their parents and family.”
For Robin Isles, who has been involved in the league for eight years, the decision to uphold the preseason vote hurts the boys. “This is just unbelievable that this one man can do this to 50-plus boys,” she said in an email to rrspin.com. “This would have been Matt's fifth year in this league. He started playing in second grade and this is his last year and this is what he and the other senior members on the team have to deal with.”
Isles said midget football is supposed to be about the boys learning the game of football. “This is a learning league. You cut in middle school and high school but never in the eight years I have been in this league has anyone had to cut. For more than one year the Yellow Jackets have been over 40 and allowed to play so why is this year any different?”
Isles said the boys have been working hard since the first Monday in August for three to four days a week, conditioning and learning the game and learning about teamwork and commitment. “And then this league President Whittle does this. What a poor example he has shown to our kids.”
