The youth football league formerly known as the South Beaches Seahawks are now called the Satellite Beach Seahawks, but the change reflects much more than just a name.
Prompted by national headlines and increasing understanding of safety concerns, the 160 participants from age 5 to 14 (age 15 for cheer) recently moved from the Brevard County Youth Football and Cheer Association to the Pop Warner youth football organization, said league President John Wallace.
The main reasons for the change include that Pop Warner uses an age-to-weight matrix that creates teams of similar size players and has a preference of a developmental over competitive philosophy, he said. There also is a Pop Warner requirement for good grades and scholarship opportunities.
Other Pop Warner features include ongoing training and certifying coaches on the fundamentals of safety; appointing Player Safety Coaches for every youth league to enforce safety protocols; ensuring proper equipment fitting, which is refurbished annually; and teaching coaches, parents and players how to recognize and treat a concussion.
The age/weight matrix “sort of evens the playing field and controls the size of the kids. If you have one kid who is really big and you are giving him the ball every single time, you are not really playing football,’’ Wallace said.
Dave Giovannini of Satellite Beach, whose son Peyton, 10, is playing his second year, believes the league change will be a good thing.
“There’s more of an emphasis on safety and more of an opportunity to play,’’ he said.
The teams will keep using fields at the Satellite Beach Public Library and will travel regionally. Members are drawn from Patrick Air Force Base to Sebastian Inlet.
The name change also reflects a relationship with Satellite High School.
