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NOVA UYFA History |
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Washington Post May 9, 2002 Unlimited-Weight Football To Kickoff 8-Team League Author: Michele Clock; Special to The Washington Post, Edition: F, Section: 6, Page: T28 A year ago, Ray Maternick had a piece of paper with 20 names on it and a vision. He wanted to create an unlimited weight youth football league in Northern Virginia. Maternick didn't know how many interested kids were out there, but he had a hunch there were plenty. He was right. This fall, a year and a half later, the newly formed Northern Virginia Unlimited Youth Football Association expects to have an eight-team league in place and competing. Maternick came up with the idea after watching his son Andrew, now a seventh grader at Hayfield, play football in the Fairfax County Youth Football League. Andrew Maternick was playing alongside kids who had to lose weight in order to participate. Ray Maternick stood by and watched as the league turned down several kids at a weigh-in. By late last summer, Maternick had found enough interested boys to form a 45-member team, the Northern Virginia Hawks. The 11- to 14-year-old Hawks played as part of the Maryland-based Mid-Atlantic Unlimited Youth Football League. As the only Virginia-based team, the Hawks traveled to Maryland for all of their away games. The MUYFA league was established in 1995 in the Baltimore area as an alternative to leagues like the Fairfax County Youth Football League. The Fairfax County League, like most youth football leagues, sets maximum weights for players depending on their age. These new leagues give larger children an opportunity to play before arriving in high school. With one team in place, parents started to realize Maternick was doing too much himself. "It was all Ray in the beginning," said Bill Shuttleworth, a Hawks parent who sits on the association's new Board of Directors. "Everybody's pulling a share here. It was Ray's vision, but we're trying to help Ray make it happen." The 14-member Board was established late last year, with everyone from parents to high school football coaches represented. "There's just so many people who have gotten involved," Maternick said. "It says a lot that there have been so many that have stayed back even though their kids have moved on to high school level football -- I consider it the success of the community." It didn't hurt that the Hawks did extremely well in their first season, going 12-1. The team went undefeated in the regular season, winning the Southern division title. They lost for the first and only time in the postseason Super bowl, which matches the two best teams in the MUYFA league. Maternick in February spoke at a Northern Virginia Football Coaches Association meeting. The association gave their endorsement to the new league. "It's a win-win situation for us," said Centreville football coach Mike Skinner. "Ray and his group are doing all the work and we're getting the benefits. It's nice when somebody's willing to do the work. He's done a nice job and hopefully it will take off." Nearly 30 new players are signed up to play next year, and another 50 have shown interest. Five of eight proposed teams have head coaches in place, and organizers expect a total of nearly 250 players to sign up by the end of the summer. "The kids are there," Maternick said. "It's just getting the word out." Copyright 2002 The
Washington Post
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This page was last updated on:
04/20/2007 05:28 PM
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