The 2020 Middle Tennessee Youth Football League season has been cancelled.
League Commissioner Michael Hayes said the decision was made to ensure the health of the league’s players. He said league officials did everything possible to avoid having to cancel the season.
“It’s certainly disappointing,” Hayes said. “We have several kids looking forward to playing youth football. A lot of youth baseball seasons were cancelled this year, and now we’re having to cancel our youth football in the Upper Cumberland area.”
Hayes said a number of counties had already opted out for this season. The 8-team league includes teams from Cumberland, Dekalb, Fentress, Overton, Putnam, and White Counties.
“Due to several counties withdrawing from the league, and the coaches having trouble with COVID-19, we kind of felt like is was best to cancel the season,” Hayes said.
Even though the football season has been cancelled, Hayes said players can still remain active. He said it is always important for players to get exercise.
“They can get out and do some agilities,” Hayes said. “They can get online and find some things to do to just stay active; running, jumping jacks, and push-ups. Things of that nature will help them keep their strength built up for the next season.”
Hayes said the youth football season typically gets underway at the beginning of August. He said signups for next year should begin in April.
“We usually try to get our season kicked off right around the second week of August,” Hayes said. “Teams usually start doing signups around April, and teams usually start practicing around June.”
League officials tried to wait as long as possible to cancel the season, according to Hayes. However, he said, in the end, the league wanted to protect its players.
“We hate it,” Hayes said. “We stuck it out, and this is something we started talking about in March. We were hoping we would get to play, and we just waited and waited. We always want at Middle Tennessee Youth Football to put the safety of our kids first.”