Duxbury Football Programs announce merger
Welcome to our new combined organization
Dear football families
Another football season is upon us. This year we hope to build on the success of the combined program from our inaugral season last year. As schedules and dates are announce you will find them here. Expect practice to begin this year on or about August 9th, 2013. Weigh in will be Saturday September 7th. Please register your player as soon as possible.
Weigh In – Buses Leave from Chandler School.
Mandatory league weigh in is Saturday, September 7th, 2013 at Rockland High School. The buses will be leaving from Chandler School, Duxbury. Please have your athlete at Chandler no later than 10:30 AM. This is a must do. If you miss the weigh in your child will not be able to play this season. If you are not able to go, please let your head coach know immediately.
Week 1 Saturday Games
Due to the fact that the weigh in is scheduled on Saturday, September 7th, there will be no Saturday Games that day. It is mathematically impossible for most grades to get each child the playing time they deserve on Sunday. Therefore, we are working with a few towns to schedule additional “Saturday” games. If we are successful, these games would take place on Thursday, September 5th – time and place to be announced. This is not final, but we wanted to make sure you knew what we had in mind. Related, all of the Sunday games are loaded into the website and the Saturday games will be loaded soon. Please refer to the website as you plan your Fall activities [there is a cool feature that imports all of the dates and times into your electronic calendar of choice – Thanks, Gary Smith for your tireless efforts in managing the website].
Playing Time
Most of the conversations that we had with the board this winter and spring included robust discussions about how we were going to ensure that all athletes were got the amount of playing time that put them in a position to grow and succeed. This week, new board member Dr. Walter Stanwood suggested that we also considered the maximum playing time that a player should have over the course of a week to prevent unnecessary injury. After a considerable discussion, we arrived at the following guiding principles. Over the course of a full weekend, an athlete should not play more than one full game. What this means is that a member of the Saturday offense might play defense on Sunday or vice versa. Coaches will monitor this week to week through the HUDL video system, which is also available to all parents who wish to monitor their athletes playing time. If you have any concerns about your child’s playing time, your first conversation is with your head coach. After speaking with your head coach, please feel free to send me an email at
with a summary of the situation and a few times during the week after 8PM when we can speak and where you can be reached during those times.
Concussion Policy
Over the last decade at Duxbury High School, Head Coach David Maimaron has placed player safety at the top of his agenda. [Check out the Clipper for a story on the new state of the art sled that the boosters purchased at his direction!] Coach Maimaron, in partnership with new board member Dr. Walter Stanwood, has developed a comprehensive program for Duxbury Dragon Football and Cheer covering concussion prevention, baseline testing and management. First, all coaches must complete online coursework on concussion prevention. Practice drills that involve some of the most dangerous forms of contact have been prohibited and weekly full contact drills have been significantly limited. Parents must also watch a concussion video on line [http://www.nfhslearn.com/electiveDetail.aspx?courseID=38000] and initial that they have done so with their head coach. Athletes from Grades 6, 7 and 8 will be required to complete a baseline concussion test with Tim McPhillips, a member of the medical staff at Duxbury High School. Lastly, any football or cheer athlete suffering a concussion will not be allowed to return to play without a note from his or her physician. Dr. Stanwood will not be providing testing or clearing athletes to play, but would be happy to answer any questions families have regarding concussions. Dr. Stanwood also consulted with several of his peers in the medical community and believes that the measures we are taking are well above those of programs in neighboring towns. Both football and cheerleading involve danger and risk. In recognition of these risks, your children’s coaches will work to ensure that your children can participate in these sports safely.
Volunteering
As each of you is aware, parents of every athlete are responsible for volunteering to support our activities as an organization. Please make sure that you have coordinated with your team’s communications specialist (aka Team Mom) to make sure that you have signed up for your required activities. This year, we have decided to outsource the management of our concession stand, which eliminate the need for parent volunteers to purchase, transport and prepare food – we will still need to provide volunteers to staff the concession stand. We will, however suffer a loss in game day revenue. In place of certain concession activities, we are going to ask for additional volunteers to staff the gates to Dragon Stadium to collect entrance fees. Between referees, field rental, EMT, insurance and rental of outdoor rest rooms our game day expenses are over $1,100. We must ensure that everyone who enters the stadium volunteers to contribute $3, whether to drop their children off, watch only the cheer program, sing the national anthem, or watch the best youth football program in MA.
In closing, we have been very impressed with the efforts of our athletes and coaches this summer. We are delighted that we have formed Duxbury Dragon Football and Cheer and that our inaugural season is finally here.
We hope you are too. Go Dragons.
Sincerely,
Mike Siciliano
Scott Couto
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