To all CFA Team reps

Please pass this onto your team coaches.  It is very important that you make sure that all your coaches get this info and read it carefully.  Detailed tie breaker and other info will follow in the coming days, however, this email details some changes to the program for this year.  Please do NOT assume that a coach from a team has received this email.  Print this file and distribute it to your coaches to be sure that they all have received these changes for this year.

The format shown below is what the commissioners have approved for this year in regards to how many players any one team may submit for consideration to make the Midget Division All-Star team.  The amount of players that any one team may submit for consideration to make the All-Star team will be determined by your team’s final regular season standings.  This is only for the Super Bowl All-Star awards and has nothing to do with the numbers for the Senior Bowl games. Coaches should start to think of which players that they will be submitting for consideration.  We will be doing the selection process in the next couple of weeks with a special meeting for nominations and voting to take place.

Also note... all coaches and team reps will be receiving special ballots this year for voting for a new award which will be a Team Sportsmanship award.  We will be giving out 8 of these... one for each level in each conference.

Midget Division All-Stars for Both conferences:
Here is what I would like to do as far as number restrictions for teams to nominate players for the All-Star program for the Midget Division.  (This is not anything to do with the Senior Bowl Games).  All players nominated will make the All-Star team this year.

Peewee and Pony Division All-Stars for both conferences:

Everything will be conducted as it was the past couple of years with only a slight modification.  Each team can nominate first their best player for the League MVP award for each Conference.  2nd, each team can nominate 1 player for Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year as well.  As before, the MVP player nominated can be also nominated as Offensive player or Defensive Player of the Year but not for both.  It is recommended that teams if possible should nominate 3 different players from their teams so as to get as many players noticed and recognized for their efforts this past season.  The major changes for these 2 Divisions will be that all coaches will be required to attend a special nomination meeting to be held in the next few weeks and during this meeting they will nominate their players and get to talk about them for a max of up to 1 minute per player to the other coaches.  The second change is that for the Peewee and Pony Divisions only, each player that is submitted for an award from the Division Champions will receive a bonus voting point prior to the counting of the votes.  The players in Divisions 1 and 3 will each receive 1 extra Champions vote and the players in Division 2 and 4 will each receive 1/2 of a voting point prior to the final count.  Divisions 1 and 3 have on paper harder schedules the other 2 divisions and thus the reason for the difference in points.  This is a small change that will not make much of a difference except in trying to make fewer ties that we had in the past. Ties should go to the Champions anyway in most cases.  Another reason for coaches to pick the Best players in the league, not a buddy’s kid.

A coach from each team must attend their respective meeting. The coaches should bring with them to this meeting that will be announced later, the players names, numbers worn this year, and as well the players birth dates and if this player is a first or last year player for this division.  All info will be verified later, however, the spelling of the players names will be printed as brought to the selection meeting.  There will be no time to make edits to names... so bring the correct spellings. Do not guess on the spellings of any player. Verify with that player’s parents how they spell and would want their kid’s names spelled. There can not be changes after the meeting as the printer and awards guy will have the names the next day. No changes will be done. As, also, I will be in away and not in PA the following weeks after the selection is completed and names submitted.  

American Conference Midgets only:
(Final Regular Season standings)
1        9
2        8
3        7
4        7
5        6
6        6
7        5
8        5

Total on All-Star team and medals to hand out is 53

National Conference Midgets only:
(Final Regular Season Standings)
1        9
2        8
3        7
4        7
5        6
6        6
7        5
8        5
9        5

Total on All-Star team and medals to hand out is 58
The total number to hand out is then 111 between the two conferences.  11 more then last years.

This goes along with what we discussed at Mondays meeting then.  All players nominated are automatically on the All-Star team and get a medal, certificate and are brought to the respective Super Bowl game for their Conference to be awarded.

What this number reflects above then is the total amount max of players that each team may nominate for any offensive, defensive and or MVP awards.  So basically, if a team finishes 9th in the National Conference as an example, then they can nominate their best player for MVP, the same player if they want for Offensive player of the Year or Defensive Player of the Year, or 2 separate players for Offense and Defensive players of the year.  (Same rules as in the past 3 years that we did this).  So lets say that they name a MVP, a different player for Offensive player of yr, and a 3rd player for Defensive Player of yr.  That is 3 players, so that team can also nominate those 3 players for either an offensive position or defensive position or both as well.  In addition, they can nominate up to no more then 2 more players from their team to either an offensive or defensive position or both.  All for a total of 5 players from that respective team to be nominated for post-season awards.  Teams can nominate less then the 5 in this case, but not more then 5.

This number is actually higher for a total then what I think is realistic, but should actually pan out better then last year.  Another option is to just take one more away from each placement, so like the top team gets 8, the 2 team gets 7, etc.  That is actually to me a closer number that we should do.  Just was looking at what amounts teams normally nominate as in the past.  For this year, we will do the numbers as stated above.

Also we are adding a few wrinkles as well this year.  Adding a team sportsmanship award for each conference and division.  One for Smurf, Peewee, Pony and Midget of each conference.  I would like to do maybe the same for Cheerleading as well... especially since we had them buy cheer shirts this year.  Not sure how that would fly as far as participation goes, but maybe those cheer coaches know who were good or bad during the games etc.... don't know for sure, but we do have some money to do something.

For the Cheerleading I need the teams to respond to us and talk to their Cheer coaches ASAP to see if they are interested in doing this.  I will send out a separate email for the Cheerleading one, but initially we will most likely go for it as a Program award that we would give out 2 Cheer Sportsmanship Awards, one for each Conference.

We also created an entire new Volunteer award:  Calling it the "CFA Football League Commissioners Volunteer of the Year Award".  Going to be the same award that the league reps vote on for their teams as in the past, however this one is one that the commissioners can give out themselves to whoever.  This first award is going to a lady who for the past what 5 years has graciously printed out all those Certificates and Scholastic Awards for us and not ever asked for a dime.  Commissioner Cribari and I talked and agreed that this is the least that we could do for her and and her business.  Then after this year, each year the commissioners could name up to 1 for this award if they found someone deserving.  The cost this year for this plague by the way came out to $30.  And it is really nice looking.

More info for All-Star selection dates and voting will be coming out this weekend.