Pirates Football

For the last few years, the HPYFA program has been making contributions to local student organizations or groups in exchange for their volunteer help at our home games each Saturday. With the participant fee reductions, the program cannot continue this practice. Therefore we have implemented a required parental volunteering program to cover the necessary gate, 50-50, concession, spotters, clock operator and chain gang positions at the home football games. Each team will have a volunteer coordinator who will coordinate the team’s parental volunteer participation.

If you are interested in becoming a team volunteer coordinator please e-mail Rob Smithpeters at rsmithpeters@piratesfootball.com or Regina Wasyl at rwasyl@piratesfootball.com.

Pom Camp ~ Open to ALL HPYFA participants:
Pom Camp will be held on July 28th and will be hosted by the High School Varsity Pom Team. The cost for camp will be $25.00 and will include a t-shirt. Camp will begin at 5:30 p.m. A parent meeting will be held that evening at 8:00 p.m. The evening will wrap up with a pom performance at 8:30 p.m.

Pom Practice Schedule:
Practice days will be Monday and Thursday for the month of August from 6-9 p.m. Practice times will change to 6-8 p.m. with the start of school in September. Instructional level practice times will be designed in an age appropriate time frame with consideration for their attention spans. Your coach will be informing you of your adjusted practice schedule. There will be no practice on August 5th or September 6th (Labor Day). For the week of August 9th practices will be: August 9th and 11th. The participants that are involved with a dual squad please attend Pom practice on Aug. 11th and not cheer practice. Practices are held at Merrill Field.

Cheer Practice Schedule (for dual participants):
Practice days will be Tuesday and Wednesday for the month of August from 6-9 p.m. Practice times will change to 6-8 p.m. with the start of school in September. Instructional level practice times will be designed in an age appropriate time frame with consideration for their attention spans. Your coach will be informing you of your adjusted practice schedule. There will be no practice on Labor Day, September 6, 2010. Practices are held at Merrill Field.

Please remember that attendance for practice is extremely important and required. This is a team sport and we cannot move forward as a TEAM if we do not have everyone present at practice. Your coach must be notified of your absence by either phone or email. Each team is given a routine to learn for Invitational, which is held on Sunday, October 10th this season. Each week we learn a new segment of our routine. We have very little time to learn our routine for Invitational and game days. Participants will be allowed so many excused absences. At the coaches’ discretion, participants may be sidelined for a specified quarter for absences.

Attire for practice and games will be strictly enforced this season. Participants must have the appropriate shoes. No flip flops, clogs, barefoot, and/or loafers. For practices tennis shoes must be worn, please save your cheer/pom shoes for games and Invitational. Hair must be pulled back into a pony tail and away from your face. Absolutely no earrings, necklaces, or bracelets. Shorts, sweats, tank tops or comfortable clothing may be worn. Skirts are not allowed unless you have shorts on underneath. If participants show up not in the appropriate attire, you will not be allowed to practice. This is for the safety of your child and also the safety of the other participants. Coaches will notify you of your attire (the bodysuit or sweats that were purchased through Blue Ribbon Embroidery) prior to your scheduled game. It is our goal to have a unified team.

Game Day – Participants must be in the appropriate attire, which includes: shell, skirt, white ankle socks, cheer/pom shoes, and designated cheer/pom bow. On chillier days you may wear your body suit and sweats. Please make sure your child has had the appropriate meal before your schedule game, as there is no eating during the game or during half time. Participants must stay with the coaches the entire game. If your child is eating during half time, they will be asked to sit the remainder of the game out. Water will be allowed during the games and is encouraged. Please remember to have a label with your name on your water. Juice, pop, or any other type of drink is not allowed during the game. Participants are expected to act appropriately during the game, this means no going back and forth from the court to the stands, no running around on the court, and cheerleaders and pommers are expected to be courteous to other team mates and the opposing teams. Any cheerleader/pommer not displaying appropriate behavior will be made to sit out for one quarter. HPFYA is about promoting teamwork and sportsmanship.

Please remember that your coach is a volunteer, he/she is not paid by HPYFA. If you have a concern please approach your coach either before or after practice. Game day is not the appropriate time to bring up any concerns you may have. Coaches are focused on the game and the team on game day. Also, please do not address our High School Coaches at practice or during game day. If you have a concern that you would like addressed, please speak with your head coach or assistant coach. Our high school coaches are not getting paid for their time. They are involved as mentors and are given direction from the head coaches and assistant coaches of HPYFA.

Free Cheer Stunting Clinic for Dual Squad Participants:
Instructional Cheer and Freshman Cheer: August 10th from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.
JV Cheer and Varsity Cheer: August 12th from 5:30 until 8:30 p.m.
Hartland High School Varsity Cheer will be hosting the stunting clinic at the New Hartland High School. There is no cost to participate. Concessions will be available throughout the evening.

If you still need to place your cheer/pom pack order, please contact Paula with Blue Ribbon Embroidery at 734-954-0497 or via email at blueribbonembroidery@yahoo.com. Please have your orders placed no later then July 24th. You may either mail your order form in or turn it in at Uniform Hand-out on July 24th. Blue Ribbon will be at Uniform Handout so that participants may be sized for their cheer/pom pack. Any orders turned in after July 24th may be subject to additional shipping fee of $5.00 and will not be guaranteed delivery by picture day. Please note the following change: **All cheer/pom pack orders will be delivered to your team on August 11, 2010. ** You may download a copy of the order form from our website.

Shoes:
MC Sporting Goods in Brighton, located at 8451 W. Grand River Ave, will be offering the Power Cheer II cheer shoe to H.P.Y.F.A cheer/pom participants for $26.00 (+tax), normal retail price for this shoe is $35.00. In order to get the discounted price you will need to let them know that you are with HPYFA Cheer & Pom program. Please specify this, as there are several other communities along with our own High School program that purchase their shoes from MC Sporting Goods. They need to know what program you are with in order for you to receive the correct shoe. No other MC Sporting Goods locations will have the selected shoe we are using. If MC Sporting Goods does not have it in stock, they will order it and contact you when it comes in. All teams must have a white cheer/pom shoe, however, they do not have to be the same cheer/pom shoe. You may choose not to go with the Power Cheer II shoe, as long as the shoe that is purchased is a white cheer/pom shoe (all shoes come with removable color tabs) it is acceptable.

Pom Coaches – We are still in need of coaches for Freshman Poms. Please submit a letter of interest to Carol Adams at: cadams@piratesfootball.com. You will be contacted via email for an interview. Coaches are expected to follow HPYFA (Hamburg Pirate Youth Football Association) and LCACC (Livingston County Area Cheer Commissioners) rules/regulations. Coaches will be given a guideline that you will be expected to follow.

Important Dates:
July 24th ~ Uniform Handout from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Hamburg Senior Center located at: 10407 Merrill Road. Participants must be present to be sized.
July 28th ~ Pom Camp 5:30 p.m until 9 p.m.
August 2nd ~ Pom Practice begins
August 3rd ~ Cheer Practice begins
August 5th ~ NO POM PRACTICE
August 11th ~ Pom Practice
August 28th ~ First game of the season
September 6th ~ No Practice (Labor Day)
October 8th ~ Homecoming Parade
October 10th ~ Invitational @ Byron High School
October 23rd ~ Last game of the season