The road to the National Championship is a long one for the football players, cheerleaders and dancers of the Pop Warner Little Scholars program.
Players begin practicing on August 1 in preparation for their season openers, usually held during the last week in August or first week in September. A participant can be considered eligible for the season when he/she has met the four basic criteria for participation: A candidate must provide proof of age, parental consent, a medical examination, and academic fitness.
What makes Pop Warner unique as an organization is our commitment to academic excellence among our participants. A participant must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average/70 percent in school in order to participate during the season.
If a child doesn’t reach the 2.0/70% requirement, a Scholastic Eligibility Form is filled out by that child’s school to determine whether or not the PWLS program is beneficial for him/her. Once this is determined, the child’s grades are monitored throughout the season. Our objective is to build sound minds and bodies for our leaders of tomorrow.
A football team plays a 7 to 9 game schedule and at the end of the regular season, usually during the last week in October, a team prepares for league playoffs. Playoff games are only for the Jr. Pee Wee, Pee Wee, Jr. Varsity, Varsity and Unlimited Divisions. We do not have playoffs at our Tiny-Mite or Mitey-Mite levels.
Once a league champion has been decided and a team has won the right to participate in regional championships, all report cards are verified to ensure that all the players are academically eligible. Those teams that win at the regional championships are invited to ESPN Wide World of Sports™ to compete for a national championship in their respective division.
In 2000, more excitement was added to Pop Warner football when a Division II national championship was added and in 2005, Pop Warner began crowning overall Divsion I champions for Jr. Pee Wee, Pee Wee & Jr. Midget.
In 2010, Pop Warner completed its progression of Division II by crowning a national champion in all four divisions for the first time in program history.