Since posting the top 10 teams in New England youth football, social media has been on fire. The debate about which teams belong and don't belong are taking place from New Hampshire to Connecticut. Proof of wins and domination have been coming through in the form of Youtube and hudl links. New England really does have a good football culture, but it could get better and I see that happening soon.
When ranking teams there are many factors that are considered. What is the level of competition in your league? How did you perform in regional competition (competition that takes place after your league championship or super bowl)? How did your team perform in national competition? We look for your toughest opponent and look to see how well your team executed under pressure. Was your team front runners who beat everyone by 40 points but when you faced the league champions you were left on a donut (zero points)? All of these factors and more are considered when determining the rankings at each age level.
What teams at the top of every age group (U9, U10, etc.) share in common is that each of these teams competed in a regional semi-final, regional final and/or national championship tournaments. These games between conference champions allow us to see how these teams stack up and how these leagues stack up versus one another. An example of this is at the U11 level of AYF. In the semi-finals Worcester (Massachusetts) defeated Londonderry (New Hampshire) while New London (Connecticut) defeated CLCF (Rhode Island) in a game that started off close but ended up in a blowout 41-18. In the regional championship game New London blew out Worcester. In the rankings these teams are the top four teams in their age bracket (there are no odd aged teams in pop warner) and the rest of the age bracket is rounded out by other U11 teams. The question we would like answered is how would Worcester do in a game versus CLCF, we at Top 10 New England believe that CLCF would come out on top based on each teams performance versus New London. This match up should take place in August of 2022. Also in the conversation was the independent New Britain PAL Raiders who according to rumors played New London as tough as any team in the region, however we are still waiting on film from this game to determine the validity of this rumor. (After publishing this article it was reported by several sources that the score of the New London/New Britain PAL game was 26 -6).
Does your team come outside? Did you play any scrimmages against teams outside of your league competition? While scrimmages weigh less than actual games, scrimmages are vital to help see how teams from different leagues stack up against each other. Preseason scrimmages against out of league teams serve two purposes; they allow you to work out the kinks before the season starts and they allow you to keep your playbook hidden from in league rivals. We at Top 10 New England would also like to see more interleague games take place in the 2022 season. Often times teams have bye weeks and the kids and coaches really want to play. We hope we can serve as the intermediary between teams in different leagues and fill these bye week games with inter-conference or league play. If your team won't come outside and play the best from another league then don't be surprised if your team is left off of the list.
We at www.top10NewEngland.com are eager to get it right. We want to create a platform that every city in New England can refer to when trying to see how their team stacks up against the rest. Some league such as Eastern Massachusetts Pop Warner do a really good job of maintaining their website and leaving it public so that any one who is interested can see game results. Other leagues keep their game results and standings hidden and as a result their teams may not be recognized for their achievements throughout the season.
In any case we want to get it right, so if you feel your team isn't being respected by our platform feel free to send your season results and any film you may have to pickupgames@outlook.com we will review the film and update the rankings as appropriate.
www.top10NewEngland.com the number one media outlet for youth football in New England.
We are looking for the Top 10 Youth coaches in New England. If you feel that your coach deserves to be recognized for all of their hard work on and off the field email us at pickupgames@outlook.com with all the reasons why your child's coach should be recognized as a top 10 coach in New England for the 2021 season.
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