Welcome to the Plainfield Saints!
We are a youth football and cheerleading program who participates in the Chicagoland Pop Warner League.
We accept children from 6 years old up to 13. We have an age matrix for our teams that ensures like-size children are playing together.
Some age levels may have more than one team depending on registration numbers. Cheer teams will also depend on total registrations numbers.
League: The Plainfield Saints are a member of Chicagoland Pop Warner. Pop Warner football has been around since the inception of the league in 1929. Since then, participation has steadily increased to today's record numbers for children ages 5-14 (age determined as of July 31st of the current year).
Age Divisions: The Plainfield Saints offer Youth Tackle Football to players aged 6 – 13 years old. Players are placed into aged-based levels based on their age as of July 31, 2024, which is a Chicagoland Pop Warner requirement. Pop Warner is Unlimited weight, meaning all players can touch the ball and play any position. Players are not assigned to their level based by grade.
Player Assignments to Teams: We want all kids to have the ability to play football, so we do not hold tryouts to participate. There are several factors that go into the placement of a player into a team, including but not limited to, player experience, skill, attitude, effort, position-specific capability, safety of the player, and more. Levels with more than 1 team will be divided into Black, Gold, or White Teams based on an initial evaluation period. This will take place the first two weeks of the season, August 1 to August 11, 2024. This is a critical time frame, as coaches use this evaluation period to assess players. Team rosters will be finalized and communicated by August 12th and team practices will start August 14th. Each Head Coach will have a TeamSnap account, and the app will be used for all team communication.
From Season to Season, players will be evaluated and placed on a team based on coaches’ discretion for the duration of that current season. The following season, each player will be reevaluated and placed on the appropriate team. There is no guarantee that a returning player will be placed with the same coach and team the following season. Players can move up and down a division based on team needs, player development, and coaches’ discretion for the duration of the Season. (For example, Player A is on a 10U D3 team for the current year and then the following year he can be selected to play on an 11U D2 team.) Once rosters are announced for the season, no players can be moved to or from another team. Age Levels with multiple teams will be put into different Divisions- Division 2 (D2) or Division 3 (D3).
D2 Teams (Black Team) – This is a higher level of play geared towards more experienced players with the chance of playing in a Regional Championship and the opportunity to move on to the National Championship in Florida. Chicagoland Pop Warner designates teams to Division 2 based on their past performance, returning players and coaching staff.
D3 Teams (Gold & White Teams) – This level is a competitive level that is geared towards developing athletes with less experience, newer rosters, and newer coaching staff with the chance of playing in a Regional Championship.
Practice
We typically begin practice August 1 and have 3 full weeks prior to the school year starting.
We currently practice at the Plainfield Central High School, and occasionally we will practice at Aux Sable Middle School. Practice times and field locations will be sent out by coaches.
Football will practice every week day (M-F) for 3 weeks from 6:00pm-8:00pm (depending on the High School schedule). The first week of practice is an important week, as football players must have 10 hours of conditioning and fundamentals practice before then can practice full contact.
Cheer will also begin practice on August 1, every week day (M-F) through labor day from 6:00pm-8:00pm.
Practices are held at various Plainfield school locations, and may be inside or outside depending on the weather.
Once school starts, our practices drop to 3 times per week.
Dates will vary based on each team. All information will be given at the parent meeting.
Player Evaluations
Player Evaluations will take place during the first two weeks of practice. Players will participate in drills with their own age group while being evaluated by the coaches. Coaches will evaluate the players over the course of several days and assign players to their respective team. Each age group that has two teams will have a D2 team and a D3 team. Coaches will communicate the practice schedule for the coming days and season separately.
Games
Our game schedule is typically 8 games, one each weekend beginning the last weekend of August.
We will typically have 4 home games and 4 away games.
The away games can be anywhere in our Chicagoland Pop Warner conference and we won’t know that schedule until just before games begin (this is due to teams finalizing after our certification day).
Our home games have been played at Plainfield High School on their state of the art Turf field.
Games can be scheduled on Saturdays or Sundays. All home games will be on Sundays.
On game day, usually the youngest team plays first, and oldest last with some exceptions with scheduling.
Away weekends, our teams may go in different directions, but we strive for our teams to travel together, we are at the mercy of pop warner and other teams on away games.
Competitions and Exhibitions
The Saints Cheer teams will participate in at least 2 exhibitions/competitions depending on the division/squad.
The instructional level will participate in the Princess Gala. All squads will participate at the conference and regional competitions, and squads at the competitive level have the chance to qualify for Nationals in Orlando, FL.
Those advancing past the regional level will be responsible for funding any associated competition, travel and accessory costs.
We look forward to meeting you!
