Hello GBFL parents,

As we move into the 2015 season, GBFL would like to inform you of some exciting changes for GBFL. Continuing the tradition, the past few years have seen quite a few improvements and changes to the league from using the turf GHS field, having combined practices for the Younger and Older leagues, the first Green and Gold games to reintroducing a GBFL team to the Border Wars tournament. We continually look for ways to strengthen the foundation that we are building for future Greenwood High School teams.

What we found as part of our past games against other leagues and with Border Wars is that our players and parents really enjoyed playing against other schools/teams. We as a league also benefited as we could further develop position specific concepts, standardize play calls and teach safer techniques. If we partner these items with always trying to maximize our reach and league size, we have found a new opportunity for GBFL to pursue for the 2015 year.

Below are the initial details of the changes and we will have a Parent/Membership meeting on Tuesday May 12, 2015 at 8:00pm to further explain and answer any questions you may have on these changes. We picked this date and time to reduce possible conflicts due to other spring sport or other activities.

  • GBFL will become part of the Central Indiana Bantam Football League for the 2015 season.
  • GBFL will form teams for Rookie, Younger League and Older League age players will all be included. Initial estimates show 2-3 for Younger and Older leagues and 1 for Rookie
  • Based on this we will carry 17-20 players per team, with participation guidelines to be enforced as we have in the past for GBFL
  • We will tier players as part of tryouts as we have the past few years
  • Teams will be evenly structured as we have in the past with equal numbers of each tier
  • We will field a Green, Gold and White team, we will discontinue the team names (NFL, NCAA)
  • Games will be hosted at Greenwood School fields and also will involve 3-4 away games based on the number of CIBFL teams. In 2014 the south division included Triton Central, Indian Creek, Brown County
  • We will continue with our annual Green and Gold game for grade based team “friendly” games

Benefits

  • Allows GBFL to take better advantage of competition opportunities at the same league price
  • Expands on the “Greenwood Way” concept for our league
  • Creates a better environment to teach our players how to recognize offenses and defenses that are not similar to Greenwood. This will tremendously help when the players arrive at the middle and high school levels

Challenges

  • This is a change for GBFL, with any change there will be bumps in the road to be worked through as they present
  • Playing other leagues requires us to be prepared both as a league to host other leagues as well as enforce consistency with officials, other coaches, etc

Please plan to attend the parent meeting if you have questions. We want GBFL to continue to provide a safe, competitive and enjoyable for all of our children. After this meeting we will update gbfl.org with registration information.