2026 Tackle Football

Welcome! We are looking forward to our 1st season in the River Valley Football League, and we hope to have your athlete as part of our tackle football program.

Practices

Our tackle football teams are allowed to practice five days a week beginning four weeks prior to the first game.  After the first game, four weekly practices are permitted.  We practice at Manhattan Intermediate School, typically from 6-8pm starting mid- to late-July.  A detailed practice schedule will be communicated as soon as possible.

Once school starts, we generally do not practice on Fridays because we strongly encourage our players to go to their future high school's football games.  This is a great way for the players and parents to be fans now, not just when they get to high school.  If your player’s coach decides to practice on Friday, usually due to weather-related cancellations during the week, this will be communicated as soon as possible.

Games

We host our home games at Lincoln-Way West High School.  Each team will play 7 or 8 games throughout the season with the first game in early August. Our official schedule will be released to us in June and the website will be updated to reflect the accurate game locations, dates, and times.

Playoffs

At the end of the regular season, we will start playoffs with hopes of making it all the way to the Super Bowl.  The season is usually completed by the first week of November.  Due to the nature of playoffs, we will not know dates and times of our games until the Monday/Tuesday leading into the week of the game. The week after the Super Bowl, some of our 8th grade players may be invited to play in the Pro Bowl Game where several players from each team in the league come together to make two teams and play a game against each other. This is on league invite only.

Levels of Play

Players between the ages of 6 and 14 will play on Super Lightweight, Lightweight, Junior Varsity, or Varsity levels – dependent on age and weight. While we would love to accommodate requests, we are limited to what the league will allow.

Camps

We will pass along dates for summer High School Camps that are available for your players.  These are not mandatory, but we can’t stress enough to get your child to the high school camps that apply to them to start building the player/coach relationship now. Local coaching staffs - especially the head coaches - are big supporters of the youth programs and are very interested in seeing your kids. If they are going to Lincoln Way West, please get them to LWW camps; if they are going to Providence, please get them to the Providence camps.

Extra Equipment to Purchase Outside Patriots

All equipment needed will be provided EXCEPT the following. Please purchase these prior to the first practice.  We generally coordinate the ordering of personalized practice jerseys, but these are at an additional cost.

mouthpiece
navy socks
cleats
practice jersey