2025 Tackle Football

Welcome! We are looking forward to our 5th season in the Illinois 8 Youth Football League and we hope to have your athlete a part of our tackle football program.

Practices

Our tackle football teams practice 5 days a week at Manhattan Junior High typically from 6-8pm starting mid to late July until school resumes, then we go down to 3 days - Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  There will occasionally be practice days added on an as needed basis. Once school starts, we will try not to practice on Fridays because we strongly encourage our players to go to their future high school's football games to show support for their future program; this is a great way for the players and parents to be fans now, not just when they get to high school.

Games

We host our home games at Lincoln-Way West High School.  Each team will play 8 games throughout the season with the first game being 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. As for Labor Day, we do typically take the weekend off of games; however, in case there is a rained out game prior to Labor Day, we will use this weekend to make up for that rained out game.

Playoffs and Pro Bowl

At the end of the regular season, we will start playoffs with hopes of making it all the way to the Super Bowl, which is typically at the end of October.  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

Dynamite level for ages 5 to 6 is an instructional level for tackle football. The Dynamite players practice with SLW tackle; however, they play 10 minutes Offense, 10 minutes Defense, halftime, 10 minutes Offense, 10 minutes Defense before the SLW game. There are no playoffs for this level. SLW players may be asked to join the Dynamite level to fulfill the team of 7 to 9 players if needed.

Players who are between the ages of 6 to 14 will play on SLW, LW, JV, or Varsity - this depends on size 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 in order 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 other needed equipment will be provided EXCEPT the following. Please purchase these prior to the first practice.

girdle
mouthpiece
navy socks
cleats
practice jersey

If you have any questions, please contact any Board Member or email us at general@manhattanpatriots.com.