By Kyle LoJacono
Three years ago, the Pasco Police Athletic League (PPAL) had 11 teams and the most players participating in the near 40-year-old organization. Now PPAL is just trying to survive with its six remaining teams.
League director Tim Couet said he is working to merge PPAL with the Mid Florida Football and Cheerleading Conference to try and save the league.
“It would be a shame if there weren’t opportunities for our local kids to play football and cheer,” Couet said. “PPAL has been around for a long time and we’re looking at the best options to keep it around for another 30 years.”
The first team to leave PPAL in recent years was the New Tampa Wildcats, which opted to join Pop Warner Football after the 2009 season.
The Lutz Chiefs joined the Tampa Bay Youth Football League (TBYFL) in 2010 after nearly 30 years with PPAL. Additionally, more than half of the players and adult leaders from the Trinity Mustangs split off to form the South Pasco Steelers, which also joined TBYFL.
PPAL has also lost three of its former member clubs to Mid Florida within the last year, including the Dade City Pirates, Wesley Chapel Bulls and West Hernando Cougars.
The Pirates were the most recently team to leave. The departure stemmed from the club being moved to Stanley Park in Lacoochee three years ago from its original home at John S. Burks Memorial Park. Couet said PPAL asked the east Pasco County team to move because the Lacoochee site could accommodate more spectators.
However, Pirates director Britt Dorsett said the move reduced the number for children who could attend the games.
“Last year we could barely field a full team for each game,” Dorsett said. “We only had 60 kids total last year. In September, it was everything they could do just to finish the games with such low numbers. And forget being competitive. There just aren’t enough kids from that area to form teams with a sufficient amount of players in all the age groups.”
The remaining PPAL squads include the Land O’ Lakes Gators, Zephyrhills Bulldogs, New Port Richey Buccaneers, Crews Lake Cowboys, Hudson Cobras and Trinity Mustangs.
Couet chalks up the movement to competition for players during a bad economy.
“It’s like capitalism,” Couet said. “You always have competition to keep players because there are other leagues out there. Families are tightening their belts and there aren’t as many kids playing or cheering right now either.
“I’ve always said if parents find something better for their kids, then they should do it,” Couet continued. “Options are a good thing. As long as there are options for the kids.”
Along with that competition, PPAL has also struggled deciding whether or not to have a play-down rule, which allows players who are very small for their age to play in a younger age division to help reduce the risk of injury. Couet said Chiefs and Steelers left the league in part because they eliminated play downs, which has since been brought back.
Couet said if there is a merger with PPAL and Mid Florida, the Pasco league wants to remain as an independent division within the larger league.
“(PPAL) wanted to join us but they want to stay intact as a league and oversee their district as a PPAL district of Mid Florida,” said Mid Florida president James Hogan. “We just get teams together and organize the league. We don’t have any control on how they operate. The individual organizations control themselves and we didn’t see a need to add a third party.”
Couet said the desire to maintain some level of control goes back to the long history of PPAL. Pasco resident John Short helped form the league in 1973 when he teamed up with the New Port Richey Police Department.
“There is a lot of history with us in this county,” Couet said. “We have parents who grew up playing and cheering in PPAL and now their kids are doing the same thing. We want to make sure we have some control over what our teams do so they are here for the current players’ kids to play in.”
Couet said the league is also making changes to improve PPAL in case it remains independent.
“We’ve changed the entire governing board to people who want to be more involved,” Couet said. “That was one of the biggest complaints is we didn’t have enough communication with the teams. Before I got here three years ago the thinking was help the teams, but don’t run them. We’re more hands on now.”
Couet added the board is also doing stricter background checks so only good people are involved with coaching the kids.
For more information on Mid Florida, visit www.midfloridafootball.org. To learn about PPAL, visit www.pascopal.org.
