New Wichita Recreation & Public Schools partnership signals major changes to a beloved 60-year Wichita tradition.
by Bonita Gooch/The Community Voice
Key Points:
- Partnership between Wichita Park and Recreation and Wichita Public Schools will transform Junior League Football.
- Starting in 2025, players will be assigned to teams based on high school attendance areas.
- Existing team organizations will be eliminated, and teams will be connected to area high schools.
There’s probably not a longer-running or more beloved tradition in Wichita’s African-American community than Junior League Football. It’s an institution started by Alvin “Pappy” Allen in 1964 to give youth in the community an opportunity to play organized football.
No other community-based program has impacted more youth in Northeast Wichita. For some families, the impact is four generations deep, and the team loyalty is unbreakable. If your dad was a Bulldog, you’re a Bulldog, and his dad was probably a Bulldog too.
Junior League Football is a family and community thing. Moms lend their support as “team mothers” or cheer coaches, the girls join in as cheerleaders, and the community shows up for socialization, support and often a fairly competitive game.
That culture will make a big shift because of a new partnership between the Wichita Park and Recreation Dept. and Wichita Public Schools. The partnership, announced earlier this month, has a two-year phased implementation plan beginning with the 2024 football season.
In the first year, the partnership moves junior league games from city fields to WPS turf fields.
It’s the second-year reorganization plan that shakes things up with a shift from the current “strong-organization” structure.
Wichita, get ready because storied teams like the Colts, Cowboys and Bulldogs will be replaced with teams named and affiliated with each of Wichita’s high schools.
2024 Season
Everyone we interviewed is excited about the plans for 2024.
After three years playing on modified soccer fields in South Wichita, decades of noticeable decline at Barry Sanders Field and unfulfilled promises for the fields and facilities at Glen Dye (formerly Grove) Park, the eight-game season will predominantly be held on WPS turf fields with Thursday night games still played at Barry Sanders Field.
According to Reggie Davidson, superintendent of recreation for the City of Wichita, the league will finally have “a true football environment.”
Moving to WPS fields gives the league access to scoreboards and lights. Fans will have bleachers, which are positioned – to the joy of coaches – an adequate distance from the team.
Coach Ulysses “Pops” DeShazer, who’s worked with the league for 33 years, is excited Wichita Junior League Football will finally play on fields similar to those suburban teams have had for years.
“We’ve been asking for this for a while,” said DeShazer, who’s pleased by this change. However, he’s not thrilled with some of the changes proposed for 2025.
2025 Season
In fall 2025, Wichita Park and Recreation will “transform” the Wichita Junior League Football program. Players will be assigned to teams based on where they live and how that team aligns with WPS high school attendance areas.
For seventh- and eighth-grade students, the league becomes a quasi-middle school sports league, with students playing at the middle school they attend.
The league will still be under the jurisdiction of Wichita Park and Recreation. WPS will provide mentors and tutors to support the player’s academic success.
Another change: the middle school Junior League coaching staff will be paid versus using volunteers.
The focus on academics is similar to the WPS Middle School Challenge program that ran from 2017 to 2019, but didn’t return after COVID.
With the league and teams’ support, the successful Middle School Challenge program used participation in football as a “carrot” to improve players’ academics, attendance and behavior in school. It’s a level of accountability that’s missing in the current league structure.
“They had to do well in school, keep their grades up, to be able to play,” said Dr. William Polite, director of equity, diversity & accountability for WPS and founder of the Middle School Challenge Program. “That was my biggest thing. A kid could be the worst kid in the district and score five touchdowns and be the biggest hero.”
Polite says this additional accountability supports gains beyond middle school with the program preparing students for the rigors of football and academics in high school and beyond.
“In high school, some of our best players don’t even touch the field,” says Polite. “They don’t have the grades, they don’t understand accountability, the parents don’t understand accountability and they’re playing catch up.”
The new arrangement also helps level up WPS with surrounding districts like Derby, Andover, Goddard and Maize that have structured and competitive middle school football programs.
In addition, Davidson says having players who have been playing together a couple of years in middle school then feeding into high schools will help strengthen Wichita City League teams. It’s another advantage schools in neighboring communities have had.
The End of a Tradition
Not only will seventh and eighth graders be assigned to teams based on WPS high school attendance areas. In 2025, the new plan calls for ALL Junior League players to be assigned that way, from first grade up.
Existing team organizations will no longer exist. Instead of the Colts, the Trojans, the Cowboys or any of the other six organizations, the teams will be connected to area high schools with all players living in the schools’ designated attendance areas.
Coaches for the first- through sixth-grade teams will still be volunteers and existing coaches are encouraged to volunteer. However, volunteering within the new structure doesn’t mean you can bring your team with you.
As an example, if you sign up to coach for a team that feeds into the East High feeder pattern, your team must be composed totally of students who live in East High’s attendance area.
So, not only the organizations are gone, but so are their existing teams.
It’s a whole new day and a whole new way.
Wichita District 1 Councilman Brandon Johnson says the new structure is modeled after successful programs across the country and will shift the focus from building strong organizations to building our youth.
“That’s what Junior League Football is supposed to be about,” says Johnson. “The focus overall will be to empower our children to be great athletes and great students as well.”
Currently, he says, the focus is too much on winning. Organizations focus on building strong winning teams – and youth who may not be as great athletes, but show up and do the work, don’t get an opportunity to play.
“Coaches need to coach,” says Johnson.“They need to teach the fundamentals and help develop good athletes and not just focus on the stars.”
Davidson says this is what he’s hearing from parents.
“Parents wanted to make sure that kids had a good opportunity to play the sport, learn the sport, and be in an environment where it’s conducive for them to do that,” said Davidson. “This is what we’re trying to do with this, create an environment that’s going to help support the kids to be able to have a good experience moving forward.”
The Opposition
Initially, DeShazer says, the complete partnership plan for 2025 wasn’t presented in the news.
“They just told us about the middle school program and playing at the high school fields,” he says.
Once coaches, families and players develop a full understanding of the plan, he expects an uproar.
“They’re breaking up our community,” says DeShazer. “You have grandpas and daddies and sons coaching in an organization; you got families in there. You’re taking away family to strengthen the high schools. You’re taking away the community, you’re taking away tradition, but you still want us to work for it.”
Larry Allen, a former Junior League coach whose father started the league 60 years ago and understands the entire 2025 plan, says, “The problem is they’re trying to do this without working with us.”
Both Allen and DeShazer are in agreement with the middle school league program but don’t understand why changes in the first-through-sixth-graders’ program has to include alignment with WPS attendance patterns and the elimination of the existing organizations.
“They say they’re going to have mentors,” says Allen. “But who are these mentors?”
Both feel strongly about having Black men involved with leading and mentoring young Black athletes, many of whom don’t have a Black male role model in their lives.
“We’re more than coaches,” says Allen.
Johnson hopes great coaches from existing organizations will continue to be a part of the new program. However, Johnson, Allen and DeShazer agree, all current coaches aren’t great role models.
“All of them aren’t modeling great sportsmanship,” says Johnson, who says he’s seen coaches arguing, in fact fighting, with referees.
Interim Year
The new structure and the elimination of the current strong organizational structure is a year out, which allows time for working out any kinks in the new programming, and for finding a way the existing program might be able to survive in the new structure.
Allen suggests some teams might walk away and begin their own league. Johnson and Davidson hope otherwise and that what’s best for the kids will prevail.
Maybe, there’s a meeting point, in the middle of the road, where everyone has a win.
This article was republished here with the permission of: The Community Voice