JACKSON TWP — Formerly a member of the Parkway League, Seneca Valley's youth football program was rolling along.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck two years ago, the Parkway League decided not to play the following season.

So Seneca Valley went looking for a new home.

“We looked into the United Youth Football League, where a lot of teams from this area play,” SV youth Football president Chris Minton said. “But our numbers were too high. Not enough of our kids would be able to play.”

Seneca Valley's fifth-sixth grade football program has roughly 50 players. There are 168 players in the organization from kindergarten through eighth grade and 160 cheerleaders.

“Our motto is developing the kids,” Minton said of football. “We can't develop them if they're sitting on the bench.

“We have a varsity team, junior varsity teams, a seventh-eighth grade team playing in the Catholic League. We want our kids on the field.”

Seneca Valley wound up finding the Western Pennsylvania Youth Football League.

So have a lot of other organizations.

The WPYFL covers 2,977 square miles, 39 school districts and has 120 teams. Its teams play in regionalized divisions to cut down on travel.

Seneca Valley plays in the Class AAA Western Division with Baldwin-Whitehall, Montour, Trinity, Washington and West Allegheny.

“This league started out in Washington County in 2013,” WPYFL director Bill Spencer said. “There were four teams in the Trinity area, two in Washington, two in McGuffey.

“We pulled in six teams from the Mon Valley in 2015 ... It just mushroomed from there.”

Spencer spearheaded a movement to form the Pennsylvania Youth Football Council, which represents all 55 youth football leagues across the state. Its mission statement is: To create a dependable message of policies and procedures for all participants in youth football to provide a safer environment for all athletes.

The PYFC advises on rules and regulations to be adopted that will provide better education, training and improvement for administrators, commissioners, coaches, players, parents and guardians.

“It serves as a unified voice to fight legislation trying to ban youth football,” Spencer said. “I just ran with this concept. It took five or six months to locate all of the leagues.

“We're being proactive in terms of safety. We do heat acclimation like the high school teams do. Our coaches are educated. All 625 coaches in our league take a six-hour certification test. Nobody coaches without it.

“Parents are trusting the safety of football again,” Spencer added.

The WPYFL plays a “fifth quarter” after every varsity game. That is a 30-minute running clock that enables kids who didn't play in the regular game to get on the field in a competitive game atmosphere.

“I love that about this league,” Minton said. “No kid is left out. All of the coaches are well-trained. It's totally safe.”

Seneca Valley's youth program also offers a free flag football program in the spring to introduce kids to the sport.

“We use that as a recruiting tool, too,” Minton said. “If kids find they like it, they usually come back out in the fall.”

Seneca Valley High School head coach Ron Butschle likes the WPYFL's concepts. He likes the fact kids in the SV school district are getting on the field.

“I don't care where our young kids are playing, just that they're playing,” Butschle said. “If a kid isn't getting a positive experience when he first joins the organization, if he's never on the field, he's probably not going to stay with it.

“You don't know what a kid is going to become in terms of a football player as he grows. If hyat kid doesn't get the chance to get on the field and experience it early in his development, you'll never find out.”

Big youth numbers translate into a sizable varsity roster.

“If a kid likes it, he's gonna keep playing,” Butschle said. “Every young kid who puts on a uniform should get a chance to experience the game.

“This (WPYFL) does that.