The Butler Area Midget Football League is undergoing a facelift of sorts.

All four head coaching positions at the varsity level have been opened up in an effort to attract more players for coming years.

Former Butler High School assistant coaches Hank Leyland and Ralph McElhaney — both with 30-plus years of coaching experience and former ties to the BAMFL — have returned to the circuit.

“I was involved with the league maybe 12 years ago and there were 500 players in it,” McElhaney said. “Guys like Harry Leyland, Red Slater and Greg Brown were stalwarts in the league for years and everyone was playing.

“Hank and I were asked to come back and help boost the numbers a bit. We have to compete for the kids now, with other leagues and other sports.”

Six years ago, the BAMFL had 600 players as football interest soared locally with the Steelers’ Super Bowl triumph over Seattle.

Last year, the league’s numbers were close to 300.

“Our sport has taken a bit of a hit with the concussion issue and our lack of success at the high school level for a long time,” BAMFL president Bob Greave said. “Now we’re trying to build it back up.”

Hank Leyland is vice president of the BAMFL with Bill Shultz and Matt Friel serving as secretaries.

Center Township’s Tim Ammon and East Butler’s George White resigned their head coaching positions after last season. Greave was Meridian’s head coach and agreed to resign during a recent board of directors meeting. The board decided to open up all four head coaching positions.

Greave said Butler City coach Randy Bowser plans to reapply for that position. All BAMFL coaches are volunteers.

“We used to only take coaching applications in-house,” Greave said. “Now we’re opening it up to anybody out there who’s interested in teaching kids football.”

The league plans to have all of the coaches teach the game the same way.

“We want to show consistency throughout the league with every coach, every team,” McElhaney said. “We want to get back to what the midget league has done for years — build a solid foundation for young football players.

“There’s about 25 people on the board and they are good people. A lot of them have been involved with the league for a while. They believe in it and want what’s best for it.”

One of those board members is Meridian assistant coach Chris Morrow, a former Butler linebacker coached by McElhaney and Leyland.

Morrow approached the two about coming back to the BAMFL.

“I’m 36 years old now and those guys are among my best friends,” Morrow said. “They’re great role models for kids and that’s why I asked them to rejoin us.

“They bring tremendous football knowledge and experience to the league.”

Anyone interested in applying for a BAMFL coaching position may visit the league’s website at bamfl.org and navigate to the “About the League’ and “Head Coaches’ to find an application.

Deadline to apply is June 1.

“We’d like to start reviewing the applications by then. We’re pushing the clock a little on this,” Greave said.

While the league has enough players to fill four teams, McElhaney is hopeful the circuit can someday return to six squads.

“If we have the kids, we’ll form the teams,” he said.