Are you ready for some football? The Butler Area Midget Football League certainly is.

The BAMFL kicks off its 2005 season Saturday with 10 exhibition games, involving every team in the league, all on the same field.

"We've never tried anything like this before," BAMFL vice president Steve Monteleone said. "But we wanted to add a week to the schedule to extend the season this year and this is what we came up with."

The league is billing the day as the Butler Area Midget Football League Jamboree. The first game begins at 8 a.m. The last game will conclude at 9 p.m.

The league's Mighty Mite Division for fourth graders and first-year fifth graders will play the first four games. The junior varsity - second-year fifth graders and sixth graders - begins play at 12:15 p.m.

The varsity teams - seventh and eighth graders - play the final three games of the day, beginning at 5 p.m.

"It's been a chore trying to piece it all together," said league president George "Red" Slater. "The big thing is making sure the concession stand is constantly staffed.

"We stand to make a dollar or two from that."

The league could use a dollar or two - or more. The BAMFL has 472 players in the league this year, shattering last year's record participation figure of 411.

Last year's figure blew away the previous record of 310 youngsters.

"Adding that Mighty Mite division has made such a difference," Monteleone said. "We just started that last year.

"The younger kids used to have to suit up on junior varsity and they'd only get to play the fourth quarter with a running clock. It wasn't fair to them since they were putting in as much practice time as the other kids."

Now, the Mighty Mites play their own games on Monday nights during the season.

"We got so many younger kids out in East Butler and Center Township that we had to form two Mighty Mite teams in those areas," Slater said.

The league had to dole out nearly $20,000 for equipment, including 100 additional helmets and sets of shoulder pads.

"We don't have a lot of money coming in and we only charge kids $25 to play football," Slater said. "We're proud of that."

The BAMFL also is different from most area midget football programs in that it has more than one team at each age group.

"We've got six teams per age group at junior varsity and varsity - and a lot of kids playing," Slater said.

Each game Saturday will have a separate 50-50 drawing. Chris and Kyle Rock, two young officials, will work the Mighty Mite games. Regular officials will work the other games.

"This should be quite a day," Monteleone said. "A lot of people will be coming and going. And a lot of people will see what our league is all about."