Sounds like you had a bad experience. Sorry. You will need to be released by your current PopWarner League in order to go to another PopWarner team within your region. Due to where we are at in PopWarner, I am not sure the new team can add you to their roster. I would check on that immediately prior to taking your child out.

There are city leagues in every town that plays football, you may check there as an alternative to PopWarner. The rules are different though so acquaint yourselves with that first. You will also not get a refund from your PopWarner League since it is so far in the season. Again, your league may be different.

Can I recommend that you talk to the coach one on one or within a small group of people that can be neutral? We are coaches of a team as well as parents on 3 other teams and I know the balance is hard. I know that when there are concerns, we try to call them out immediately and move on with the season. No hard feelings, because this is little kid football - that is it.

I hope you work out your situation with your coaching staff. It will be character building for your child as they will see that things can be worked out and it will build trust that seems to be lacking within the organization. Good luck!

Thank you so much for posting. It is great advice and unfortunately, I have done all this. The head coach is now suspended on a SOP violation and my son has gone from being one of the most actively played kids to sitting on the sidelines during games and practices. Yesterday I watched him sit there for 1.5 hours out of the 2 hours set aside for practice. When I go to the higher ups, they tell me to talk to the head coach, the head coach tells me he lost his drills. I have watched my son during these drills if it losing is taking your man down and blocking him then yes, I guess he lost em all. It's just downright filthy play and unsportsmanship conduct. The character building has turned into self confidence issues for him at this point. He is now doubting himself and is so confused. All I do is reassure him and say to keep giving it his best every chance he has. I just can't wait for this season to be over, it is our first year and I am really disappointed.

Thanks again for just letting me vent, :) whew, it felt great! haha

I'm sorry as well to hear of your poor experience with your league. I've run into a few 'questionable' coaches in our Pop Warner league as well. I won't address the switching of leagues because your first responder was correct, probably too late after the regular season starts. What I will answer is how you can talk to your son about it. Every sport has a downfall somewhere downt he line. Whether it be a bad call, an unruly player from the other team or unfair/unjust coaching. Believe it or not these are character builders as well. I coach 11-13 yr old boys and tell them all the time: Football is not a game of positives. It is a game of negative and it is up to you to change them into a positive. A bad snap (my son is a center and a defensive tackle) can turn into a jailbreak run for a touchdown. A misread play can turn into a better one if you make the proper adjustments. Your son's unfortunate experience should not detour him into thinking that all coaches are like this. My son's coach from last year coached as if he was running an NFL program. 9-11 yr old cannot remember a book of 21 plays just for offense! This year he actually knew more plays than his teammates and was able to tweek a few that we do from his experience last year. Your son, as hard as it seems, will learn to adjust and realize that good things come to those with patience. My suggestion to keep his mind on football until next season starts is to maybe find an indoor league (we have one here locally) to play during the off season. Or just get a group of his former teammates to play at the park. Good luck and don't ever give up!