The City of Virginia Beach has a long history of supporting and providing outstanding youth athletic programs for our children, including youth tackle football. The tackle football leagues in Virginia Beach have a long and storied tradition in our community. These leagues have instilled in our children important values and skills that they cannot learn anywhere else.

The leagues also have a history of producing outstanding football players and teams. The players who participate regularly go on to play for Virginia state high school championships, Division 1 football programs, and, on occasion, NFL football teams.

It is easy to see that those players who were given an opportunity to participate in Virginia Beach tackle football leagues have gone on to achieve enormous success. These players continue to state that a significant part of their success is attributable to the youth football leagues they started in and that were organized and run through the City and coached by the volunteer recreation associations.

Despite these numerous success stories, the Virginia Beach Recreation Department has recently decided to downgrade the City’s 9-13 year-old tackle football programs to a “Level 2” sport, effectively eliminating in some circumstances the chance for these children to play tackle football. These youth programs are often the only entry point for kids to learn and develop skills to prepare them for junior high school and high school programs. This downgrade will prevent our youth from learning the game properly and may force some of the neighborhood associations to drop their programs completely.

I am signing this Petition today to respectfully request that the Virginia Beach Recreation Department reconsider its decision and ask that it keep tackle football as a Tier 1 sport in Virginia Beach. I support Virginia Beach as a proud football town. The changes made by the Recreation Department in no way benefit the citizens of Virginia Beach, particularly its youth.