Wayzata Plymouth Youth Football

How Teams are Formed

Learning to function as part of an effective team is a key learning goal of WPYF. The method for assigning teams varies among grades.

4th Grade team rosters may contain up to 18 players. Players are assigned to teams by elementary school whenever possible. Priorities are first to ensure that players play on teams with their classmates. If there is more than one team for a school, the teams will be grouped to ensure a balance of available coaches. If there are not enough kids from a school to make up a full team they'll be grouped with other players from a different school or schools.

5th Grade team rosters may contain up to 18 players. Players are assigned to teams by elementary school and by registration date whenever possible. Priorities are first to ensure that players play on teams with their classmates. If there is more than one team for a school, the teams will be grouped by registration input time and date. If there are not enough kids from a school to make up a full team they'll be grouped with other players from a different school or schools. 

6th, 7th & 8th Grade team rosters may contain up to 18 players for 6th grade and 22 players for 7th and 8th grades. Teams are formed via an "Equidraft" system.   Equidraft is a evaluation and selection process where the objective is to create teams that have an equal distribution of player talent on each team.

The Equidraft system at the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade level includes players from all public and private schools. During the first two days of practice all players are evaluated on several different skills; 40 yard dash, cone course, passing skills, running skills, receiving skills, blocking and tackling, willingness to be coached, and attitude. Each player is assigned a rating and made part of a single talent pool for each grade. After practice Tuesday evening the coaches distribute players among teams so that each team has comparably rated players.

Each head coach for each grade actively participates in both the evaluation process and in the selection process.  In order to further ensure an even distribution of player talent, once the teams rosters are determined, the teams are numbered and those numbers placed in a hat.  Coaches then "draw" their respective teams from the hat.  Once a team is "drawn" by a coach, that team is the coach's team for the year.

The Equidraft system allows for one head coach and one assistant coach per team to select their children for the team they will be coaching for the upcoming season. These selections are factored into the Equidraft selection process prior to the assignment of players to rosters.