Equi-Draft

Elk River Youth Football Association

2008 Drafting Procedures and Evaluation Process

EVALUATIONS: will be a three part system using last years coaches evaluations, this years coaches evaluations and Coach Cross’ staff evaluations.

All players will be required to be evaluated at this time including all coaches’ kids            

Coach Cross and his staff (along with the youth coaches of each grade) will set up combine stations such as 40-yard times, shuttle runs, pass & catch drills, etc. and grade each player as they go through the combine.  The combine evaluation forms will use the same scoring system as the 2007 end of the year evaluations that were completed by each team’s coaching staff.

1                    Weakness

2                    Below Average

3                    Average

4                    Above Average

5                    Exceptional

Along with the independent evaluations from Coach Cross and his staff, copies of the evaluations from the 2007 season will be available to all drafting coaches.  (Reminder:  These evaluations are confidential and are not to be discussed with parents or players)

All data will be gathered and assessed in group discussions and players will be assigned a category based on all information gathered. This information will be given to head coaches for drafting purposes.

DRAFT PROCEDURES:

The Goal of this proposed draft process is to make the teams as even with talent and size as possible.

All kids will be eligible to draft. The coaches kids will be that team’s first draft picks in there respective ranking category.

Example:         if a head coach’s son is ranked in the 5 category he will be the team’s first pick when that team drafts this group of players, same with his assistant coach’s kids and their category. Coaches with assistants that do not have kids in the program will draft first to balance teams.

If majority of coaches are unable to agree where a coach’s son should rank or any other player, the league director or a non-coaching board member overseeing the draft will make the decision.  That decision is final.

Coach and assistant coach’s sons will be ranked the same as the other players.  Be fair; rank your child and the other coach’s kids in a fair manner.

Using the weigh-ins from the combines, separate the eligible ball carrying players from

 the heavy, non-eligible ball carrying players.

1.      Rank all players eligible to carry the ball into one of 5 groups

2.      Rank all heavy, non-eligible to carry the ball into one of 5 groups

With the combination of player evaluations and combine evaluations, rank all players

 from 5 to 1.  All players with 5’s will be ranked, all players with 4’s will be ranked, all

players with 3 are ranked, etc.  Repeat this process for the heavy, non-eligible to carry the

ball group.

Kids will then be drafted by category in both the eligible and non-eligible groups. Each category will be drafted until all players are taken. The next group will then be drafted based on the same criteria starting where the next pick begins.

Example: 4 teams drafting all of the kids in the 5 category. This category has 13 kids ranked as 5’s. Team 1has been determined to draft 1^st and has a coaches kid ranked as a 5. This kid then becomes the first pick for team one, the next team then drafts in order determined until all players in this category are drafted. The next team in order after the last player in the 5 category is taken then selects first from the 4 category. If the coaches kids fall in this category they become the teams first selections until all kids in this category are taken. This procedure follows until all ball eligible players are taken.      

DRAFT ORDER & PROCESS

-                                             Determine draft order

-                                             Teams will draft until last team, then draft reverses

-                                             (For example, if 5 teams, draft order will be 1,2,3,4,5,5,4,3,2,1,1,2 …)

-                                             Coaches must draft within the ball carrying category until players have all been drafted.  Then drafting of the non-eligible ball carrying takes place

-                                             The team that had the last pick for the first category (ball carrying) will now get the 1^st pick of the non-eligible category (Draft order reverses

2006 Elk River Youth Football Equi-Draft

This year the Elk River Youth Football will conduct a Equi-draft for all teams from 4^th to 8^th Grade.  The Equi-Draft is a blind draft which uses the Coaches ratings from the previous year.

The process is explained below:

Player Rankings

Each 4^th to 8^th grade player participating in the 2006 season will be ranked by his/her 2005 head coach.  While those head coaches may solicit input from their respective assistant(s), it is not a requirement.

I will provide to each 2005 head coach a simple ranking sheet, via e-mail, that they will complete and return directly to me.  Once received, these completed forms are to be considered “confidential”, and will not be shared with anyone other than current ERYFA board members with a “need to know”.

The ranking sheets will be simple in nature and will solicit basic information for each player which will include the following:

·         Ranking of overall skill and talent (1-5, with 1 being lowest and 5 being highest)

·         Player’s assigned/most natural offensive position in 2005

·         Any comments that the coach would like to provide

Team Formation Process

Preparation Step

Once 2006 registration has been held and the completed ranking sheets have been received, I will generate spreadsheets to capture the pertinent information obtained through registration (i.e. player weight, is this a “new” player?, etc.) and that which was included in the player ranking sheets.  The spreadsheets will also allow an easy mechanism to capture the eventual assignment of player to team.  An example spreadsheet follows:

Step #1

Each player will be assigned a number – typically, I’ll sort the spreadsheet alphabetically, first name gets #1, second name #2, etc.  A card will be generated that includes the assigned number, weight classification (heavy, light, or other), ranking, position, and an indication of whether or not the player is “locked” as a coach’s child.  The Player’s name will not appear on the card.  All player cards will be combined into a pile of “available” players.  Note that any “new” player’s card (those not ranked) will be marked with a ranking of 3 – middle of the road – by default.  An example follows

Step #2
Cards indicating that a player is “locked” will be removed from the “available” pile and separated into “team” piles based on team number.  Rank, weight, and position are not considered for this step.

Step #3
Any remaining cards indicating “Heavy” will be removed from the “available” pile and placed randomly, and equally, among the “team” piles started in Step #1.  Rank and position are not considered for this step.

Step #4
Any remaining cards indicating “Light” will be removed from the “available” pile and placed randomly, and equally, among the “team” piles started in Step #1.  Rank and position are not considered for this step.

Step #5
Remaining cards in the “available” pile will be sorted based solely on the associated ranking (1 through 5).

Step #6
Cards will be removed from the sorted “available” pile and placed randomly, and equally, among the “team” piles started in Step #1.  This ensures that each team is assigned an equal number of 5’s, 4’s, 3’s, 2’s, and 1’s from the remaining players.

Step #7
As all cards have been allocated to a “team” pile at this point, each team pile will be evaluated and “shuffled” as required (with the exception of that team’s “locked” players) to ensure that each “team” pile:

·         Has the same number of players (or as close as possible)

·         Has the same number of “Heavy”

·         Has the same number of “Light”

·         Has the same number of 5’s, 4’s, 3’s, 2’s, and 1’s

·         Has at least 2 players at each skill position (QB, RB, Receiver, etc)

Step #8
A “sanity check” will be performed to ensure that any siblings in the program have been assigned to the same team.  If not, appropriate “swaps” will be made keeping the end result of Step #7 in tact.

Step #9
The resulting “team” piles will be used to populate the team assignment portion of the spreadsheets generated in the Preparation Step.  These spreadsheets now contain all information necessary to produce the team rosters, and will result in well-balanced, equitable teams.

Follow-Up Steps

As we will most likely receive late registrations following the completion of the equi-draft, the following rule set will be applied.

Any team having fewer players than other teams at a particular grade level will be assigned the first late registration.  Any additional late registrations will be assigned in team number order (Team #71, Team #72, Team #73, etc.) in the order received.

All ranking sheets and cards will be destroyed – the spreadsheets will be the only data repository.

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