OUR MISSION AND VALUES
Exeter Seahawks Youth Football, Inc. is an independent, all volunteer, non-profit organization committed to providing a quality youth football program to students in grades 3-8.
We are dedicated to the instruction of football, teamwork, sportsmanship, and competition in a safe and respectful environment, while promoting personal responsibility, and offering participants an opportunity to enjoy all that is best about youth sports.
Everyone from the Board of Directors to each player's family should be aware of what the Exeter Seahawks program holds as their formative values.
Values:
1. SAFETY!
2. Respect and Personal Responsibility.
3. Participation and playing time.
4. Football instruction.
5. Competitiveness.
6. Organizational stability.
7. Political Correctness / Transparency.
Safety
Football is a contact sport that involves physical collision. Parents and/or Guardians must assume responsibility for placing players in the Seahawks program. The Seahawks representatives do their best to prevent the following: physical injury (by placing players in appropriate competitive situations, by providing equipment, by encouraging physical fitness and by providing instruction); environmental injury (such as sunburn, mosquito bites, etc. by practicing on established fields, by encouraging use of mosquito or tick repellants, etc.); and psychological injury (by encouraging team unity and focus on the value of the game and not necessarily the win).
Respect and Personal Responsibility
In the long run, the players who continue playing football into the high school varsity level, and who do well beyond academic institutions are those who practice the easily comprehensible values of "respect and personal responsibility". Respect means that they will respect their parents, their coaches, they teammates, their opponents, and themselves. Personal Responsibility means they will accept personal responsibility for their conduct and will acknowledge the results appropriately (e.g., win or lose). We often summarize these values for young players as "pay attention and do your best"; that is all anyone can expect, and we DO expect it from our Seahawks athletes!
Participation and playing time
Within our organizational capability, the Seahawks enroll as many players as it can and do not employ wait lists through a numerical cap at registration (participation). Within each team, players are expected to spend more time on the field than the bench! To achieve that result, team sizes are very carefully considered in each season to reflect a balance of playing time and Safety.
Football instruction
We rely heavily on our coaches to implement our football program. We run a wing-T offense with latitude for coaches to improvise. Our practices are organized to minimize involvement of the head-in drills and scrimmages. In general we will emphasize football fundamentals (blocking, tackling, conditioning and teamwork), focus on good defense, and let natural talent take care of offense!
Competitiveness
Competitiveness means that we want all of our teams to have a chance to win and succeed in any particular game. It is not the same thing as winning "at all cost" and does not mean that we value competitiveness above all else. We simply believe that winning is a good thing: it motivates, it rewards, and it HELPS build a sense of worth and pride.
Organizational stability
Whatever values we hold or activities we promote, our organization needs to endure from season to season and to survive the normal stresses related to running a youth organization. Therefore, we cannot take on responsibilities so aggressive as to stress our volunteers beyond their limits. We need to try to "keep it simple, stupid" at all times.
Political correctness/Transparency
Finally, we must be in step with our community, we must make sense to that community, and we must be seen by that community for what we are! To further these values, we will attempt to be direct, clear, and forthright in our dealings, both internal and external.