Justice for Sperry Youth Football

My name is Will Collier, I’m one of the coaches for the 5th and 6th grade Youth football team in my hometown of Sperry, Oklahoma. I’m raising funds to donate to the Sperry Youth Football Booster Club to cover legal fees to file suit against the KanOK Youth Football League (KYFL), KYFL Board of Directors, KYFL town representatives, and the Dewey Youth Football Booster Club for unlawfully and unethically colluding with each other to suspend the undefeated Sperry 5th & 6th grade team from competing in this season's playoffs. 

On October 30, 2022, members of the board of directors for the KanOK Youth Football League, Dewey Youth Football Booster Club, and KYFL town representatives colluded with one another to eliminate our undefeated team from competing in this season’s playoffs to increase their teams chances of winning.  The recommendation to the league to suspend our team came from a member of the Dewey Youth Football Booster Club board of directors, whose team and club stands to benefit the most from this action. 

The KYFL actions in maneuvering to suspend a team of 10-13 year olds because of an alleged “violation” of a poorly defined, minor rule within the league bylaws is not only morally reprehensible, but is also a violation of Oklahoma law.

The rule in question vaguely states “no third party filming allowed” with no definition of what is meant by "third party filming" and no disciplinary action associated with violating this “rule”. Members of the Dewey Youth Football Booster Club board of directors alleged that a Sperry Coach violated this rule by showing up to one of their games and filming portions of it, and recommended the coach and the entire team be suspended for it. All while ignoring the fact that one of their very own members has filmed every game vs opposing teams and posted them to the internet throughout the season with no penalty. As a result of this allegation, the KYFL board of directors recommended completely suspending the undefeated Sperry 5th and 6th grade team for the upcoming playoffs. The KYFL decided to hold a "town rep vote" to decide whether or not to suspend the entire team. The KYFL town representatives then voted to suspend our entire team, all within one Sunday and with absolutely no due process. 

The league bylaws list a specific disciplinary action for every single rule violation, except for the one they chose to suspend our team for. The punishments for rules violations include disqualification of players during games, ejection of coaches during games, and monetary penalties for willingly forfeiting games and for playing ineligible players. There is no punishment listed within the bylaws that allows for the suspension of an entire team for even one game. The bylaws also state that all disciplinary action will be decided by "board members only". No bylaw gives the KYFL the authority to hold a "town rep vote" to decide how to administer any penalty, let alone one that doesn't even exist within their own rules.

Upon being notified about the decision, the Sperry coach reached out to the KYFL and all of the town reps and volunteered to sit out of the playoffs and requested they not punish our children for something they had nothing to do with.  The KYFL ignored the request and moved forward with the decision to end our season.  I then wrote a letter to the KYFL board of directors requesting they reconsider eliminating a group of innocent children from being able to compete for something they exerted an insane amount of effort to earn over the past several months. The league response was that the "KYFL stands by the votes of the town reps and will NOT entertain an appeal".  

In a last ditch effort to get our team reinstated,  I retained an attorney, a letter was then sent via certified mail to the KYFL President and via email to the league Secretary. The letter requested reinstatement by close of business today, November 03, 2022.  The letter stated if our team is not reinstated by the deadline, KYFL will face a lawsuit.  We have tried reasoning with those who refuse to be reasoned with. The KYFL, KYFL Board of Directors, and the KYFL town reps have now passed on 3 different opportunities to reverse the decision and it's clear that they have no intention of doing what's right.

The KYFL is based in Dewey, OK and it's President is the head coach of the Dewey 5th and 6th grade team. The Dewey 5th and 6th grade team has only lost one game this season (to us).  As a result of our elimination, Dewey is now the top seed in the playoffs, and by no coincidence, after swiftly building new brackets with our team removed, Dewey is now hosting playoff games they would not have otherwise been hosting. The Dewey Youth Football Booster Club will now be able to collect gate fees and concession fees (our booster club’s primary source of fund raising) for highly attended playoff games they were not scheduled to host and the very board members and President of the booster club who's member initially suggested ending our season as a punishment will directly benefit monetarily from these actions. 

As a result, the Sperry Youth Football Booster Club will lose a substantial amount of money in net revenue from gate fees and concession fees of the playoff games Sperry was scheduled to host as the top seed. KYFL has been in violation of it’s bylaws all season by ignoring their own rule requiring them to pay the hometown team $500 for each forfeit. Sperry teams have been willingly forfeited to 4 times this season and numerous times over previous seasons without compensation from KYFL. 

This lawsuit will seek restitution of all money owed to the Sperry Youth Football Booster Club for all retroactive forfeiture fees, lost gate fees/concessions revenue for any games not played at Sperry that were scheduled to be, and additional damages incurred by our town, our youth, and our football booster club due to the immoral and illegal actions of the KYFL, it's board of directors, the Dewey Youth Football Booster Club, and the KYFL town representatives.  

Unfortunately, nothing can replace the experience of playing in the championship game for these kids, but we will not stand by and just let this all happen without consequence, it's time to hold these adults accountable!

I have racked my brain a million times and just cannot believe this is even an issue in children’s athletics. I try to turn every situation into a learning experience for my kids and as I sat and thought about how I’m going to tell my child that every late night practice, every sprint, every injury, every sacrifice he and his teammates made this season is being discredited by a group of self serving adults, I got frustrated enough to stand up and fight for these boys because they can't fight this fight for themselves. 

The lesson for our team is this: When someone attempts to disqualify you, rather than compete against you, it is important that you not submit to rules being unfairly administered and that you stand up for yourself and your teammates and fight. They’ve earned the right to COMPETE for this championship. They want to COMPETE for this championship, they don't want anything handed to them, they EARNED EVERY WIN! These kids have loved and fought for each other all season long, they’ve been the hungrier team all season long, they aren’t any more athletic than the other teams, they just worked harder and went undefeated as a result.  Every kid on our team played substantial minutes in every single game this year and contributed to the team's overall success. Hard work should pay off!

This is the last year of youth football for the boys in the photo above, some will never play competitive football again. This group of kids has never won a championship before. They have been eliminated by Dewey in the playoffs each of the past 2 seasons.  This season they decided to work harder than they ever have and beat Dewey 26-6 during the regular season. They've had their eyes set on November 12th and the Championship game for a final shot at beating the team that eliminated them in back to back seasons and they absolutely did not deserve to have that experience taken away from them by a group of weak, selfish adults! 

100% of any funds raised will go directly to the Sperry Youth Football Booster Club to be used to file suit against the KanOK Youth Football League, the KYFL board of directors, KYFL town representatives, and the Dewey Youth Football Booster Club. Any remaining funds will be used to buy the boys a Championship ring that shows their undefeated record, a field trip for the team, and go towards replacing as much of the club's old, worn out equipment as possible for the youth athletes in Sperry to use for years to come. 

We care FAR more about raising awareness to this situation than what we do about raising any money, we tried everything possible to allow the league to avoid any of this by letting our boys compete in the playoffs and they chose not to, so please SHARE SHARE SHARE this!

GO PIRATES!!!