By Matt Mauney | Associate Editor
The next crop of national high school, college and maybe even NFL stars are lacing up their cleats and strapping on their shoulder pads at Otis M. Andrews Sports Complex in Plant City this week.
That’s where the United Youth Football League (UYFL) National Championships are being held. The tournament, which features 110 youth football teams from 22 states ranging from ages six to 16, came to Plant City for the second straight year after a partnership with the Tampa Bay Sports Commission and Plant City Parks and Recreation.
The tournament began Dec. 2 and will conclude Saturday with the final championship games. A national cheerleading competition featuring 110 cheer squads will also be held in Hillsborough County Dec. 8 at the University of South Florida Sun Dome in Tampa.
A total of 140 teams registered for the UYFL tournament, with 110 actually making the trip down to Plant City, more than last year’s tournament, which drew 77 championship football teams and 22 bowl series teams.
The large field consisted of teams from Chicago, New York, Charlotte and Detroit, just to name a few. In that field, some of the best young football players competed on the Otis Andrews multipurpose fields, which were converted into six regulation football fields.
Several local team also got into the action, with the benefit of competing against some of the best teams in the nation without having to travel far to do it.
Local teams included two Plant City Dolphins teams — Mitey-Mites and Junior Midgets — two Plant City Eagles teams (Beesville) — Cadets and 15U — and the 10U Plant City Raiders, who will be playing for the national championship Friday.
Ron Maxwell, the president of the UYFL, said that many of the programs that are currently involved with the organization used to be involved with similar organizations, like Pop Warner, and that those organizations also have their national tournaments in Florida because the weather is conducive to it.
“We decided, rather than competing with those tournaments, lets go to the other coast and hold ours there, so we contacted the Tampa Bay Sports Commission and they’ve been great in setting us up here for the past two years,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell noted that Plant City had the ideal location they were looking for, close to Tampa and still not too far away from the Orlando attractions.
“It’s right off the highway and is just a perfect location,” he said.
Jack Holland, the director of Plant City Parks and Recreation, said that being able to provide the facilities for the UYFL national championship is a great thing for Plant City and adds a boost to the local economy.
“With the teams staying in hotels and going to the store and buying Gatorade or water and of course fuel, or going out to eat, it’s a huge impact to our community to help our local businesses,” Holland said.
When it comes to the facilities themselves, Maxwell said that he has been very pleased with Otis M. Andrews Park.
“It was basically a soccer complex that we turned into a football complex with the help of Plant City, who have been tremendous in helping us make this happen,” he said.