(Friday, May 14, 2008)
Pop Warner Blog - Scholar Banquets Nationwide
Greetings from the National Office! Just a few weeks remain before the 48th Annual Pop Warner Scholastic Banquet arrives in Orlando, FL. Everyone in the office is working around the clock to make sure this one of the best banquets ever.
I have been lucky enough to travel around the country some this year to share in some of the Regional Scholastic festivities. Every year I am amazed of the growing number of scholars and the incredible things they do in their spare time. I met tremendous volunteers like Ida Mileham who spent countless hours finding door prizes for every Mid-American scholar, or Russ Hamilton of Southeastern Virginia who took time to work on beta testing roster software. In every town there is an Ida or a Russ who spend countless hours helping their Pop Warner programs. We all enjoy going to these Regional events because it gives us a chance to meet our scholars and volunteers and answer questions face to face.
I do get one question quite a lot this time of year and that is “Who will be coming to the Banquet to speak?” I am very pleased to announce that this year we have one of our best line-ups ever. Our guests this year include the 2007 NFL Reception Leader, Wes Welker, 5 time Pro-Bowler Troy Vincent, and one of the fastest men in the NFL, Pro-Bowler Joshua Cribbs.
We also have some outstanding guests that work behind the scenes in sports too, the proud owner of the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Voodoo, Rita Benson-LeBlanc will be attendance, as well as the man behind Operation Field Rescue on Fox Sports which turned a field of dirt and glass into a dream Pop Warner field in Philadelphia, Rick Horrow. Of course I don’t want to forget about our AFL and NFL Teams of the Year, but for those I will leave all of you guessing. It is an amazing line-up of award winners and we hope that you can be there in Orlando with us at the end of May.
Thanks again to all of our great volunteers and congratulations to all of our 2008 All-American Scholars. See you in Orlando
Sincerely,
Josh Pruce
National Director of Scholastics and Media Relations
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(Friday, February 7, 2008)
Pop Warner Blog - Scholar Edition & Around the Office
Greetings from the National Office! The National staff has just finished up the 2008 National Planning Meeting and in between attending the 8 regional meetings taking place in March and April, we are currently working away on various projects in preparation for the upcoming 2008 season!
On the Scholastics front, I am currently working on grading the 7,000+ scholastic applications that have been submitted by leagues across the country. This looks to be the largest class of All-Americans ever so make sure you check out popwarner.com on April 2, 2008 for the 2008 All-American lists. Also please note, the 2008 Scholar Forms are now available to download on popwarer.com. Stay tuned for more information on our award recipients and banquet information in the coming months.
Let me go around the office to tell you a bit more about what is going on here. In the office next to me, Sam Mutz, our National Football Commissioner is busy updating the 2008 National Rule Book and he is working closely with USA Football on implementing our brand new Football Coaching Education program. Next to Sam is Trevor Scholl, our new Recruiting and Marketing Coordinator, who is helping on to establish new leagues across the country. We are excited with many new prospects that look to be joining Pop Warner this year. Trevor is also working on compiling the 2008 Pop Warner Grant Programs and lending his technical expertise on Microsoft Excel by formulating our Scholar Lists for the website announcement..
Moving down the corridor we come to the office of Lisa Moroski, our National Cheer & Dance Commissioner, who is busy preparing the curriculum for the 2008 Cheer and Dance Coaching Clinics and related training programs that will be rolled out over the next year, while also updating the cheer section of the Rule Book. Next to Lisa sits our National Events Coordinator, Beth Dietz, who is helping leagues with insurance for the upcoming year and working hard on the 2008 Scholastic Banquet in Orlando. I know it’s hard to believe, but Beth is also already working on planning our 2008 Super Bowl and National Cheer Championships, to help make the events even better for next year!
That brings us to Phyllis Farruggio, our Office Manager and Business Partner Coordinator, who is working on updating League and Association contacts and is improving the forms process along with our roster software program. Phyllis has also just finished up coordinating this quarter’s administrative mailing. Continuing down the hall, we arrive at the office of Mary FitzGerald, our Chief Operating Officer, who continues to work with current Pop Warner supporters on assisting local programs and is working to attract new sponsors to help programs nationwide. Mary also works closely with the National and Regional staff to update policies and procedures that can help each league and association run more efficiently.
Last, but certainly not least, we come to Jon Butler, the Executive Director of Pop Warner. Jon is helping secure award winners for our 2008 banquet, and, as always, continues to help grow the Pop Warner Nation by lobbying for Pop Warner and working with various industry associations to improve the lives of our children.
So, I hope this helps give you an idea that though it is technically the “off-season,” we are all busy working to make 2008 a season to remember. The staff is excited to see as many of you as possible at the 2008 National All-American Banquet in Orlando on May 23-24 at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort. And of course, thanks to all of you, our dedicated volunteers and participants, who make Pop Warner the world’s greatest and largest youth football and cheer and dance organization!
Sincerely,
Josh Pruce
National Director of Scholastics and Media Relations
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(Thursday, January 24, 2008)
Recapping 2007: What an Exciting Season!
Happy New Year from the National Office of Pop Warner!
Another year has quickly come and gone in Pop Warner Nation, and as is the case with most people, this is time of year that has each of you reminiscing of what happened in the past twelve months. Now for everyone those highlights are different, from a game winning field goal, a perfect routine, a trip to Regional playoffs, or maybe it’s just spending time with your friends. From a National standpoint, I personally think back to all of the events I have helped plan or been to over the past season.
We had a field of dirt, rock and glass transformed in a little more then a month to a brand new facility for the Frankford (PA) Chargers, thanks to FOX’s Operation Field Rescue. Pop Warner football players and cheerleaders helped close the NASDAQ stock exchange with our National Director, Jon Butler. The Pop Warner Little Panthers (NC) helped Pop Warner kick off the season in style at the Pop Warner Simultaneous Kickoff before a nationally televised Carolina Panthers game. The Chestnut Pop Warner League flew from Japan to Hawaii to participate in our first ever clinic with teams from both the USA and Japan.
The Asbury Park Blue Bishops (NJ) not only won a National Title at the 51st Pop Warner Super Bowl they also won the first ever Pop Warner/NFL Mascot Challenge game at the Pop Warner Super Bowl (video of this event can be seen on the Pop Warner Super Bowl website). For the first time ever a Pop Warner Cheer Coach was featured on the front of Cheer Coach and Advisor Magazine. The National Cheer and Dance Championships hit a milestone this year with its 20th anniversary, which was celebrated with festivities through out the week at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex. This list goes on and on, if I took the time to name all the amazing things that happened across the World this year it would take hours and too many pages to print on the website!
We at the National Office want to thank all of our great volunteers on all the hard work that you do to make Pop Warner the world’s largest youth football and cheer and dance organization. We are excited to see what 2008 brings and the eight of us here at the National Office hope to meet as many of you as possible at our events in 2008.
Josh Pruce
National Director of Scholastics and Media Relations
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(Wednesday, November 7, 2007)
2007 National Championships Near
Greetings from the National Office of Pop Warner!
Just a few quick reminders to Pop Warner Nation as you enter your Regional competitons and playoffs. First, I want to remind all teams (football and cheer & dance) that your paperwork for Nationals must be into the office by November 12th. I also encourage all of our advancing football teams to apply for an NFL Travel Grant.
We have been working hard at the National Office to make this the best Super Bowl and National Cheer and Dance Championships ever! We are very excited to be celebrating our 20th anniversary this year of our Cheer and Dance Championships, and look for special things through out the event.
We are always looking to help get your Pop Warner team some attention so if your team has a great story, let us know at the National Office so we can help promote your Pop Warner organization!
With less then a month to go the excitement for Championships grows and we at the National Office wish each and every player and cheerleader the best of luck in your upcoming competions! Hope to see you at Disney!
Josh Pruce
National Director of Scholastics and Media Relations
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