HIRAM RURITAN CLUB, INC.
P.O. BOX 563
HIRAM, GA 30141
www.hhyathletics.org
Dear Parent(s):
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for registering your child with the Hiram Hornet
Youth Football and Cheerleading Program. If you are new this year we welcome you and if you are
returning this year, we are glad you are back. The start of the season is here and tomorrow is the
first day of the season for many so we would like to make sure you have some important information
that will make the start of our 2015 season easier.
Tomorrow night, Monday July 27th at 7:15 all parents of tackle and sideline cheer, ages 5
and up will gather in the center of the 100 yard field for a quick all parents meeting.
PRACTICE INFORMATION FOR AGES 5 AND UP
July 27, 2015 will be the official start of our 2015 season for tackle and sideline cheer.
Practice will start at 6:30 for both football and sideline cheerleading ages 5 and up.
Competition practices will begin at 7:30 the following week on August 3rd, along with all
Tiny Tots on August 4th at 7:00. Practice locations are mentioned later in this letter.
We encourage everyone to park in the grass parking lot, provided by the Lutheran Church, located
off of Seaboard Avenue, which can be accessed by taking a left at the 4-way stop sign on Oak Street
and going till it dead ends and turn left. The entrance will be on your left. NO parking is allowed in
the paved Church parking lot on Oak Street. Illegally parked cars in this lot, will be towed at the
owners’ expense. If needed if you park in the gravel lot on Oak Street, please do not block entrance
or exits or other cars that are parked. This is the main entrance for all emergency personnel in the
event they are needed this area needs to be clear of congestion on practice nights and game days.
Practice schedule for ages 5 and up will be on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at the established
times for your program. Tackle football will start for the first two weeks with five (5) practices a
week for the first two weeks as outlined in the football section of this letter.
The week of Labor Day, due to the holiday, our practice schedule will change to Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday, with times as normally scheduled. Games will be played on Labor Day
weekend.
Practices and games will be held during the week that Paulding County Schools has their Fall break.
There will be games on Saturday before and after the week that students are out of school and
practices will be held as normal.
Home of the Hiram Hornets
www.hhyathletics.org
Hiram Ruritan Club, Inc. – P.O. Box 563 – Hiram GA 30141
Eric Bradley – Vice President
2015 Board of Directors
Daniel Gibbs – President
Ashley Gibbs - Secretary
Kevin Harvey - Director
Matt Irons - Director
Kisha Jones – Director
Kathie Stancil –Treasurer
John McEntyre - Director
TACKLE FOOTBALL INFORMATION
League rules states that the first day of organized practice shall be the Monday of the last full week
of July, thus this year being tomorrow, July 27th. The first three (3) nights of practice, players are
required to wear helmets, chin straps, mouthpieces, shorts, tee shirts and shoes. No other football
equipment is to be worn during these three days. Teams cannot start body-to-body contact until the
fourth day of scheduled practice.
Practices will be held for the first two weeks on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 6:30
until 8:30, along with Saturday morning 9:00 until 11:00. So on 7/27, 7/28 and 7/30 players should
be dressed as stated above.
Starting on Friday, 7/31 and for all remaining practices unless notified otherwise, all participants
should be in full practice attire, which includes helmet, chin strap, mouth piece, shoulder pads
(recommended to wear a shirt under the pads to eliminate rub), practice jersey or oversize shirt to be
worn over the shoulder pads, practice pants to include all needed pads; 2-hip, 2-thigh, 2-knee and a
butt pad. Pads can be included as one with the practice pants, or separate in the form of a girdle, if
doing the 7-piece pants pad set, please make sure they are belted as this is the type needed if not
using a girdle for our game pants. If you purchase the integrated practice pants with pads, you will
still need one of the other options for your game pants.
Items that will be for sale at the park will include: mouth pieces $2.00 (available all season), gel chin
straps $15.00 (limited number), and previous years game pants to be used as practice pants (prices
vary). These items will be for sale starting on Monday, 7/27 at 6:15 in the building until items run
out. If you wish to purchase these items on your own, please note, that mouth pieces cannot be
clear in color and must attach to the face mask, chinstraps cannot have any metal, all clips must be
plastic.
Jamborees this year will be held on August 8 th, 15th and 22nd. More information regarding game
times will be released during practices.
Beginning on Monday, August 10th, practices will be held on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from
6:30 till 8:30.
Practice locations for football teams for the first week, prior to team splits, will be as
follows:
 80 yard football field (field located beside building) – Ages 5 and 6 year olds, tiny
tot football
 100 yard football field (field located at top of hill, closest to grass parking) – Ages
7, 8, 9 and 10 year olds.
 Field 2 baseball field (lower field) – Cheerleaders (first week of practice)
 Field 1 baseball field (larger field next to gravel parking lot) – 11/12 year olds
Notification of practice locations after team splits will be done by coaching staffs, prior to second
week of practice starting.
ONLY certified coaching personnel are allowed in practice areas. We ask that all parents, siblings and
spectators remain outside of fenced areas.
Players should not bring their own footballs to practice. Water is provided during practice. Please
make sure your child hydrates themselves properly the day before and day of practice.
SIDELINE AND COMPETITION CHEERLEADING: Cheerleading practice schedules will be
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday’s from 6:30 until 7:30 for sideline starting on July 27th and 7:30 until
8:30 for cheerleading competition practice beginning on Monday, August 3rd. Cheerleaders should
report for practice to baseball field 2 (lower field) for the first week. Alternate practice
locations for the remainder of the season will be given out by your child’s coach.
Cheerleaders should dress comfortably in shorts, t-shirt and tennis shoes. No jewelry and if needed
have their hair pulled back. We ask that they bring their own water bottle labeled with their name.
Cheerleaders will not have the additional practices on Friday or Saturday for the first two weeks.
Later in the season as competition dates draw closer, squads may pick up additional practice times to
finalize their routines and sideline cheer practices may be reduced to two nights a week practices on
Tuesdays and Thursdays.
All Sideline cheerleaders are required to cheer until the completion of the season for all Hiram’s
football teams. Any teams that continue until the Super Bowl, will play the weekend before
Thanksgiving.
TINY TOT FOOTBALL AND CHEERLEADING: Practice will start with a parent meeting in the
building next to the water tower at 7:00 on Tuesday, August 4th and uniform sizing. At this time
participants will meet their coaches and then be taken as a team to their practice location.
Starting on Thursday, 8/6/15 practices will start at 6:30 until 7:30. You should upon arrival report to
the practice location you were taken to on Tuesday. ONLY certified coaching personnel are allowed
in practice areas. We ask that all parents, siblings and spectators remain outside of fenced areas.
Water will be provided during practices for football, and cheerleaders should bring their own water
bottle. Tee shirts, shorts and shoes should be worn to practice. Football players may wear rubber
soled cleats, but they are not required.
EQUIPMENT AND UNIFORMS
Tackle Football equipment and uniform sizing has been taking place on Wednesday nights from 6:30
until 7:30. If you have not done so, please make arrangements to arrive by 6:15 on your child’s first
practice night. Equipment adjustments and handouts will not take place after 6:30. Equipment
Deposits are required to receive helmet and shoulder pads. This should be either a check or credit
card authorization dated for December 15th and made payable to the Hiram Ruritan, for the amount
of $150.00. These deposits will not be ran, but returned to you upon receipt of the helmet and
shoulder pad at the end of the season.
Every attempt will be made to complete the sizing for sideline cheer during the first week of practice.
Competition sizing will take place at a later date.
Tiny Tot uniforms sizing will take place on Tuesday August 4th.
All uniforms for tackle football, cheerleading sideline uniforms and tiny tot uniforms will be handed
out prior to the start of games. Competition cheerleading uniforms will be handed out at a separate
time than sideline. No game day uniforms for football or cheerleading should be worn during
practice.
A complete cheerleading information sheet will be given out at practices to cover information
regarding required shoes for sideline cheer. Competition uniforms include the shoe.
Tackle football equipment to be returned at the end of the season should be clean of all stickers and
tape. Equipment return dates will be announced and posted on our website at a later date, failure to
return equipment will result in the security deposit that is being held to be deposited.
BIRTH CERTIFICATES
All new football players to the Hiram Hornet Youth Tackle Football program or players that were not
certified last year with Hiram will be required to provide their Head Coach an ORIGINAL birth
certificate for certification. Per league requirements, it must be the original with a seal. Upon
completion of certification your original birth certificate will be returned to you. Returning players
with Hiram from the 2014 season will be certified from their previous year’s certification.
During practice on Tuesday, July 28th, all football players and coaches will have their certification
picture taken. If your child is not present at practice on this date, please notify your child’s coach
upon your return, so arrangements can be made to schedule their certification picture.
All competition cheerleaders are required to provide to the Cheerleading Coordinator or Assistant
Cheerleading Coordinator a copy of their original birth certificate.
TEAM COMPOSITION and GAME SCHEDULES
The initial first week of football practice all age specific groups will practice together. Your child’s age
group is based on their age as of August 1, 2015. During the course between the first Saturday
practice and the following week, teams will split into Division I and Division II teams, for age groups
that have the numbers to allow multiple teams. This is done by a draft by the Division I coaching
staff. Contact should be made to you prior to the 2 nd Tuesday practice by either the DI or DII head
coach to notify you of your child’s respective team.
Division I games will start the last Saturday of August with Division II games beginning the following
week. Prior to that teams will participate in jamborees on Saturdays in August at either our home
park or away.
Our tackle football program participates under the guidelines set forth by the North West Georgia
Youth Football League (NWGYFL). The schedule in which our games our played, is established and
released by the league. Our park has no bearing on the times nor locations of games to be played.
Schedules may be released at the beginning in part or completely, depending on various factors that
must be considered by the league to release the most correct version of the schedule.
Depending on how well a team performs during the season, games may continue for your child’s
team until the week before Thanksgiving.
Sideline Cheerleaders will cheer at home for all games, unless otherwise designated for preseason,
regular season or playoffs. All Cheer squads will cheer until all Hiram teams have completed their
season.
Schedules and team standings can be found on the leagues website, www.nwgyfl.net.
The tiny tot game schedule will be released as soon as we have confirmation of the leagues schedule
of games, as tiny tot games are scheduled based on the availability of officials to officiate the games.
The first game of the season will be Saturday, August 29 th. Times and locations of games will be
announced at a later date.
NOTIFICATIONS AND INCLEMENT WEATHER
Our program utilizes the One Call Now System for all mass communications to all of our sport
programs and for use by individual team communications. Please make sure that we have a correct
phone number and email address on file at all times.
In the event of bad weather, should it be determined that a practice or game needs to be cancelled,
a one call now will be sent that will include the message sent by a phone call and email. Notices will
also be posted on our website, www.hhyathletics.org. If you have not received any of the
notifications thirty minutes prior to your required arrival time, you should arrive as scheduled. Every
attempt will be made to allow practices and games to be done as scheduled, in some situations a rain
delay may be needed and not a complete cancellation. Notification of this will not be sent and all
participants should report as required on time.
Cancelled practices may be rescheduled for a Wednesday or Friday night makeup.
Weigh-Ins for tackle football will take place one (1) hour before scheduled game time. Even if games
are running behind schedule, weigh-ins will take place on time.
GENERAL RULES OF THE PARK
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No outside food is allowed - Our concession is open during all practices and games.
No Smoking - We do allow if needed smoking to be done in our parking lot only.
No Pets - Our Park is for our players and cheerleaders.
Parking – We have parking in our gravel parking lot, in addition to the grass field on the
opposite side of the 100 yard field. The paved parking lots located around both
churches are NO parking areas. These are posted tow away zones. When parking
please be courteous and do not block others in or block the right of way. If you don’t want to
get blocked in, park in the grass parking lot.
Children SHOULD NEVER be left at practices or games unsupervised. Should the
need arise, please make sure arrangements have been made with another adult on site and
your child’s coach has been notified.
Good SPORTSMANSHIP is always expected – Participants, Parents, Coaches and
Spectators should demonstrate good sportsmanship. The use of profanity is not tolerated.
Take pride of your surroundings – Trash cans are provided throughout our park and parks
you will visit. Please make sure that all trash in your area is cleaned up prior to you leaving
your practice area or game day locations.
GAME DAY
On game day (including jamborees), all parks including ours will charge a gate fee to assist in the
expense of officials for the day. On average most parks will charge $3.00 for adults and $1.00 for
children over the age of 5. This may vary from park to park, but please be prepared to pay this upon
entrance to each park. This fee may go up during payoffs and will increase for Super Bowls.
Football players and cheerleaders that have a scheduled game will not be charged a gate fee.
We encourage all of our participants to enjoy the entire day of football, so tents are allowed at the
park. Tackle Football players are required to weigh in one hour prior to the scheduled game time.
Your child’s coaching staff will provide the time that you should arrive prior to game time to allow
ample time for your child’s team to prepare for the game and meet all required weigh in deadlines.
All cheerleading squads will be notified in advance of the games they are scheduled to cheer and
their required arrival time for pregame preparation.
Tiny tot games will normally be around 8:30 in the morning on Saturdays, but location and times
may vary depending on schedule for officials.
Currently we have our first picture day for individual and team pictures for all age groups and
programs scheduled for Sunday, August 30th. Scheduled times for each team will be handed out at a
later date by your child’s coach. We ask that even if you do not wish to purchase a package that you
still participate for the team picture.
There will be a second date scheduled for a photographer that will be taking customized individual
pictures. Information about this date, time and pricing will be handed out at a later date by your
coach.
IN CLOSING
The Hiram Hornet Youth Football and Cheerleading Program is ran by the Hiram Ruritan Club. Our
coaches along with the Hiram Ruritan Board of Directors are comprised of volunteers that share the
same goal and vision to provide the most competitive and instructional football and cheerleading
program to the youth of Paulding and other surrounding counties. Our program is not financially
supported or maintained by County or City park funding. All work that is required and completed
from maintenance to the smallest details of running this program is handled daily by volunteers and
all operational cost and expenses are paid for by the registration, concession and gate fees we
collect.
If you are interested in how you can be more involved, please contact your child’s coach or one of
our board members. Volunteers are always welcomed and there is always something that needs to
be done. Important information is updated regarding meetings, schedules and general knowledge on
our website, www.hhyathletics.org
The Hiram Ruritan Board of Directors contact information can be found on our website and any of
our Board members or coaches will be happy to assist with any questions you might have.
We hope that 2015 proves to be a successful season for all of our football and cheerleading teams.
With Warmest Regards and Sincere Thanks for the continuous support of our program,
The Hiram Ruritan Club Board of Directors