South Charlotte Recreation Association

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Season Information

Equipment

Provided Equipment:

Helmet - our helmets are highly rated through the Virginia Tech Helmet Testing Process and are re-certified and re-conditioned every 2 years. All helmets for this season should have a certification or initial season year of 2024 or 2025.
Shoulder Pads
Game Pants
Game Jersey
Practice Pants - we have a limited supply and available first come first serve - it is recommended you get your own white practice pants (with integrated pads).

You may provide your own of any of the above. Helmets must be approved.
A $175 Deposit Check dated November 1, 2025 written out to SCRA is required to pick up equipment.

Equipment you must provide:

Mouthguards (yes get multiple) - must have strap to attach to helmet.
Youth Size Chin Strap
Cleats
Socks (color for games to be determined by your head coach)
Cup Protection (optional)

We will have a DICKS shopping day where you will be able to pickup items with a 20% discount.

Check with your coach on items such as Gloves. Extra padding is not needed. If you choose to get a helmet visor it must be clear.

Practices

The following is based on the current Pop Warner Practice Rules and Start of Season. This could change in 2025. Pop Warner rule changes come out in May.

Pop Warner has moved the start of the season up, practices in 2025 will begin Tuesday July 15. This is a change from previous seasons where it started August 1. So all South Charlotte teams will open practice on Tuesday July 15. The season then runs through the end of October and could extend into November.

Summer Practices:

Teams can practice up to 10 hours per week.
Teams will practice as much as possible during the summer to prepare and head coaches will decide how they wish to use their 10 hours of practice. Some teams go 5 days a week, 2 hours a practice. While others will reduce the number of days, but increase the hours per day.
Teams could practice on any day of the week.
Players must have a certain amount of conditioning hours before they can move on to contact, and then a certain amount of contact hours before they can take part in scrimmages/games.
Practices during the summer could be held at other locations besides Olde Providence due to the need for additional field space.

Season Practices:

Once the season starts and by rule after Labor Day, teams will normalize their practice schedules
Older teams generally have a 2 longer practice days during the week with an optional walkthrough or review day, while younger teams generally will practice 3 days a week during the week but go under 2 hours.

General Practice Notes:

Practices during the week begin around the 5:30p/6:00p. Practices on the weekend could being at any time.
Teams will have a base core practice days, either Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday. During the summer practices could be any day and during the season, review/walkthrough days for older teams could be Friday or Sunday while younger teams will add a 3rd day during the week.

If you are planning to play 2 sports during the fall season and football will not be your top priority for practices and games then it is asked that you not play football. It simply is not fair to the other teammates and the coaches on the team.

Games

General Game Information:

Games start Saturday August 23, 2025
There will be games the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend.
Games run through the end of October with opportunities for all teams to play games into November.
Game times could be anywhere from 8:00am to 8:00pm.
There could be special opportunities to play games on a weekday evening as well.

Our Home Games:

Our home field is Ardrey Kell High School. We have had a strong partnership with Ardrey Kell for 15 years now.
We need volunteers on these weekends to help make the home games a successful day.

Our Away Games:

League away games are at locations around the Charlotte Metro area including Lake Norman, Cabarrus County, Harrisburg, Mint Hill, Fort Mill and Gastonia area.
There could also be travel games during the season to travel to another League in our Region. Such as Wilmington, Columbia, Virginia Beach and the Raleigh area.

Forms and Files

There are no paper forms this year. All forms are completed and signed through the registration process.
You will have to upload a birth certificate if you did not play pop warner last year.
Reports cards can either be uploaded (once school ends) or brought to be physically verified for eligibility. If your athlete potentially has a 97% GPA or above and is a rising 5th grader then you should upload that report card once available.

Team Assignment

You will be informed of your team assignment once that process is complete. There are no guarantees. In some age groups player evaluations may be required.