Visitation Viking Football Program Information
The Visitation Viking Football Program strives to balance learning the fundamentals of football, having a positive experience and winning in a Christian environment. Our program has enjoyed success on and off the field as evidenced by the number of players that have a positive experience, by the number of players that go on to high school to play and the number that come back to volunteer to coach.
We participate in the GCYL which is a city wide Catholic football league. There are 22 programs in the Greater Cincinnati area that range from small to large schools creating a more competitive environment for our kids while maintaining our neighborhood rivalries.
The playing guidelines are dictated by the league guidelines. The Greater Catholic Youth League is a competitive league that has no guaranteed playing time guidelines. Football is a different sport than those that have minimum playing time guarantees. The Visitation Viking Football program works hard to get as much meaningful playing time for their players as we can by making it a priority at all levels. Our participation numbers of 180 plus kids each year support our vision to making playing time a priority.
Our "vision" for the program starts at the bandit level. In 2007 for the first time, we fielded two bandit teams rather than just one and evenly split those teams to ensure more playing time for our kids. Our primary goal is to teach basic instruction, fundamentals and more importantly have fun.
This structure increases our kids' fundamentals of the game and provides the coaches with 2 consecutive years of teaching. Our pony teams have made it a goal to start as close to 22 players as practical for the regular season, 11 offense and 11 on defense (no other school does this). This will occasionally sacrifice wins during the regular season but develops more players and ensures playing time for all.
Our 5th and 6th are combined. This structure increases our kids' fundamentals of the game and provides the coaches with 2 consecutive years of teaching. Our teams strive to maximize playing time during every game and typically start 18 different players between defense and offense.
Our 7th and 8th grade team is a junior high level team that has a mix of very mature kids with kids that are behind physically. Each player has an opportunity to gain additional playing time and that opportunity is on Monday's, Wednesday's and Thursday's. At the 7th and 8th grade level players earn playing time based on their output in practice. However, the coaching staff strives to ensure playing time for each player.
Visitation Viking football is something to be proud of. Signups will be open on March 1st of the participation season.
The GCYL is a member of USA Heads Up Football
- GCYL website www.gcyl.org for league details
- For questions, please contact the Football Commissioner Bob Lyons
Football Commissioner
2023