By Stacy Case
By the time local youths will once again be able to participate in organized sports programs, whenever that may be, those who play tackle football will certainly be ready to get out of their homes and onto the gridiron with their friends.
The Parkland Rangers Tackle Football Club will be aiding in this effort, assuming area leagues will have been given the green light to once again operate their business as usual.
The Rangers have pretty much been the second home for several hundred local gridders since 2007, and continue to host their home games at Pine Trails Park in Parkland.
Each season, the Rangers have something to boast, and in 2019, they sent all three of their divisions into post season play; age 8, age 10, age 12, with the 10s having made it to the semi-final round of elimination.
But it’s not necessarily the sheer fact of representing the Rangers in the playoffs that sticks out in the mind of the league president, Will Billings. He looks at the bigger picture when reflecting upon his 2019 teams and the players.
“When you see the development from the first day of practice to the last game of the (entire) season, it’s just amazing,” says Will, who will begin his second year as the Parkland Rangers president this season. “They learn so much from the beginning to the end, and have a great time in a safe environment.”
While the Rangers only had three age divisions in 2019, the league will once again open up registration for those age 6 and age 14, in addition to the others.
Under the Pop Warner umbrella of tackle football in South Florida, the Parkland Rangers are scheduled to have a 9-game regular season, in which all of its age groups are still planning on facing off against teams from Weston and Boca Raton. Other opponents, which often varies from one year to the next, have not yet been determined for the other games.
While the players and their families show up to the field, much work must be done behind-the-scenes in order for the league to function as well as it does. Will, along with his four other members on the Rangers’ Board of Directors, work just about year-round in order to put out such an impressive product each season. In fact, online registrations are currently underway and will be for several months leading up to the start of the season.
For more info. visit www.ParklandRangers.com
