To the editor:

To the editor:

I am writing this as a concerned and confused parent.My son plays on the Wayland 5/6th Youth football team. He has played with this league since starting in third grade and was in flag before then.

Since starting tackle, things have been a little confusing to me and I am not the only parent wondering these things.

There are two Wayland teams in the league — team 1 has 14 players and team 2 has 16. That is a total of 30 players altogether.

With injuries happening throughout the season/sickness/travel, how does that work with having few to zero subs for the players? Watching the last four weeks of games, there have been five to 10players on the sidelines for subs (for other teams). While our two teams have had two to four players tops (one of the kids being over the weight limit so he wouldn’t be able to sub even if he wanted to, that means our boys have to play the entire game (which I know some parents will not complain about) but I as a parent working in the medical field seeing these football injuries happening so frequently — Isn’t safety the most important thing about this sport?

The first half is OK, but the second half is just sad because kids are getting injured due to exhaustion and that is also how mistakes get made.

Since my son has played in this league his team has won only one singular game (I know it’snot about winning. Clearly if I have had him in this league for this long, that doesn’t matter to us, but being stretched so thin with players causes not to be as successful as other teams.

I recently found out that Dorr Rec has a football team as well in the league for each grade. Can I please know the reasoning behind this? The 5/6 boys go to Pine Street with my son. Some are in the same class and they talk about being undefeated and just brag and brag about it and I just simply want to know why aren’t these kids who are in the same school district playing WITH each other?

I get that Dorr is not in Wayland, the town, but Dorr is in Wayland school district! Looking at the schedule roster on the web site that Dorr has a team makes me quite upset as my son just simply wants to enjoy this sport but having this additional Dorr team makes absolutely zero sense to a lot of the parents.

I was told Dorr has about 25 players on each team. Why not take the Dorr Rec team and divide it up to make two larger 5/6 Wayland teams that could potentially BOTH be successful?

These boys will eventually ALL play together anyway and are brought together in fourth grade once going to Pine Street, so the divide is something I would like to have answered. I truly feel like we are getting the “sh*t end of the stick when it comes to the full experience of youth football.

This whole thing is just sad and I am trying my hardest to stay positive for my son this year, but watching this go on like this year after year needs to have some sort of resolution OR explanation.

They work so hard all week long and to watch the disappointment in their eyes every Saturday is just exhausting for a parent. This is supposed to be FUN and most of it is, but its just truly not fair to the Wayland teams. Even making Wayland just one team would be better.

I have already reached out to the head of the Wayland program with zero response. If i do not start getting responses from people, I will continue to climb up the tree of who I need to speak with to get this resolved.

I have two medical doctors standing behind me on this that it is NOT safe for our children.

The fact that our Wayland kids are getting bullied at school by the Dorr Rec team is where I end this. I am from Wayland, born and raised and as a child I didn’t understand the divide, but now as a parent of a child suffering, I will not let this continue.

I have multiple parents willing to make this right after this season. This divide between towns is not OK. It’s quite sad that after all these years the divide is still happening between the two towns and now its making it unsafe for these boys to play because they’re short handed while Dorr is thriving. It’s just UNFAIR, end of story.

If there was a flag football team for Dorr, that is one thing but once these kids go to school together there is no reason to have them separated.

— A Wayland football mom