Youth football provides a great opportunity for your child to experience being part of a team, hard work, dedication, winning & losing, and developing long lasting friendships. These experiences and friendships grow every year and many times creates long lasting friendships that carry on into their middle school and high school years.

OYAA has partnered with the Olentangy School District to provide some very exciting benefits to playing youth football. This includes playing in middle school stadiums and potentially hosting playoff games (both flag and tackle).

FLAG Football Program for 1st – 6th Grade Levels

Fee is $125 for flag football during early bird registration (discount applied at checkout).
The flag program begins with preseason practice in the month of August then moves into the season with games played in September/October. All games are played on Sunday afternoons.

OYAA offers flag football in grades 1 through 6 for those participants that do not yet want to move to the tackle program but want to continue playing football as a sport.

Players will receive a team jersey. Teams will consist of up to 14 players per team and will play 7 on 7.

Teams are generally formed by elementary / middle school. Teammate and coach requests are allowed and are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Only one teammate request is allowed.  While we try to accommodate every request we cannot guarantee that every request will be granted. 

Click here for Flag Football Rules.

Flag Football Standings Tie Breakers for Bowl Games:

If two or more teams have the same record at the end of the season, tie breakers will be prioritized as follows:

 1. Head to Head Record
 2. Points Allowed
 3. Point Differential
 4. Points For

This prioritization should not promote running up the score in order to better your end of season standings.

Note:  The standings shown on the TEAM CENTRAL page do not account for these tie breakers and therefore may differ from end of year standings. The commissioner will provide end of year standings to the coaches and will utilize those standings to schedule the Playoff or Bowl Games on the last week of the season.


TACKLE Football Program for 3rd – 6th Grade Levels

Registration fee is $245 for tackle football during early bird registration (discount applied at checkout).

The tackle program has partnered with Columbus area programs to improve the experience of the program. The program is the Central Ohio Youth Football League or COYFL.

Three divisions offered: a combined 3rd/4th grade division, a 5th grade division, and a 6th grade division. 

The area programs participating in this league include Big Walnut, Columbus Academy, Delaware, Gahanna, New Albany, Olentangy, and Worthington. Olentangy teams will only consist of Olentangy district players (area teams are not commingled) and all teams are recreation teams. Teams are formed by middle school attendance area. We have six Olentangy middle schools. In the event, there are more or less than six teams, kids from multiple middle school areas may be combined (less than six) or kids from the same middle school area may be split up (more than six).

Games may be played on Saturdays or Sundays and will be played at both Olentangy and other participating program venues.  

The program starts AUGUST 1 for practice; games start late August/early September (we play Labor Day weekend!!) and will end in mid to late October depending on playoff games.

You should expect to dedicate 4 days/week to practice and games – please consider this when contemplating participation in other fall sports. In order to provide the safest environment possible for your child, if you are not able to attend practice during the week, playing time will be at the discretion of the coaching staff and playing time minimums will not apply the week practice is missed. Playing tackle football along with another sport in the fall is not advised due to the safety concern associated with missing practice.

The league provides helmets and shoulder pads to use for the season, to be returned at the end. Team jerseys and helmet decals will be provided for players to keep. Please note leagues are separated by division as noted above and only play teams in their division. If you choose to buy your own equipment, please know that our helmets are white with grey facemasks. Parents will be responsible for purchasing the following equipment:
• Practice Jerseys
• Mouthguard
• Chin Strap
• Cleats
• Football pants (look for “Integrated” pants) – your child will need both practice and game pants (your coach will provide guidance on which color game pants to buy).

Unless deemed necessary by the Commissioner to help form teams, there will NOT be a player evaluation due to the fact that all teams are formed by middle school and evaluation results are not needed to form teams. Based on registration numbers, teams may include multiple middle schools or a middle school may have multiple teams.

Click here for Tackle Football Rules.

Football Safety / OYAA Sports

Safety is a top priority for OYAA within all sports, including football. This dedication to safety in football includes:

1. Continued investment in equipment. OYAA has committed to invest in new helmets and shoulder pads each year, offering the most recent technology in equipment safety.
2. Strict rules on practice and contact. OYAA has implemented rules that limit the amount of contact at each practice and limits ‘full speed’ contact drills.
3. Weight limits to advance the ball. OYAA has also limited the weight limit for advancing the ball for each division.
4. All coaches are required to be concussion certified as determined by the State of Ohio. Details about this requirement are located on the OYAA website under COACHING REQUIREMENTS.
5. OYAA utilizes only Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) certified officials for the tackle program.

Important Dates / Registration / Coaching / Other Details

Early bird registration opens on June 1.
Read the Program Dates/Policies page for program dates/deadlines.

Coaches:  All coaches in both the flag and tackle program are volunteers. Every year OYAA is searching for coaching volunteers for both flag and tackle football. To volunteer as a head or assistant coach, register online when registering your child or separately on the OYAA Registration page on the home page. Coaches are always assigned to coach their child’s team.

Equipment Pick Up: Will be coordinated by team after rosters are distributed. More information will be provided after roster distribution.

Team and coaching assignments will be communicated no later than July 18th with practice starting as early as August 1.

We look forward to another exciting OYAA Football season in 2023 and creating those life long memories and friendships along the way! Any questions or concerns about the program, please contact our football commissioner using the contact page.

The Olentangy school district offers excellent football camps for our youth athletes. Check out the respective high school websites for dates.