The Raiders organization was founded in 1973 to provide local boys and girls a fun supervised environment to learn and participate in football and cheerleading. There were two teams that first season in 1973, the Raiders and the Shadows. We have grown to 20 football teams and 11 cheer squads.
The Raiders receive no tax dollars our only support is registration fees, donations, sponsorships and monies raised through fund raising activities. We rely on family participation, you not only contribute to the success of our program but also benefit through new friendships. Your help in volunteering makes the Bartlett Raiders Football and Cheerleading program a reality not a dream. Participation in our program is different from other youth sports activities because it requires a high level of commitment from both parents and children.
Our season starts during the last week of July or the first week of August when we begin practice. Cheer practices three days a week (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) from 5:30p to 7:30p; flag cheer practices 5:30p to 7:00p. Football practices five days a week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) during the months of July and August from 5:30p to 7:30p. After Labor Day in September football switches to a ‘school’ practice schedule; three days a week (Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday), 5:30p to 7:30p. Cheer switches to an indoor practice schedule with varying times and locations.
Our regular season games begin around the first weekend in September and are usually preceded by one or two pre-season bowl games. All football games are played on either Saturday or Sunday. Traditionally the gold division teams play on Sunday and the silver division teams play on Saturday. BGYFL runs an eight-week regular season schedule followed by two weeks of playoffs and culminated with one weekend of Super Bowl games. After the regular season, teams with winning records advance to the playoffs. The final two teams in each weight class (both gold and silver divisions) meet at the BGYFL Super Bowl held at Northern Illinois University during the beginning of November.
The BGYFL Cheer Competition and Flag Cheer Show Case is held during the last couple of weeks in October and is sponsored by a different town each year. Here our 4th through 8th grade squads compete in either poms or cheer. The Show Case performance is for our 1st through 3rd grade squads where they just ‘show their stuff’ but do not compete for places, all receive recognition.
Our organization is part of BGYFL (Bill George Youth Football League), which includes 16 other towns in the Chicago area from Carol Stream to Buffalo Grove. “The general purpose of this league is to inspire youth, regardless of race, creed, or color; to practice the ideals of sportsmanship, scholarship, and physical fitness; to bring area youths closer together through the means of common interest, sportsmanship, fellowship, and athletic competition; to encourage adults to behave in an exemplary manner when supervising youth; and to keep the welfare of the youth foremost and free from any adult compulsion for power and glory.” For more information on BGYFL visit their website at http://www.bgyfl.org