Time is running out for any players that want to take part in the Selma Parks and Recreation Department’s youth football league this year.

The final day of registration will likely be held Monday, unless organizers decide to push it back a couple of more days. The cost to register is only $10, which is well worth the life lessons, friendships and memories players will learn through the sport.

Athletics can always a positive influence for our youth, but football is the ultimate team game.

Unlike other sports where a couple of good player can carry a team, football squads rely on the offensive line, quarterback and running backs to work together to move the ball down the field. Defense works the same way.

But at the youth level, it’s not about winning and losing.

Sure, it’s about teaching the fundamentals and making sure players know how to act on the field. The games are also somewhat competitive and a championship trophy is handed out to the league champions at the end of the year, but the real important part is giving Dallas County’s youth a way to spend their afternoons after school.

Football allows them to make friends they may have never met and teaches players values like the importance of showing up on time and what it feels like to have others in a group rely on them.

Football isn’t for everyone, but there’s a lot of positives to the sport outside of the final result on the scoreboard.

We urge parents with any questions to contact the Selma Recreation Department at 874-2140.