One of our favorite times of the year came last week when youth football season opened up at Memorial Stadium. The clash of all of the different color uniforms on the field and the smile of the players as they wave to the crowd with their equipment on for the first time is a sight we only get once a year.

The games kicked off soon and parents, like they should, screamed and yelled in support of their little ones.

We want to stand up and cheer for everyone involved.

Football is the most popular sport in the United States and it isn’t close, but there’s so much more to the game than just learning how to tackle or throw a pass.

Football, like other sports, teaches our youth how to work together as a team and how to handle adversity. It also gives them something to do, which might be the best thing of all.

According to the United States Department of Education, most juvenile crime is committed between the hours of 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The largest spike in offenses usually occurs in the hours immediately following a student’s release from school, which shows the importance of after school activities.

We’ll be the first to admit that football isn’t for everybody, just like baseball, cheerleading and band aren’t for everybody. However, it’s important to get our youth into some kind of after school program or a club, because it helps them belong to something and feel like part of a team.

We all like to feel like we are a key cog in a team and that’s even more important for our youth during one of the key parts of their development.

More than 28 million school-age children have parents who work outside the home, according to the USDE and as many as 15 million children on any given day go home to an empty home.

That’s a scary thought that really hits close to home. Our youth need something to keep them busy or they will find something to stay busy.

It’s that simple.

When they are in extracurricular activities, they are under the guidance of coaches and surrounded by people their age in a safe environment.

We should make sure to thank all of the coaches that donate their time to help our youth too.

Many of them have dozens of kids they are responsible for and they manage to find time to lead practices and teach players life lessons.

The importance of extracurricular activities, such as football, just cannot be underestimated.