PLAYER EVALUATIONS AND DRAFT RULES
A. GENERAL RULES
All Coaches must be present during evaluations/tryouts. Schedules will be emailed to all members and also posted on our website, www.nextlevelpa.com Team Manager App, and Email.
NLPA President, Site Directors and Staff will serve as Draft Coordinators for all locations and teams.
Coaches must use the evaluation format provided by the league. Additional and separate note taking is permitted
All the coaches will be with the kids in their respective ages and go through the whole list of players evaluating them on a scale of 1 though 4.
B. EVALUATIONS
All the players that were evaluated during tryouts will have their test results available at the draft.
Players will receive a number bib at the registration table and then will proceed to the first evaluation event. After the first event the player will go directly to the next sequential event and continue until he/she has completed all the events.
The players will be graded as follows: a. (1-impact player, 2- very good, 3-average, 4-below average).
There will be a coach to multiple coaches and a record keeper at each evaluation event (i.e.: 5-10-5-cone drill). There will be 3-4 events to score during evaluations. The coach will run the event and evaluate the player. The coach will then assign a rating of 1 - 4 and inform the record keeper of the score. The record keeper will write down the rating.
After all players have gone through all stations, the record keepers will average out the assigned numbers from the evaluation. For example, Event 1, player scores a “2”, event 2 player scores a “1”, event 3 player scores a “3”, event 4 the player scores a “4”. The average is “2.5”. The player score is rounded up to the nearest hundredth, so here, the player will be ranked as a (3).
a. A coach’s kid can NOT be evaluated by their parents. In this instance, a different coach will evaluate the coach’s kid during that evaluation event, and then the player will be assigned a number by the coach.
All coaches kid(s) will be drafted to the same team.
7. After all players in a division are assessed, the number of 5s and 4s will be smoothed out to match the number of available teams.
a. For example, if there are 7 teams in 12-14 divisions and 16 kids are ranked 4s. Before leaving the rankings, 2 of those kids will need to be moved down to a 3. This ensures all 7 teams get 2 picks in 4s and prevents draft slotting and coaches’ kids from allowing a team to get more picks before their kids. Then if the 4s had 11, plus the 2 moved down, there are now 13. One of the level 3 ranking players would be moved up to 4 to make 14 total, making the round even.
C. THE DRAFT
The draft is a snake draft format. For instance, in a six-team draft, the team with the 1st pick then gets the 12th and 13th picks.
After the evaluations, draft slots will be determined by a (HAT PICK or online random generator) method. NLPA staff will draw at random and whatever they draw will be their draft order pick.
Your draft slot is your position for the entire draft.
There is no trading of draft slots.
The Draft will start from the list of players according to their skill level.
a. First the 4s, 3s, 2s, etc. Staff can choose anyone they want if it is within one rating of the highest rated player left on the draft board. For instance, if there is still a ‘4’ rated player on the draft board, a coach can pick that ‘4’ or any ‘3’ rated player. However, they cannot pick a ‘2’ or ‘1’ rated player with that particular pick.
Only two pre-picked players can be on a team prior to the start of the draft (i.e.: two coaches). If there are siblings that are on a team, you can have 3 players (i.e.: one coach’s child plus another coach has twins or children in the same age bracket).
Siblings will be drafted on the same team unless their parents request otherwise. As soon as one sibling is drafted, the other sibling will be slotted using the same process for the coaches. If another coach’s child is already slotted in a later round that a sibling would normally be slotted in, the sibling will be slotted in the following round.
For instance, in the 3rd round if a coach picked sibling A who was rated a ‘4’, they would also get sibling B who could be rated a ‘2’. Assume that team had a coach’s child rated a 2 who was slotted in the 6th round already. In that case, sibling B would be this team’s 7th round pick.
a. If no team has picked a pair of siblings at the end of the draft, the siblings will be placed on the last team to have two open spots left.
b. For example, in a 6-team draft of ten players, the team that has the 6th draft position should be the last team with two open picks (unless the coach's kids are slotted in the 9th or 10th rounds) since they pick last in the 9th round and first in the 10th round. Therefore, they would get the siblings if they were not picked earlier.
All teams will be capped at 10 players. However, if an unforeseen circumstance arises and one team is forced to have 11 players (while all other teams have 10), the team who gets the11th player will be determined by picking out of a hat. In other words, the team with the 1st draft slot will not automatically get the 11th player.
a. The Division Coordinator or Board can override this rule and not use the hat; instead they would determine the team(s) that get the 11th player based on the strength of the team or the coach’s kids’ rankings. This would only be done to help provide parity between the teams.
The President and Site Coordinators will be consulted regarding any late sign ups. The late signee must be evaluated by the Impartial Coordinator (other coaches can be in attendance) and will be given a rating between 1-4. If a player is rated 4 or 3, they may not be allocated to a team since the balance of the league can be thrown off if an impact player signs up late. The Flag Football Coordinator has the final say on any late additions and whether they can be placed on a roster.
a. All late sign ups will be handled where the draft was continued.
i. For instance, in a 4 team, 10 round draft, if there were only 38 players in the draft pool, the team with the 2nd draft slot would next sign up and the team with the 1st draft pick would get the final sign up.
ii. If a team has a player drop out and does not have a full roster prior to the start of the season, the new players added will be assigned to the teams to complete the draft then all other team’s rosters will be filled with new additions using the method described above.
iii. If at any point, a team is short one player more than any other team, that team would automatically receive the next new addition before resuming where the draft lifts off.
Teams are to be called right away and confirmed. Any players that have decided not to play this year must be reported to the coordinator.
All players who do not attend the Assessment Combine will not receive a grade and will be placed on a team randomly per the draft procedure.