Based both on geography and the players involved, this may be the start of the biggest rivalry in local youth football.
The Northern Virginia Unlimited Youth Football Association (NOVA Unlimited) was established in 2001 as an alternative league for players 11-14 who fell above the weight limitations of the Fairfax County Youth Football League, which tops out with a 150-pound weight class.
The NOVA league was modeled after the Mid-Atlantic Unlimited Youth Football Association (MUYFA), which features youth football teams in several locations in Maryland. Beginning this fall, the two leagues will face each other in regular and postseason play in two 8-team conferences composed of geographic rivals.
"There's going to be a total of 22 teams," said Ray Maternick, executive director of NOVA Unlimited, who included six junior varsity teams in his tally.
"For us, it's big. It provides us with the opportunity for more competition, greater exposure. It also gives the kids a better football experience overall."
Experience is the key for the unlimited leagues, which act as de facto feeder programs for local high schools. The NOVA Bulldogs, for example, "represent" Annandale, Stuart, Woodson and Fairfax high schools.
Reggie Wayland, who coached the Bulldogs last season, used to be a coach with Braddock Road Youth Club football. He was asked by Annandale Atoms varsity coach Dick Adams to come over and be on the sidelines of the unlimited league.
"There were a lot of huge kids coming into the high-school level who had never been able to play [youth] football because of their weight. And what would happen is that they would get to the high-school level, with no years [of] experience, and they get popped by somebody. Before you know it, you've got a 240-pound kid sitting up in the bleachers watching [instead of playing]."
Wayland said he currently has a 340-pound, 13-year-old player on his team. "Big kid," he said, "and he would not have been able to play football at all if it wasn't for unlimited."

ALEX ECHEVARRIA was nearly in that same position as a young player growing up in Prince William County.
"I had to lose weight every year for [Greater Manassas Football League]," he recalled. That meant hasty dieting, lots of running, sweat suits or "whatever it took," according to Echevarria. "It was an experience ... let's put it that way.”
Now, as coach of the NOVA Wolverines, Echevarria has a new outlook on the way players try to make weight for youth football. "Now that I'm a little bit older, I can see what it does to your body to lose all that weight at a young age," he said.
Maternick agrees. "You'll see kids in black plastic trash bags, running until they can't run any more and spitting until they can't spit because they don't have any water left. Kids who spend two hours in the sauna trying to lose water weight. To me, there's something fundamentally wrong with that," he said.
Fairfax County Youth Football has weight allowances for younger players, according to Braddock Road Youth Football commissioner John Schaffstall. Players who are 13 years-old can weight up to 170 pounds and still play at 150; 14 year-olds can weigh in at 160; 15 year-olds can weigh 155, but 16-year-old players must make 150.
Maternick feels that his league's age restrictions are beneficial for young players. He was critical of other youth football leagues that allow high-school-age players to participate. "I don't believe 13-year-old middle-school kids should be playing 16-year-old high-school kids who don't play in high school," he said, adding that those older players are typically ineligible for their high-school teams because of academic or behavioral issues.
"Youth ball isn't for high-school kids. It's for youth," said Maternick.
More importantly, according to Wayland, NOVA Unlimited gives youth football players the preparation they need for high school. He said the league plays by rules that mimic high-school varsity football. It allows skill players who weigh between 130 and 140 pounds a chance to compete against players as large as the ones they'll see in high school. That means players who are weight-eligible for Fairfax County youth football opt for NOVA Unlimited instead.
"That's like a Catch-22. There's a lot of players in this league that weigh 130, 140. They want to play with the bigger kids, because the following year they'll be playing with the bigger kids," said Wayland. "If you just took kids over 200 pounds, you wouldn't be able to have a team."
Wayland said unlimited football does give those bigger players a chance to learn their positions.
"These kids who play the front line [in other youth leagues], offensive or defensive line, they'll never see those positions again when they get to high school. [In Unlimited football], the kids are actually being put in a true position that they'll play at the high-school level," he said.

IN THE NEW partnership between NOVA Unlimited and MUYFA, players will see another aspect of the high-school game: travel. The Mid-Atlantic league has teams in such diverse locales as Woodlawn, Rockville, Baltimore, Howard County, Easton and Salisbury.
While the two leagues will attempt to keep distances down by placing geographically close teams in the same conference, a Fairfax-to-Eastern Shore road trip isn't out of the question this season.
"There's the potential we'll have to travel that far. But half our games will be played at home," said Maternick.
Bill Casagrande, an old friend of Maternick's and the founder/president of MUYFA, feels the travel is no different from that of other club sports. "I've got [a] friend of mine whose kids play [ice] hockey. These guys are going to Maine for a 7 o'clock, Saturday morning, game," he said.
Casagrande, whose league is entering its 10th anniversary season, said the inclusion of Northern Virginia teams increases the intensity of play. "[NOVA teams] coming into our league gives them a bona fide championship opportunity," he said.
Echevarria remembered playing in the old Super 44 Maryland/Virginia senior high-school all-star football game. He said mixing the Virginia teams with their neighbors from the north will be beneficial for both leagues.
"It breeds a rivalry that's unmatched," he said. "We're all the same team when we play Maryland."