Spartan Youth Program

The Skyline Youth Football Association (SYFA) has a relatively short history, but has grown from a long history of other systems. The Greater Eastside Junior Football Association (GEJFA) was formed in 1963 with the mission of providing an organized little league football program for kids ages 8-14 in Bellevue and Mercer Island.

The GEJFA systems today are aligned with the 3A and 4A Kingco High Schools - which are consistently two of the most competitive leagues in all of Washington High School sports. The GEJFA mission is very simple - Have fun first and worry about winning second! Success has been measured by the number of players in the system, and in turn the number of those players that return to play again.

The Redmond system joined GEJFA in 1977 - which at the time had 100 players on 5 teams. Between 1977 and 1992 the Redmond system grew tremendously (400 players with 5 sub-systems) and as a result split-off the Plateau geographic area which formed the Eastlake system. In 1998 they split-off the southern geographic area of the Plateau from the Eastlake organization and formed the Skyline Youth Football Association. Today the GEJFA consists of sixteen (16) different systems from Five Star (Liberty HS) in Issaquah to Canyon Park and Skyview (Bothell HS) in Bothell fielding approximately one hundred (100) teams. SYFA has become the largest system in GEJFA. For the 2009 season we have fielded 16 teams with more than 325 players!

In the past couple of years, SYFA and the Skyline Spartan High School program have become true partners in the development of our athletes. From summer camps to mentoring and coaching programs, the high school and youth players and coaches work together. This has resulted in a strong Spartan Football culture!