Upward is back for the 2026 season!

Required Forms

• Emergency Medical and Participant Release Forms are required, please click here to access and submit

Important Dates

• Registration Opens at 10/1/2025 at 8:00am

• Coaches schedule announced: 11/21/2025

• Team assignment announced: 11/28/2025

• Coaches training: 12/1/2025

• Last day for registration refunds: 12/12/2025

• Practices start the week of 12/8/2025 and will run Monday through Friday until 2/27/2026. No practices the week of Christmas and New Year's (during the school winter vacation).

• There will be no practices 1/16, 1/19, and 2/16 due to Rocky River schools being closed

• Games start 1/10/2026 and end 2/28/2026.

• Picture day: 1/17/2025

• Upward Celebration will be on 3/1/2026! We will once again host our friends from Epic Ministries with an all-new, faith based show!

• Winter weather policy: "In the event that Rocky River Schools are closed due to weather, Upward practices will still take place unless the league director or coach of your team reaches out to tell you it is cancelled. If unsure about practice status, please reach out to your coach or league director."

We are excited to expand our program this year to start practices earlier, allowing kids more time to learn skills before the first game!

Upward strives, whenever possible, to have teams that are closely matched in height and skill level to provide the best experience for all players and cheerleaders. For that reason, we are generally not able to accommodate requests to be on the same team as friends.

However, we recognize that there are times when a player or cheerleader would benefit from being on a particular team or a particular practice night. Because the goal is to have closely matched teams, we CANNOT guarantee that special requests will be granted.

Volunteering

Where can you help? We need volunteers every week to make Upward a success.

The following areas need volunteers: coaches, referees, concessions, devotion leaders, and game announcers. Click here to Volunteer! Please contact Daniel Rittgers if you are willing to help in any way at drittgers@rrumc.org.