Safety is a primary concern

Our 3 main objectives are safety, fun physical activity and age appropriate skill development. We know full well that in recent years safety in football of all ages has become a growing concern.

We know as parents ourselves that you have to make the best choice of what option of football to participate in. Football Mom, Christine Golic, said on the Football For All Podcast that parents shouldn’t make this decision out of fear but instead collect the up to date information to make the best choice for their son or daughter. Our goal here is to provide you with resources and our thoughts on safety.

Resources:

The Book “Brainwashed” by Merril Hoge and Peter Cummings, MD

USA Football, www.usafootball.com

Football For All podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/football-for-all-podcast/id1510609788

https://assets.usafootball.com/documents/FAQ_on_Football_Safety_Parents.pdf

At the end of the day we’re a group of Dads and Coaches who love football and passionate about the life-lessons it uniquely teaches as the ultimate team sports. It’s all about a platform to teach life-lessons, develop characher and cifince and build lifelong meaningful friendships. Sure we also want to see our kids be successful and competitive at these levels and beyond, but it’s about being them work in a fertile environment to become the best-versions-of-themselves.

Our goal is for our orginization to be the “safety town” for youth football in Independence. Below is our best practices for creating the safest possible environment for our players. The statistics show that flag football is not safer that youth tackle football and we like the idea of our kids having pads for 3rd - 6th grade. We also believe that the ideal age to start tackling is 5th grade. We feel this is the right age to learn the appropriate contact skills in a safe controlled manor and develop the technique and confidence before kids begin to develop and our bigger, stronger and faster in Middle School.

1. Incorporate USA Football guidelines and game play that best ensures predictable and safe contact

2. Have all of our coaches certified through USA Football

3. Offer great protective gear through Riddell; helmet, shoulder pads, etc

4. Limit exposure to football to 3 x week, 3 practices/week in pre-season and 2 x week during our season

5. No more than 30 minutes of contact per week in practice

6. Utilize the USA Football 5 step contact progression for age and skill appropriate tackling drills

7. Have an Emergency Action Plan and Concussion Protocol in place that all our coaches will be trained in. If a players shows any signs of a head injury that player is immediately out of the practice or game, will be guided to seek medical clearance and will not be allowed to participate the following week

• “One thing is clear, CTE is not even a significant risk for young athletes, especially with the radical changes in youth football.” - Dr. Peter Cummings

• “There is no rationale for starting tackle at twelve or fourteen…the earlier kids learn proper technique, get better coaching and develop some level of physical fitness, the better their chances to be a safer player and have more fun in the process.” - Merrel Hoge

• “I’m a big believer in the benefits of organized sports and the benefits of football. I have two children who play football, and I belie football is safer than it’s ever been.” - Dr. Julian Bales, Director of Neurosurgery and Codirector of the Northshore University Healthsystem Neuroligical Institute