Football players, coaches talk safety

WASILLA – In the midst of recent concern over sports injuries and concussions, a number of youth football coaches attended a USA Football clinic July 25 at the Curtis D. Menard Sports Center, where they focused on making the game safer.

Seven coaches from the Valley and Anchorage areas represented their respective Pop Warner organizations by taking part in USA Football’s Heads Up training, a program designed to enhance player safety. The Heads Up course focuses on how coaches can ensure their players are protected from serious harm while playing football. It focuses on four main aspects of safety, including concussion awareness, heat and hydration, gear fitting and a new method of tackling.

The clinic and its corresponding website provide coaches with information regarding each of its pillars. It encourages league representatives to know the signs, symptoms and treatment for concussions, while also offering guidelines for practice frequency and intensity. Heads Up also focuses on acclimating players to heat, as well as how a coach should ensure helmets and shoulder pads fit and are worn properly. The program also teaches about Heads Up Tackling and Blocking, methods which teach players to remove their heads from dangerous contact.

Clint Spencer, football director of the Mat-Su Steelers and Seahawks Pop Warner youth football teams, returned to the clinic this year after attending last year’s class as well as a national conference in Indianapolis. The Heads Up training is vital to the game and the Pop Warner organization, according to Clint.

“The information from Heads Up is one hundred percent, absolutely necessary,” he said.

He took the course alongside fellow Valley coaches Ben Spencer and Tracy Bayle, who represent the area’s Steeler and Seahawk teams, respectively. Ben Spencer and Bayle will not only use the Heads Up principles in their training, but they can also help Clint Spencer make sure that every coach from either team has completed the online version of the course. According to Clint, any person in a coaching position within the organization must complete the online Heads Up class before the season starts.

“The biggest takeaway from the clinic is that there’s a lot safer way to teach our kids how to tackle,” he said.

The Valley Pop Warner organizations only saw two concussion cases out of its 350 participants, according to Clint. In addition to raising safety awareness, Heads Up also helps with the popularity of the game, Clint said. Though parent concerns over concussions and other injuries may have hurt the sport’s participation in recent years, Clint said Heads Up has helped boost numbers since.

“(Heads Up) allows us to educate new parents,” he said. “We’ve seen our numbers in the Valley grow and grow and grow.”

That increase in players is important to football across multiple levels, Clint added. Greater participation at the youth level means that older teams and high schools will see similar influxes, an effect which is beneficial to the entire sport.

“It’s good to see that they’re putting emphasis on (concussions and injuries),” Clint said. “I think it is turning out to have a positive effect.”

For more information about Heads Up, visit usafootball.com/headsup

Contact Kaden Weaver at 352-2270 or kaden.weaver@frontiersman.com