By Dorothy Okung
Professional Football Players Mothers Association
Sports season is here, and we are constantly embarking on one athletic season or the other. If not football then it is basketball or baseball, and it goes on. As a community, we are always on the thrill of one sports season or the other depending on what thrills you the most. Safety we know comes first and foremost, and safety comes when it is taught right by the coaches and therefore played right.
A couple of weeks ago Cleotha Aldridge and I were privileged to be in a meeting hosted by the Athletic Director of Fort Bend school district, Coach Phillip O’Neil, which included a presentation by the west regional manager of USA Football, Mr. Bassel Faltas. He presented to head coaches of Fort Bend High School materials on USA Football sports safety and the Heads Up programs.
I thought I would share some of this information with you. I reached out to the Director of Communication of USA Football, Mr. Steve Alic. He was kind enough to give me a write up on the subject by Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Haynes, which you can read below.
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USA Football, with the support and guidance of the medical community and experts across our sport, is changing how football is taught and played through education and the best available science. Youth and high school football has never addressed player safety or coaching education better than it does today through USA Football’s Heads Up Football® program.
I’m USA Football’s Heads Up Football manager. I’m also a former college football and NFL player.
As a former NFL player, you can make a positive difference in the lives of youth and high school athletes as an NFL Ambassador within the Heads Up Football program.
Through Heads Up Football, our independent nonprofit office trains more youth and high school coaches combined than any organization in the country. In addition to coaches, we educate players and parents on proper blocking and tackling techniques as well as medically endorsed player safety protocols.
More than 100 former NFL players serve as NFL Ambassadors today.
This role promotes a medically endorsed emphasis on coaching education and proper training. Heads Up Football Ambassadors promote these important standards through visits to youth leagues and high schools. More than 5,500 youth leagues and nearly 1,000 high schools participated in the program in 2014. The program benefits young athletes in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
If you would like to be part of USA Football’s wave of education, lifting the sport’s grassroots to new national standards, I encourage you to become a USA Football assistant master trainer. Assistant master trainers assist in facilitating USA Football clinics across the country to serve the youth and high school football family.
We welcome you to join our team. And so would the millions of children to love to play our sport and gain so much in fun, fitness and friendship through their experience. If you are interested in becoming an NFL Ambassador or a USA Football assistant master trainer, contact me at mhaynes@usafootball.com.