USA Football, which was created by the National Football League and the NFL Players Association, figured prominently into the Youth Summit.
Executive Director Scott Hallenbeck gave an overview of the organization, now in its fifth year, to coaches who were invited to the summit from each state. He also led three groups of coaches through discussions on how USA Football can best move toward developing the first Junior National Team.
In conjunction with the coaches programs, eight other groups were invited and were part of leadership workshops that USA Football presented.
Hallenbeck told the high school coaches that USA Football is trying to address the concerns they had expressed to the organization.
“We learned that with youth coaches and high school coaches there was a divide, with the two groups pulling apart,” Hallenbeck said. “One of the most important things USA Football can do is help coaches get better at teaching fundamentals.
“We took this to heart from recommendations you gave us as high school coaches.”
At first, one of USA Football’s toughest tasks was in simply determining how many kids were playing football in the 6-14-year-old range.
“The greatest challenge is to identify where the teams are,” Hallenbeck said. “We did a study last November.”
The results of the study estimated 90,600 teams with 267,000 coaches, 55,000 officials and 2,216,000 players.
The NFL National Youth Football partners – the Amateur Athletic Union, American Youth Football, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the JCC Association, National Recreation and Parks, the Police Athletic League, Pop Warner and the YMCA of USA – run the bulk of those leagues. They were all represented in the leadership workshop part of the event.
The Internet, including three-dimensional tools teaching strategies and techniques, has been prominent in the teaching process. The USA Football Web site includes a practice planner, interactive playbook and drills library.
“The power of the Internet is going to be our greatest resource,” Hallenbeck said.
New York Jets coach Eric Mangini was recently introduced as the coaching program’s advisor and spokesperson.
The program also includes single-day coaching schools in partnership with NFL clubs. The coaching schools started with just two in 2006 and grew exponentially this year, benefiting 4,000 coaches and 100,000 players. An expansion to 31 schools is planned for 2008.
“We’re here for the high school coach, and for the youth service organizations, as a resource,” Hallenbeck said. “We’ve also evolved into more of a governing body. We’re one of the few sports that does not operate in the Olympic model.”
That is gradually changing. Earlier this year, the
The first World Junior Championships, for players who are under 19, is projected for 2009.
With about 45 countries now playing American football, USA Football is a boost to the game internationally.
“Those groups were asking us to be involved to bring validity to International and Continental Federations and give credibility to world championships,” Hallenbeck said.
Hallenbeck acknowledged the process of selecting the team will have to be worked out, settling issues such as whether to try to obtain players after their junior year or when they complete high school and how those players will be selected.
Recruiting the best talent for a Junior National Team may be dependent on how it blends with the existing recruiting process.
Michalek, an NFL umpire, and LeMonnier, a Big Ten official, spoke about a variety of subjects relating to officiating. They also gave their recruiting pitch.
“There are 1.1 million high school football players and 1,600 professionals,” Michalek told the coaches. “Odds are against you staying involved as a player, but there are many other ways -- as a trainer, as a coach, or you can be an official.
“I ask you (coaches) to steer some of those kids into officiating. It’s natural to steer some toward coaching, but you also need to steer them toward officiating.”
Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc.