Safety Tag Works with HEADstrong Foundation

PHILADELPHIA (June 16, 2015) – Safety Tag has made the exciting decision to begin working with HEADstrong Foundation and Lacrosse Club in order to assist in raising awareness and funds for people who have been affected by cancer.

Safety Tag is dedicated to improving the health, safety and security of youth athletes. The company works to enable more effective and transparent communication between coaches, players, and parents using their safety platform designed to give coaches instant access to player safety information. In the event of an emergency, a coach has player
specific medical information and emergency action plans right at their fingertips. Safety Tag values the importance of keeping players safe and healthy, and aligns themself with HEADstrong’s mission to improve the quality of life for those who have been affected by cancer. After Nicholas Colleluori was diagnosed with a fatal blood cancer, he created the HEADstrong foundation to help others affected by the disease and used his lacrosse background to carry out his mission. HEADstrong raises money and awareness for their cause through their Lacrosse Club and through other organized athletic events, and has already raised over five million dollars since 2006. With a similar focus on health and wellness, Safety Tag is happy to team up with HEADstrong and donate their safety platform and support to a foundation that they believe has an inspiring and impactful message.

Safety Tag Works with Mesa Fresh Fever Lacrosse

PHILADELPHIA (June 16, 2015) – Safety Tag announces their decision to work with Mesa Fresh Fever Lacrosse, in order to build upon their already respected high-level of coaching practices and to improve the transparency between the league, the coaches, and the parents, while offering a safer playing environment for their athletes.

Mesa Fresh Fever Lacrosse focuses on teaching its players good character and the right way to play the game. They are a highly recognized youth club organization that offers skill sessions starting for boys and girls at age four. The club also has programs for middle school boys during all seasons and high school teams for each grade. With so many players involved in the league, it is important that they are all accounted for and that coaches are made aware of any medical issues before they step on the field. Safety Tag will give the coaches a safety platform that will help them manage all of their players, as well as give them instant access to specific medical information for each player in the event of an emergency. By using their smartphone, each coach can keep track of attendance and will be able to provide medical support to any player if needed through emergency action plans. Safety Tag trusts that with strong support from coaches, the players in the Mesa Fresh Fever Lacrosse Club will have a safe and productive environment to continue to grow their skills and knowledge of the game.

Safety Tag Works with FILIA

PHILADELPHIA (June 16, 2015) – Safety Tag is pleased to announce their decision to work with FILIA, a sports organization focused on field hockey and lacrosse programs for young women. Both based in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Safety Tag and FILIA realize the benefits of sports in a child’s life and seek to maintain a safe and supportive environment for youth athletes to thrive in.

FILIA aims to teach young women more than just the rules of the game, but also important life skills such as teamwork and goal setting. They hope that their players will grow up to be confident and hardworking women as they move forward to the more serious competition of high school sports. Safety Tag recognizes the value of empowering these young women and giving them the tools that they need to reach their true potential as an athlete and as a person. In order for these players to thrive and grow, they need the safety and support from their coaches, which is exactly what Safety Tag seeks to provide them with. The company’s safety platform will give coaches the ability to respond to any emergency situation on the playing field by allowing them instant access to players’ medical information and emergency action plans right from their smartphone. Safety Tag expects that their services will give FILIA coaches the tools that they need to be the most constructive and helpful role models for these young women.

Safety Tag Works with ECNL

PHILADELPHIA (June 16, 2015) – Safety Tag is excited to announce the recent opportunity to work with Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) in order to further enhance the transparency between the league, the coaches, and the parents, and to create a safer environment for the young women to play in.

ECNL, known for its highly competitive league for female youth soccer players, has a Club & Coach Development Platform that seeks to improve the level of coaching throughout the league. Coaches in the league are held at a high standard because the league’s highly skilled players rely on their coaches for the guidance and support that they need to excel. Safety Tag understands the value of ensuring that coaches are informed, involved, and prepared for any challenge that they may face. The company’s safety platform gives these coaches real time access to player safety information, and guarantees a fast response in the event of an emergency. Coaches will be aware of players’ specific medical issues so that they can be as prepared as possible if an emergency situation does arise. This ensures that players are kept safe and healthy, and that both players and parents can trust that the coach is there to lend their help and support if needed. Based on the fact that Safety Tag and ECNL have a shared recognition of the importance of a coach’s role in youth sports, Safety Tag believes that their safety platform will help improve the league’s level of coaching even further and looks forward to the opportunity to work with such an well-regarded soccer league.

A heads-up for youth football

By DAN DUNKIN

MALVERN >> The roiling national conversation on football-related concussions has scorched the earth all the way down to the grassroots playing level.

Youth football participation numbers across the country are down — largely, it’s believed, because parents fear that their kids will get concussions. A CNN story in February noted those parental concerns while referencing an ESPN.com article reporting a 10 percent drop in youth football enrollment three years ago.

It’s in part a trickle-down effect from the dark side of the NFL, where numerous black-eye stories have emerged in recent years about multiple-concussed players and how they were plagued with serious after-effects well into retirement. The revelation of CTE — Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma — took the concussion discussion to another level. The suicide of legendary NFL linebacker Junior Seau, whose autopsy revealed CTE, got everyone’s attention.

Thus, the nation’s most popular professional sports league and its oft-embattled commissioner, Roger Goodell, who reads polls and trends like a presidential candidate — especially when NFL owners’ mega-billions product is threatened — responded to the downward youth football cycle with the creation of “Heads Up Football,” a USA Football-sanctioned player safety program.

Some coaches at all levels will tell you that two big reasons for the head injuries are poor tackling and blocking techniques. That’s a key area addressed by Heads Up, and Saturday at Malvern Prep, 50 youth football coaches from the region took part in a Heads Up coaching clinic led by Aaron Brady, the head football coach at Malvern Prep and a certified USA Football Master Trainer.

“The reason we’re here,” Brady told the assembled coaches, “is this game is under attack across the country by the media. Because there are parents out there who don’t want their kid playing anymore.

“One of the reasons Roger Goodell started this is there was a 10 percent drop in youth football numbers across the country.”

Safety first; not winning

Brady has been involved with Heads Up Football for three years. With young player safety more of a concern, more youth leagues are joining USA/Heads Up Football to implement their tackling/blocking techniques and overall safety protocols. A recent study of players from the ages of 5-14 in 10 Heads Up-sanctioned leagues, spanning four states, showed a 77 percent reduction in injuries recorded at practice compared to leagues that are not operating under Heads Up.

“What they found out is, what contributes to a lot of concussions is the coaching,” said William Mills, Malvern Prep’s head athletic trainer, who addressed concussions at the clinic. “What they’re saying here is if you have the Heads Up program, your injuries and concussion rate go down.”

“It’s teaching them body control,” Brady says of the Heads Up’s blocking and tackling approaches, “and teaching them constantly to be in a good position to block, tackle and play the game. “

USA Football consults with top medical professionals to devise a protocol for various areas of player safety, including proper equipment fitting, heat preparedness and hydration, and sudden cardiac arrest; these situations were also addressed during Saturday’s clinic.

The idea of Heads Up seminars like the one Saturday is for the youth coaches to take the information back to their fellow coaches and parents in their leagues and get everyone on the same page. Coaches in attendance Saturday were being trained as PSCs (Player Safety Coach); each Heads Up league must have one PSC. They are required to go back to their leagues and hold a coach’s clinic, with each needing Level I coach certification, in addition to providing an information session for parents. (For the program’s details on certification, concussion recognition and response, and proper blocking and tackling, go to https://usafootball.com/headsup.)

Mills, athletic trainer at Malvern Prep for 28 years, gave tips to the youth coaches about spotting and dealing with concussions. In turn the coaches/PSCs were to inform their leagues of how to manage this critical area. More than anything, Mills says, it comes down to common sense.

“If something else takes over, be it competition or trying to win, or anything to make the kid ‘tougher,’ that’s where you’re going to run into trouble,” Mills said. “When in doubt, sit them out. Take the winning, competition, and ego out of it. Treat each kid as if he’s your own kid.”

A concussion is the brain not working properly, Mills said, and it’s usually caused by the shaking of it. Mills added that concussions are no longer graded in severity from 1-4, but should be thought of as “serious first, then working our way down.”

The rate of return to play can be a source of contention. USA Football bases its protocol on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) concussion recognition and response. Normally, after a concussed player gets cleared by a doctor for physical activity, there is a minimum five-day period before he or she can return to play. The athlete must pass a series of progressive tests, starting usually with an exercise bike, and the eyes needing to stay level as the energy exerted increases.

Drawing the line

Some of the coaches present said some of the parents in their organizations weren’t receptive to Heads Up; ditto for some coaches. Some are set in their ways. A segment of coaches still believe in drills that put the player in more jeopardy; for example, one-on-one collisions from a good distance and going full speed.

Brady has adopted Head First, incorporating in it in drills, at Malvern Prep and has seen a decrease in his team’s injuries.

“I think what it has done is put our guys in better position. I look at Heads Up football and it’s your feet we’re coaching,” Brady said.

One key thing to remember at the youth level or high school level, Brady said, is for coaches not to put young players in a vulnerable position from the get-go.

“Keep kids playing the game by building their confidence,” he said. “Don’t put the four-year player against the first-day player on the first day you’re in pads. In five seconds you can lose that kid from football forever.”

Frank Diamente, a coach in a Bux-Mont youth league, says the heightened safety system makes a lot of sense, but adds that coaches have to communicate it well to fellow coaches and parents to make it consistent.

“Once coaches see it and implement it, they recognize it as a safer way and a better way to play football,” he said. “You don’t miss as many tackles. We also have to encourage the parents; a lot of them grew up with football and were taught completely different. Getting them on board sells the program and brings more kids in because they see it as a safer game.”

Adds Duane Malamut, with a Lansdale Pop Warner league: “The players seem to be absorbing it very well. It’s making the game safer, incrementally, every year.”

Brady notes to all the coaches present that football is a great game that has given them all a lot. As they give back, this is among the most important things they can impart.

“What we’re trying to do with Heads Up is create awareness of what is a concussion, so coaches can see it — symptoms and signs — so if a kid gets a concussion you’ve got to pull them out, until they’re cleared,” Brady said. “Where you really get hurt, and when you hear about it in the news, is when those kids have a concussion, but they continue to play. They don’t tell the coach, or the coach puts them back in there.

“What we’re doing now is saying hey, mom and dad, we know what concussions are, the signs and symptoms. If he has a concussion, we don’t care if it’s the last play of the game, he’s the starting tailback and we need one yard, he’s not playing. This is about creating those systems in place for these leagues.”

Source: Dunkin, Dan. “A Heads-up for Youth Football.” A Heads-up for Youth Football. N.p., 13 June 2015. Web. 13 June 2015.