Junior Football Parents Come To Terms With The Risk Of The Game

Montclair Bulldogs kicked off their 2010 football season this past weekend at Nishuane Park.  

Many parents find the lure of signing their grade schoolers up for Jr. Football hard to resist. Part of the draw are the uniforms and also the excitement of seeing their boys enthusiastic about being outdoors in a manly team environment. Indeed, the inescapable image of glory that is associated with the sport of football is almost infectious.  

Parents and kids alike are swept off their feet. However, uninitiated parents quickly realize that signing a child up for the football team is a big time commitment in a tough sport where the risk of serious injury is something you learn to live with. 

However, the Montclair Parks and Recreation decision to have the Pop Warner organization run it's youth football program bodes well for the safety of the children that are playing on the Jr. Bulldogs football teams.

And this will help to put parents much more at ease. According to Infosports.com the Pop Warner program which is for kids age 7 to 16 "has very strict safety rules against which all youth football programs should be measured." 

Ralph Dumican, who is in his eleventh year of coaching Pop Warner teams in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, said: "Our coaches attend several clinics each year, and they're well versed in coaching, conditioning, and safety. Frankly, many more of our kids get hurt riding bikes, climbing trees, or in-line skating than they do playing football." 

Additionally, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission examined athletic injuries on a sport-by-sport basis and found that organized football among 5-to-15-year-olds had 12 per- cent fewer injuries per capita than organized soccer for the same age group. Football also had 50 percent fewer injuries than bike riding and 74 percent fewer than skateboarding. 

Despite these positive statistics that support youth football's safety record, many parents faced with the choice to sign their kids up to play realize it is a big family decision in a child's life. One Montclair Jr. Bulldog parent confided in me that after  her older son quit football when a teammate broke his leg  she "was a little nervous" putting her youngest child in football but "... he was so excited about it that I didn't want to break his heart, so I'm going to take the risk.."

Pop Warner has a policy where every kid plays and has an opportunity to play. Therefore no one is cut unless they have a medical condition that bars them from participating. This system — although great for the morale of kids — brings its own set of circumstances parents have to contend with. Children that are not very athletically inclined are faced with rigorous training regimens on a level they have never experienced.

The team meets and trains five nights a week and on Saturday morning. The training involves long and short distance running drills, crawling, and going across the field at top speed, running in place and jumping to the ground to do push ups in fast motion, extended agility drills, blocking, and tackling and the litany goes on. 

Once in the program, reversing the decision and dropping out is another quagmire for parents. When boys starts to enjoy the camaraderie and adrenaline rush of being in this big macho club with all the sense of the grand tradition football is all about it is a great disappointment to a child to voice objection and tell them "this is not for you." Parents may feel that uneasy sense of loss of control as they are swept along the current of enthusiasm boys get when the football bug bites them not daring to risk the dejection a boy may feel if he has to break ranks with his peers and quit the team. 

The expenses also help to lock parents in. In addition to the $75 fee to join, parents face a daunting shopping list of gear they have to purchase which includes practice padded pants that cost about $30. Football jerseys that fit shoulder pads cost another $30 and high top football cleats go for almost $50. Then there are mouth pieces and jock cups that can cost another $15 or so. This, added to the joy boys feel looking cool and wearing all this gear, quickly contributes to putting the apprehensive parent between a rock and a hard place when trying to reverse course. 

The end game in all of this is probably the impressive way the Pop Warner organization runs a football league. The strict standards that apply to the children to see what groups they are put in before they are allowed to play on the field to minimize injury; the training of the coaches and the attention to details such as proper helmet size; and Pop Warner's proactive approach to academics that have won Montclair students national honors tip the balance in favor of making the Jr. Football experience a positive and rewarding one for Montclair parents and children.