Youth football: To tackle or not to tackle?

 

Two Burlington programs feature different philosophies

By Mike Ramczyk

Sports Editor

Burlington is a city of a little more than 10,000 people.

While most onlookers would categorize Burlington as small, there is enough local interest in youth football to garner two separate programs, which offer fundamentally different views of the game.

Registration has been rampant the past few months for the two leagues: the Junior Demons Football Program and Burlington Youth Football.

You may be asking yourself, “What happened to the Burlington Spiders?”

The formation of the two current programs hasn’t come without controversy.

For the past 20 or so years, the Spiders have been the city’s youth tackle football program, featuring teams of sixth through eighth graders that played games at Dinty Moore Field at Karcher Middle School, formerly Burlington High School.

The Spiders was a program that strictly offered tackle football for middle schoolers.

If kids wanted to play tackle football at an earlier age, they could join teams in the Racine Youth Sports program, which offers tackle football for kids ages 5-11.

The RYS features full pads and helmets – everything a player wears on Friday nights for the Burlington Demons high school team.

Around 2012, Burlington parents of RYS youth weren’t happy with the league – the commute was long, referees were high-school aged, and the equipment was outdated.

RYS detractors formed Burlington Youth Football, a new program in search of an endorsement in the city.

However, then-Burlington High School football coach Hans Block declined, as did the Community Education, or school-backed programs that featured flag football for kindergarten through fifth-graders and tackle football, and the Spiders, for sixth through eighth.

Along came the Burlington Blue Devils, a local semi-pro football team, which supported BYF and formed a tackle football league that began to compete with the Spiders for players.

At that point, Burlington parents and kids had an abundance of options.

“Burlington Youth Football guarantees playing time for kids,” said Blue Devils owner Tom Hawkins via telephone Tuesday. “Every other local district has tackle football at the lower age levels, and we are here to give an opportunity to play football. There is no more injury risk than with any other sport.”

“If we don’t give these kids an honest chance to play, we might miss them. We can’t deter kids at a young age.”

Flag football is becoming more and more popular in the city, and the Junior Demons – which absorbed the Spiders program – acts in essence as a feeder program to the high school.

Junior Demons players are allowed to practice at the high school and receive tutelage from high school players and coaches each Tuesday.

Burlington High School head coach Steve Tenhagen is excited to work with Junior Demons players directly.

“All kids deserve an opportunity to play,” he said Tuesday night. “We don’t necessarily guarantee playing time, but it is a fair playing time approach. We will start 22 different players at the tackle level, and everyone in flag will play a lot because there are fewer kids.”

“If a kid doesn’t start one week, they will start the next week.”

 

Two schools of thought

Though both feature tackle football, BYF practiced many of the same principles of RYS – mainly tackle football from kindergarten through eighth grade.

The Spiders’ players didn’t start tackle until sixth grade.

Both programs were viable options for football lovers, but the emergence of flag football was gaining heavy traction in the city.

By 2014, Burlington’s flag football, a direct competitor by default with BYF, ballooned to 120 participants.

And when Tenhagen returned to the city he grew up in to lead the Demons last fall, he quickly created a plan to merge all three programs – flag, BYF and Spiders, creating one feeder program into the high school program.

The school of thought was that kids in Burlington would be taught by the city’s football experts, the high school staff, from a very early age. This would stress ball skills, fundamentals and incorporate more complex skills of tackling and blocking as kids got older.

However, BYF wanted to keep its philosophy of early tackle football and wouldn’t budge. Therefore, the Spiders combined with the flag football program to form the Junior Demons.

A recent New York Times article referenced a study of NFL retirees regarding brain problems later in life.

It found that those who began playing tackle football when they were younger than 12 increased their risk of developing memory and thinking problems later in life.

The age of 12 was chosen as a benchmark because it is roughly the point by which brains in young boys are thought to have already undergone key periods of development, the article states.       Research has shown that boys younger than 12 who injure their brains can take longer to recover and have poor cognition in childhood.

“Being hit in the head repeatedly through tackle football during a critical time in brain development may be associated with later-life cognitive difficulties,” said Dr. Robert Stern, the senior author of the study, who teaches at the Boston University School of Medicine. “The take-home message is, the earlier you start, the more issues you may have.”

While these studies are alarming, BYF counters with an emphasis on fundamentals and tackling without using the head, much like in rugby where helmets aren’t used.

“BYF teaches Hawk Tackle, which takes the head out of the game,” said Marie Frederick, a parent of a BYF player. “It also purchases high-quality concussion reduction helmets that are inspected each season.”

Hawk Tackle tutorials can be found on YouTube.

The elephant in the room is the nature of football.

It’s aggressive, physical and at times downright violent. Concussions at all age levels have marred the sport’s perception, led to NFL tragedies such as suicide and struck fear in the hearts of concerned parents who, like most of America, can’t get enough football.

“When you speak of tackling with 5- and 6-year-olds, you’re talking about a light tap and the kid goes down,” Hawkins said. “It’s no different than incidental contact in soccer or kids playing in the yard. It’s no more dangerous than any other real-life situation.”

 

Is youth tackle football even necessary?

Mike Deans, a Burlington High School graduate, former Demon players and current high school coach, has three young sons who will play for the Junior Demons flag football program in the fall.

A former high school and college football standout, Deans didn’t play tackle football until high school like everyone else in Burlington back in the 1990s.

The current Burlington Demons’ defensive coordinator, Deans is a passionate believer that a youth should not sustain football hits until the brain is fully developed, which occurs around the age of 12.

He said some kids are more aggressive than others, and denying them tackle football until sixth grade won’t somehow stop them from playing. It will simply save them from more years of potentially damaging physical contact.

Deans stresses there isn’t a correlation between early youth tackle football success and high school tackle football success. Too often, he claims, kids are pushed into tackle at an early age because of peer pressure.

He said there’s a fear that if they aren’t playing tackle early, they won’t play in high school.

“Very rarely is the best player in third or fourth grade the best player in high school,” he said. “Playing flag doesn’t disqualify you from playing high school football. You need a healthy number of seniors in high school playing, but the funnel starts way too soon. Kids get banged around needlessly, and we lose them. It doesn’t make good, rational sense to push your kid into tackle football.”

Frederick reiterated that she is fully confident BYF puts safety first.

“All sports can be dangerous, which is why I appreciate that BYF mitigates the risks associated with football by teaching safer tackling technique, purchasing better equipment, training coaches to recognize concussions, and having medical staff at all games.”

 

Participation, fundamentals are key

Hawkins said BYF, which promotes parents as coaches and guaranteed playing time, is the “best choice for kids and the community.”

Hawkins was adamant that kids are guaranteed playing time. He said he’s been that parent that’s had a kid stand on the sideline the entire game and lose interest.

“Kids shouldn’t be embarrassed like that,” Hawkins said. “Parents won’t put up with that.”

Tenhagen says fundamentals are key, and playing flag football allows kids to play multiple positions and develop ball skills first.

That way, when the helmets, pads and hitting come in sixth grade, players are more versatile and linebackers may become quarterbacks, receivers switch to defensive end or even tight ends become linemen.

Basically, Tenhagen said, opportunities for everyone to score touchdowns and try skills positions can keep interest well into high school by promoting fun and hard work.

“We want to give kids the opportunity to play a number of positions,” he said. “First and foremost, it’s about fun. All the rest takes care of itself. It’s not about winning at all costs. If you have 40 kids, it’s not a situation where only 15 will play in order to make the eighth grade Super Bowl.”

And if, at some point, football isn’t for you, that’s OK, too.

“As teachers and coaches, we want kids to find their niche, whether it’s football, soccer or outside of sports,” Tenhagen said. “We have great leadership involved and a lot of football knowledge. But ultimately, we want each kid to find their best experience.”

Tackle football starts as early as kindergarten in many communities, including Racine, Waterford, Muskego, Milwaukee and many more.

It isn’t going anywhere.

Concussions may happen. They may happen in flag football, soccer, climbing a tree or jumping on a trampoline.

But both programs assure quality teaching of fundamentals with safety and learning at the forefront.

Tenhagen anticipates more than 100 flag football participants along with full sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade tackle squads. He said there may be instances where a larger team would break into two.

Hawkins added that BYF’s popularity continues to rise. The program has its games at Catholic Central High School.

At the end of the day, can two youth football programs co-exist in a city where everyone knows everyone and opposing sides are sure to rub shoulders at times?

A new coach at the high school level and a WIAA football playoff appearance have breathed life back into the city’s football scene.

Now, a brand new youth football program to go along with the existing upstart will give parents and kids plenty of options on the gridiron.

 

Not too late to sign up for both teams

It’s not too late to sign up for both Burlington Youth Football and the Junior Demons.

BYF candidates can meet Sunday, April 26 at Catholic Central High School’s Topper Hall from 1 to 4 p.m.

Prospective players must be present to be fitted for equipment.

Fees start at $150 for the year. There are discounts and payment plan options available.

For more information, visit www.burlingtonyouthfootball.org, or call Sarah Behnke at (262) 661-4147.

For more information on the Junior Demons, contact Steve Tenhagen at [email protected], or call him at (262) 206-5027.

Fees are $100 for tackle football and $50 for flag.

You can visit the Junior Demons on Facebook as well.