High school football has evolved to take steps in the right direction toward making football a better, safer, game.

 

Oregon School Activities Association assistant executive director Brad Garrett has been leader in the movement, helping make Heads Up Football mandatory for high school football teams in the state of Oregon.

 

It was appropriate that Garrett led the session titled "High School Football: Moving the Game Forward" at the 2016 USA Football National Conference.

 

Garrett began the session by informing the audience that, rather than give a lecture, he would merely facilitate a discussion about football.

 

"Change starts with conversation," Garrett said.

 

 

Garrett addressed the future of football through the paradigm of his family, with son Mack and wife Heather, and their own conversations around whether Mack would be allowed to play football.

 

"I said I would do everything possible that I could do to minimize risk for kids in this game," Garrett said, of a promise he made to Heather.

 

Citing a need to change the way people viewed football, Garrett asked the audience whose responsibility it was to alter the game's perception, tossing out suggestions such as USA Football, state associations and Pop Warner.

 

National Conference delegates in attendance seemed to believe that responsibility is a shared one.

 

The chair of the NFHS Rules Committee, Garrett proposted that transforming the perception of the game is much more than changing rules.

 

"We're I'm at is building a contiuum of football," he said.

 

Garrett described a system where fundamentals, such as blocking and tackling, are communicated the same way whether at the youth, middle school or high school level.

 

His explanation of the contiuum entailed a football environment where, "our youth players are connected to the next level, and connected to the next level, so we're bringing these kids up through the same fundamentals, best practices, and the cues are age-level appropriate."

 

For Garrett in the state of Oregon, Heads Up Football is the answer. But elsewhere, if rules changes and points of emphasis aren't enough, Garrett wondered what other outside initiatives delegates were considering to help advance the game. Rule changes can place a burden on game officials; Garrett is more interested in overhauling how players learn and understand the game. 

 

"There's a learning process that has to take place," he said. "You can't just throw a lot of stuff at them. You need to find ways, initiatives outside of rules changes and points of emphasis, to make a difference in this game."

 

While the session did not yield a clear solution, it certainly reflected the passion to improve the game from all in attendance and generated a healthy, productive dialogue.