Speaker Spotlight: Brad Garrett

From now through kickoff at USA Football's 2017 National Conference at Pro Bowl, we will take a look at some of the notable speakers and sessions on the docket for one of the country’s largest gatherings of high school football coaches.

Name: Brad Garrett

Position: Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) Assistant Executive Director

Session title: The Oregon Story: Building a statewide player safety model

Session date, time: Saturday, January 28, 3:15 p.m.

2017 National Conference website: http://usafootball.com/nationalconference

The rub:

In 2016, Oregon became the first state to officially adopt USA Football’s Heads Up Football program in all of its high school football programs.

OSAA Assistant Director Brad Garrett was one of the reasons for the movement.

Garrett is the father to a potential football player and wants to do everything he can to minimize risk for the kids playing the sport.

The OSAA assistant executive director employed the program in Oregon to help build a continuum of football. Garrett’s goal is to have a system where the fundamentals, such as tackling and blocking, are connected throughout all levels of play and introduced in an age-appropriate manner.

Rather than focus on rules and penalties (which place a burden on officials to make split-second decisions), Garrett hopes to transform how players learn and understand the game.

Garrett’s session will be more conversation than presentation, with the goal of coaches coming together to help move the game of football forward