Ensuring safety in football

Concussions over the years have gotten more recognized by both football players and doctors. Due to the research of many people, a disease called CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) has been found in the brains of several different athletes who had concussions and developed brain trauma. CTE triggers the degeneration of brain tissue.

“On top of CTE we have our concussion protocol test for our incoming Freshman and our upcoming Junior classes every year to get the baseline,” said Jesuit high School Varsity Football Coach Jonathan Isaac. “We have our gear reconditioning every end of the week. We collect all the shoulder pads and helmets. We send them to the manufacturers in Ohio and Nebraska.”

Jesuit already realized the importance of football safety, especially at a competitive level. They change gear every end of the week in order to make protection tools as effective as possible.

Then comes CPR training. Jesuit football coaches all have been certified to do this when emergency comes. Many websites also stated that this is an important factor when it comes to improving the safety of youth football.

“I can’t emphasize how important it is to have someone on the field at youth games trained in CPR,” Coach Isaac said. “If there is no ambulance at the field, there are very few minutes available for survival after sudden cardiac arrest.”

Jesuit football players haven’t had a lower leg injury in three years and no concussion in two years. This is because of coachs’ and players’ extreme caution including CPR training, gear reconditioning, and coach’s mindset.

“It’s every coach’s job to not just win games. winning is a byproduct of effort, technique, and teamwork,” Coach Isaac said. “Kids bring their effort, teamwork you build that through training, practice, talking to each other, technique is the coach’s number one job.”

Jesuit has done a lot of different things that can effectively limit the amount of injuries that might happen throughout the season, and their efforts have been fairly successful.