SPECIAL REPORT: Tackling California’s new youth football rules

The Toro Bulls are breaking the huddle on another football season. These mighty elementary and middle school-aged athletes might not be as big and strong as NFL players but California says the impact of the game is rough enough on the body for new, drastic changes.

Just signed by Governor Newsom, youth football teams can soon only have full-contact tackling practices twice a week and only 30 minutes each time. This is designed to limit concussions. Dr. Jeffrey Bass with Natividad says the research is fairly new.

“The first studies came out in 2005,” Dr. Bass said. “The more studies they do the more they’ll learn.”

As a supporter of the new bill, AB 1, Bass points to a recent study from Boston University showing that kids under 12 are especially at risk.

“The preliminary stuff definitely indicates that the number of hits and the age you start definitely have a big effect on this.”

With long-term issues from neurodegenerative disease CTR, like dementia and depression, tied to repeated strikes to the brain, cutting down on hits during practice is supposed to limit potential damage.

But once the games are on players go full-speed and full-strength.

KION went to a Toro Bulls practice, a member of the Monterey Bay Youth Football League, to learn if the 60-minute limit is enough to teach kids how to properly and safely tackle.

There is actually no full-contact happening during these practices. They perform a limited person of a high profile tackle, and don’t bring anyone to the ground.

“If you’re teaching the fundamentals at practice and you’re wrapping the right way, you’re still doing the wrap. You don’t need to bring them to the ground,” says Toro Bulls coach Joey Antonetti.

These young Bulls will eventually head to high school, where in California a 2014 bill limited full contact practices to just 90 minutes twice a week.

Salinas High School football head coach Steve Zenk tells KION by the time the rules were in place the team already transitioned to what’s called head up tackling, and don’t perform actually tackling in practice.

“We have 20 minutes of live contact in a week anyway. It’s probably been 10-15 years since anyone had rock em sock em robots in practice.” Zenk adds, “there definitely are the outliers that still do. I think it’s good to have something on the books to protect kids.”

Zenk says the rugby-style fundamentals have improved his team’s tackling. This safer method came right from the National Football League’s best defenses.

“Heads up tackling is what everyone does now. The Seattle Seahawks started that,” Zenk said. “We do a lot of tackling on bags, a lot of stuff on air, a lot of practicing the technique without actually being live”

Scott Fujita is the Head of School at All Saints Day School in Carmel Valley and coaches their flag football team, but made a living tackling people as an NFL linebacker for 11 seasons. Fujita told KION over the phone that even in the NFL live tackling stopped a while back because of concussion concerns.

“There’s no reason anyone should be brought to the ground during practice. I can’t recall the last time i did that in my NFL career.”

Fujita says with proper form and positioning taught in practice, there’s no reason for a rough tackle. And these new rules might not go far enough.

“Some coaches might read that as sort of a hall pass to fill up those 30 minutes with live contact. So in some ways there might be an adverse effect,” Fujita said.

Other parts of the bill include training in how to detect heat related illnesses, annual recertification and reconditioning of helmets, and a minimum of one state-licensed medical professional and an independent “non-rostered individual” present at all games.

“To take a kid out of the game if they find out they’re injured. Because a kid’s adrenaline is pumping and they want to play, and the coaches want their best players to play,” Jeffrey said.

The Bulls already use tablets to track concussion testing before every practice.

“Our first goal in this organization is safety for the kids. That’s why our numbers keep growing.”​​​​​​​

This is not a change that has to happen overnight. The bill doesn’t require these new practice restrictions until 2021. According to new numbers from the California Interscholactic Federation, football has seen four straight years of declining participation. 10 thousand fewer students are playing now than 4 years ago.