Youth football coaches in Indiana would have to take a two-hour training course under a proposal to be introduced in next year‘s legislature.
The Senate approved a bill this year requiring any coaches playing on municipal fields to complete an online course covering issues from proper coaching demeanor to tackling methods designed to minimize the risk of head injury.
The House opted to study the issue instead. Senator Travis Holdman (R-Markle), the bill‘s author, says he‘s hopeful a year of reviewing the issue and the course will lead to passage next year.
Former Broad Ripple High School and Purdue linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, who played 10 seasons with the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots, now coaches youth football back home in Indy. But he says he “didn‘t trust the process” enough to let his son play until he saw the course created by U-S-A Football.
Hallenbeck says every major coaching organization, the N-F-L and N-C-A-A have endorsed the program. Holdman says the state still needs to require it to make sure unaffiliated club sports are covered too.
