American Youth Football, Inc. (AYF), a national youth partner of the National Football League, will require all of its 50,000-plus coaches on its regional/national track to take the new, free “Football Tackling” course introduced on the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Learning Center last month.
AYF, with more than 650,000 youth members in 3,000-plus cities, is the only youth football program with members in all 50 states and several other countries. AYF started in 1996 and offers all-inclusive football and cheer divisions for children ages 6-to-14. The Football Tackling course will be mandatory for coaches in the national track, involving about 7,000 teams and 50,000-70,000 coaches, and it will be optional for coaches on the local track.
“The NFHS Football Tackling course was a natural fit for our youth coach’s education requirement,” said Craig Karahuta, AYF vice president of football and cheer operations. “It helps educate our coaches on the three fundamental concepts of tackling. We look forward to having AYF football players learn the proper techniques before playing high school football. This opportunity should help bridge the gap in what is taught at the youth level versus the high school level.”
The Football Tackling course, a joint production between the NFHS and the NFL, is designed to assist interscholastic coaches in teaching, evaluating and programming proper tackling techniques.
The course is one of several projects resulting from the NFHS and NFL partnership announced in September 2020. This is the first partnership to promote the growth, understanding and support for football at the high school level.
“We are pleased that American Youth Football has committed to ensuring that youth football coaches are teaching the proper tackling techniques,” said Dr. Karissa Niehoff, NFHS CEO. “We thank AYF and the NFL for helping to bridge the gap between the youth and high school levels.”
