Football safety a St. Raphael top priority

I am the vice president of football at St. Raphael's School in Naperville. On behalf of the 1,300 kids who play in our program (one of the largest youth football programs in the country), I wanted to offer my comments on the recent article by Jamie Sotonoff regarding safety concerns in youth football.

As a 52-year organization, St. Raphael Football offers football as a vehicle to teach life lessons to its young players. There are rules and penalties. You win and lose as a team. You get dirty/muddy on rainy days and you sweat on the hot days. Our football program teaches teamwork and it builds long-lasting friendships and a sense of community. Most importantly, kids learn to give 100 percent and to never give up.

We have three key principles in St. Raphael's: be safe, have fun and learn to play fundamentally sound football.

We encourage kids to play many sports. We do not believe at specializing at the early ages.

Safety of our youth players is extremely important to us. We have been teaching proper tackling techniques for decades and are a part of Heads Up football this year. We work with the local high school varsity coaches, and have done this for over a decade.

Recently, St. Raphael's held our annual coaches clinic at Benet Academy. We had 70 of our volunteer football coaches in attendance for this three-hour-plus clinic. It specifically addressed all aspects of coaching and proper tackling techniques. Head coaches from Naperville Central, Naperville North, Benet, Waubonsie Valley and Metea Valley were in attendance. Sean Drendel from NNHS taught the tackling segment.

We have on-site certified trainers at every football game and at our larger practice sites. We take safety very seriously.

Paul J. O'Toole

Naperville