Touch to Tackle

On December 17, St. Regis Principal, Joe Steele, held a meeting with parents and community members with a proposal to change the Junior High Football Program from flag to full contact.

St. Regis 6-8 graders went from contact to flag football about five years ago and they currently compete in the Copper Valley Flag Football League. The proposed move would affect grades 6-8, with the possibility of implementing it with the Tiger Cub’s grades 2-5.  

One of the main concerns from parents is the possibility of their child getting injured or getting a concussion. Concussions have become a focal point in sports over the past few years. For example, Montana PBS released a documentary this past fall entitled “Concussion: Answers in Blood?” and on December 25, the movie “Concussion” featuring Will Smith was released.

Addressing these concerns in his proposal, Steele sites that “studies show that youth athletes are more at risk for concussion/injury while competing in high school football (rather than at the junior high level). He states that 33 percent of athlete injuries occur during practice rather than on the playing field. In the past year, the Montana High School Association has reduced contact in practice to a 90 minute maximum. 

Also, rules such as “spearing”, “targeting”, and “unnecessary contact” have been redefined and reinforced.

One reason for the move is that many of the schools across the state are going back to tackle and there aren’t as many teams to play, explained Steele.

In addition to fewer teams to play, Steele also questioned St. Regis’ team competitiveness versus injury. He asked if it’s safer to have sixth graders who have never played contact football compete against eighth graders – then freshmen who have never played contact football to compete against seniors.

“I believe that we are putting our student-athletes at a severely higher risk by expecting them to be fully ready to compete in a varsity game with only 10 days of full contact experience, rather than three years and 10 days of experience (by playing contact football at the junior high level),” said Steele. 

St. Regis’ school enrollment is ‘toward the bottom of Class C 6-man schools’ that compete in a varsity schedule, explained Steele.  

“I believe that exposing our younger student athletes to contact at an early age will give them more confidence to participate at the high school level.  If you have never played contact football until you were a freshman, would you all of sudden be more confident to try it against kids who have been playing for seven years? This season we competed in the 9-man Flag Football League with 10 players and this was with including fourth graders.  We just have to do a better job of recruiting more kids to represent St Regis in all athletics,” he said.

He also presented the group with the logistics of travel, costs and equipment. The move to full contact would allow the junior high athletes to travel with the varsity team, where they could play before varsity at 4:00 or 4:30 and then varsity would play at 7:00 or 7:30.  

Other teams that St. Regis could play include Noxon, Hot Springs, Sheridan, West Yellowstone and possibly Lincoln. Currently, the flag team travels separately from varsity to compete, which doubles travel expenses for the school.

Regarding equipment, the school has enough shoulder pads, but they would need to purchase six to eight helmets, as well as pants and possibly jerseys.  The costs would be approximately $1,500.

The proposed move will be discussed further at the St. Regis school board meeting on January 13 at 6 p.m.