This is Phil Tran, Maryland State Director for the National Strength and Conditioning Association and championship-winning high school football coach.
I am pleased to report that HB 1106 sponsored by Delegate Terri Hill (D – Howard County) that would have regulated youth tackle football out of existence has been stopped.
I am here in the historic Maryland State House for Sine Die, the final day of this year’s legislative session. All bills have until midnight tonight to pass to be considered by the Governor for this calendar year.
Sine Die in Maryland has a festive atmosphere with receptions and parties taking place in between floor sessions throughout the day, concluding with a Sine Die breakfast after midnight. It is a great opportunity for me as a football coach and a strength coach to let the elect officeholders know that I am here and I have issues in the sports and fitness industry to advocate.
HB 1106 is not one of the bills being voted on during the floor sessions because it did not even make it out of committee. Many thanks go to the football coaches, strength coaches, parents, kids, and the Maryland Athletic Trainers Association for our combined efforts to kill this bill.
With a bill designed to ban youth tackle football proposed in 2018 and a bill designed to heavily regulate youth tackle football and other sports proposed in 2019, this is simply more evidence that strength coaches and sport coaches need to get out of the sidelines, so to speak, and become an organized and formidable special interest group just like the realtors, bankers, manufacturers, and even like our fellow colleagues, the athletic trainers.
If we don’t network with elected officeholders, hold them accountable, and show our clout as influencers of voters to stop bad legislation at the seed, the weed will eventually take root.
Please follow me on social media and subscribe on YouTube. I am at PhilTran22 on all platforms. We will return to your regularly scheduled programming of strength coaching and football coaching; our true passions!
However, as the 2020 Maryland General Assembly session approaches, I will do a series of videos to educate my fellow coaches in the United States, Canada, and Mexico on how to organize, build relationships with elected officeholders, and become a serious voice in the public policy debate as a sport coach and a strength coach.
Our professional associations are first movers when it comes to cutting edge research, best practices, and sport safety. We have heard from the American Football Coaches Association and the National Strength and Conditioning Association for years that the game of football is under attack in America.
The officeholders who are attacking football will continue to attack football if you allow them to do so.
You owe it to yourselves as coaches and you owe it to your kids to get off the sidelines and get into the political arena to protect your sport and your jobs from government interference.
