Brace for Impact

Coaches volunteer their time to teach the youth about football and how to play.

Tatiana Chapple stood shifting her weight back and forth as she watched her two sons and two nephews practice tackling each other on the football field. The boys have played the sport for seven years and are finishing their second week of practice for the new season. Chapple said that after five years in a different league, she decided to put her boys in the Snoop Youth Football League (SYFL) because the league had more to offer the youth than any other program.

“They go to the lengths of calling them when they leave practice [asking] ‘how you feel today?’ making sure they check up on them during the day, during school. They'll pop up at the school if there’s a problem,” Chapple said.

Snoop Dogg launched the non-profit organization in parts of Los Angeles and Orange County to help gang-related areas. Back in 2005, the former Rowland Heights Raiders, Long Beach Browns and Compton Vikings made up the original league. Now known as the Pomona Steelers, the Long Beach Patriots and the Compton Seahawks, they are three of the 25 team organizations that make up the SYFL with 15 teams in Southern California and 10 teams in Northern California.

“We felt like we needed to put something back into the communities that were economically feasible for the families,” SYFL Commissioner Khalil Wadood said.

With some of the lowest registration fees in the state, the league said they focused on helping families, especially single-parent households that want to keep their youth safe after school. The teams practice either on high school fields or community fields depending on what is available. Within the first couple of weeks of practice, players in Pomona had to pick up trash off the field, and the Long Beach team had to move practice because of homeless people camped out in the park.

“It’s always challenging for [our league] to find a facility where there is a park that’s safe enough to practice,” Wadood said. “Do we have our challenges? Yes. Do we have our inner-city challenges? Yes. But that’s why it’s a need. If we allowed the inner-city challenges to make us fold or go away than what would we have?”

Even with the rise of concerns for potential concussions, mothers like Chapple feel like their children are in good hands.

“I just make sure that they know the proper way to tackle and make sure that they understand the severity behind concussions. I let them go and feel like honestly they could get hurt doing anything, so I don’t necessarily worry about them on the field,” Chapple said.

City Councilman of the 8th District of Long Beach, Al Austin said the league is a positive influence on the community.

“I think a lot of our young youth would be creating their own recreational activities if it wasn’t for this league,” Austin said. “Many of them live in some of the toughest neighborhoods in Long Beach. The outlet of team sports and the commitment they have to have to their team and to their craft, not just during the season but during the offseason to work out, is really important for them to be successful. [...] I think that keeps them out of trouble.”

Austin’s two sons played for the Long Beach Patriots and his wife Daysha Austin is the president of the Long Beach team. But Austin said that this is impacting all of Los Angeles.

“These communities are coming together in support of their young people,” Austin said. “It’s in a competitive environment, but that is in an environment that is about uplifting the kids.”

Life After Football

Snoop Dogg had a hands-on role in launching the league. He selected each member of the board of directors and appointed Wadood as the commissioner. Wadood and Snoop Dogg coached against each other in Orange County until Snoop Dogg had the idea to create his own league. Due to Snoop Doggs’ other commitments, Wadood took over as the commissioner.

Players are encouraged to think about more than just the next play to run. Instead, they are advised to think about their future such as attending college and potential careers.

Wadood’s main focus for the league is “life after football.” The league requires a report card for each player and cheerleader on the field.

Players like 12-year-old Anthony Johnson of the Pomona Steelers know that there will be consequences if they neglect their academic responsibilities.

“If you don’t get good grades, the coaches make you run laps all practice,” Johnson said before practice, clutching his pads already in his black and yellow uniform.

Eighty-five percent of the league has a 3.0 or better GPA, and the players get rewarded at the Super Bowl with Xboxes, gift cards and other prizes depending on if they have a 3.5 or 4.0 GPA according to Dedrian “Dee Dee” Small-Hayes, Scholastic Director of the SYFL.

“If you love the game, you have to love the classroom. We don’t care how good you are. One doesn’t go without the other,” Wadood siad.

As last year’s Super Bowl champions, the Baldwin Hills Bruins gear up for the new season. Kasahn Johnson, one of the returning players, explained how he knows that he can bring the skills he learned on the field into the classroom.

“[Football] definitely teaches me leadership because in a classroom, I have to control the class sometimes because they get too loud,” Johnson said. “I do it outside with my teammates. I tell them to get in line, correct them. I help them out.”

Beyond football skills, the coaches make sure that they teach life skills such as respect, leadership, and listening to the rules.

One of the Bruins’ coaches, Dante Benton said that he loves football and enjoys the opportunity to influence young children’s attitudes and personalities in a competitive environment.

“Social impact is a big part of this,” Benton said. “[We] teach them how to be social and how to interact with one another. You know, we had a little scuffle earlier, but I brought them together. They shook hands and made up and were talking like nothing ever happened.”

Benton wanted to be a part of teaching football when his oldest son, Daniel Odom, started playing the game.

“They really weren’t teaching what needed to be taught,” Benton said. “When the kids made a mistake, they just yelled at them.”

Odom agreed with his dad that the intense competition prepares him for more competitive situations in the future.

“You have to focus. You have to listen on the field [...] you have to listen for the ball, and when a ball hikes. You also have to listen to the teachers, so you can have a good grade in the class,” Odom said.

The Threat of Concussions

The possibility of concussions in youth sports, more specifically youth football became a nationwide concern.

Coaches take concussion prevention seriously by watching the players tackle and correcting bad form.

On July 31, 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newson signed the California Youth Football Act which will limit the amount of time youth leagues like the SYFL can practice full contact. Starting on January 1, 2021, youth teams can practice 30 minutes per day, two days a week during the season.

The bill states that “youth football’s highest priority is the safety and well-being of its participants. California children must have the right to be protected with safe youth football standards and practices empowering parents to make informed choices regarding the elected activities of their children.”

SYFL takes part in Heads Up from USA Football. The Heads Up program is a certification process for youth coaches with the goal to create better coaches and train them on different ways to prevent concussions. The coaches learn about the shoulder tackle, keeping their players hydrated, how to ensure that equipment fits properly, alerts them to the symptoms of a concussion and how to respond.

Neuropsychologist Tony Strickland, who founded the Sports Concussion Institute and Clinics, gives care to athletes and other people suffering from concussions and other head injuries.

“[The helmet is] not going to stop the brain from moving inside of the skull and that is the activating event for concussions,” Strickland said.

“I believe that we were fortunate to have the pendulum swing in terms of showing interest and risk for athletes when there was little or no attention afforded to the populations and some of the adverse events,” Strickland said. “I think that pendulum swung way too far.”

Strickland said he worries that the fear of concussions would eventually decrease the interest in the sport.

“With more individuals, for whatever reason, deciding they don’t want to risk adverse, neurological outcomes, they choose not to and that tends to be people who have more resources. I know a lot of my friends have elected not to have their children play football,” Strickland said.

Strickland observed that there has been a shift in the economic background of those who play football. He explained that people love the excitement of watching football, but there is a way to enjoy the game while still keeping everyone safe.

“I worry about the sport being left with individuals who all represent the most economically-challenged choosing this as a pathway out of need. This is the only way I can go to college. This is the only way I can take care of the family,” Strickland said.

Strickland said that something as simple as hydration and keeping the body temperature down will speed up the reaction time for players, so they can respond quickly and safely to collisions on the field.

Coach Benton of the Baldwin Hills Bruins said that he appreciates the training he and all the other coaches have to go through to teach players how to tackle.

“It’s taught completely different than back in the day because of the concussions,” Benton said. “When I was taught to tackle, I was taught to put your head in front of the guy to stop them. We definitely don’t teach that anymore.”

Expanding Beyond Limitations

Three years ago the league started Special Stars for children with special needs to interact with their peers and be physically active. [@snoopleague]

Through its first 15 years, the board of directors had expanded with the theme of inclusivity by creating a league for any and every kid.

Snoop’s Special Stars is a team within the league that allows youth with special needs to have fun, play flag football and participate in a cheer group. The age range is 4 to 24, and coach Tyrone Rodgers said that he loves bringing a smile to the children’s faces.

“Families realized that their kids are left out when it comes to organized sports. So, I basically came up with the Special Stars so they could have fun,” Rodgers said.

Although the league has been successful in California, it has had its challenges expanding to other parts of the country.

“We tried to put the league in Chicago. It didn’t work. We tried to put the league in Las Vegas. It didn’t work. What we didn’t realize and what the people didn’t realize was the amount of work and time that it takes going into it. It’s a non-profit, so you have to have a passion for it,” says Wadood. “We’re still young. We’re only 15 years in. We were getting a little ahead of ourselves. We said let’s bring it back down and focus on home. If we could get it right back home then we could get it right and branch out.”

The League and Its Alumni: 15 Years Later

Many former players of the SYFL have received athletic scholarships to over 50 Division I schools. They include Florida State University, The Ohio State University and the University of Southern California. Solomon Tuliaupupu, current USC linebacker, played for the Pomona Steelers as a kid and found the league to be a great opportunity to engage with a diverse group of people.

“The league had people from all over and from all class levels,” Tuliaupupu said in a statement issued through the USC Sports Information Director. “It also provided an opportunity for kids to see different parts of Southern California.”

More than 20 current NFL players got their start in the SYFL. They include JuJu Smith-Schuster of the Pittsburgh Steelers, De’Anthony Thomas of the Kansas City Chiefs and John Ross of the Cincinnati Bengals.

John Callaghan, associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Southern California, said that participation in youth sports is a necessity for anyone wanting to pursue an athletic career.

“Unless youngsters of both sexes are involved in sports - be it football, soccer, tennis or whatever - at a young age, and learn the necessary skills, they have very little hope of competing in college and as a pro,” Callaghan said.

The league promotes an active lifestyle for the youth by including training and conditioning throughout their practices.

However, he added that there are many reasons why children should be involved in physical activities.

“Youth sports and the involvement of many, are most important, indeed critical to the well-being of our society - from a health viewpoint if for nothing else. It is also very often the glue that holds a community together,” Callaghan said.

Snoop Dogg is currently on tour and was unavailable to comment on the league’s impact on the community. However, Commissioner Wadood said that Snoop Dogg prefers that the players and coaches get media attention instead of him. He added that understanding the impact of the league means looking past the fame of its founder.

“If they can get past Snoop Dogg and look to the core of the league and look at the people that he has involved then you will see,” Wadood said. “But you have to come to see it.”