{"id":1381484,"date":"2018-12-08T15:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T22:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/local-news\/tackling-is-optional-in-some-colorado-prep-football-programs\/"},"modified":"2018-12-08T15:00:46","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T22:00:46","slug":"tackling-is-optional-in-some-colorado-prep-football-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/local-news\/tackling-is-optional-in-some-colorado-prep-football-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Tackling is optional in some Colorado prep football programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sean Keeler<\/a><\/span> DENVER (AP) \u2014 He’s 27. An old 27. After seven surgeries, it’s gotten to the point where Sam Stratton’s knee and ankle take turns getting funky on him when the weather turns cold.
\n\u201cI’ve been asked that question so many times by doctors and reporters: \u2018How many concussions have you had?’\u201d Stratton said.
\nWe ask anyway. Fifteen, he says. Maybe 20. When a bell’s been rung that many times, the lines start to blur. Along with other things.
\n\u201cThat’s always an interesting thing I’ve noticed, still being around the game,\u201d noted Stratton, the former dual-threat quarterback at Chatfield High School, where he now serves as an assistant coach, \u201cis that the head injuries have been taken much more seriously by your coach and trainers and players as well.\u201d
\nHe remembers throbbing. Irritation. The play, not so much. As a freshman quarterback at Chatfield, Stratton was reaching for a first-down marker when a collision with a defender sent him helicoptering into the air; the descent saw him land head-first onto the ground, concussed.
\n\u201cBecause as a quarterback, I ran around a lot and hurdled people and jumped around, after that play, my dad nicknamed me \u2018Spider-Man,’\u201d said Stratton, who scored 54 touchdowns for the Chargers before a torn ACL ended his senior season. \u201cHe started calling me that because of that play.
\n\u201cI didn’t remember anything the following day on film. I kept playing. That was my first really bad one because I didn’t allow myself to take any time to heal.\u201d
\nStratton wishes he knew then what he knows now, although that’s not saying a whole heck of a lot, in retrospect. In order to serve on the Chatfield staff, the Colorado High School Activities Association required Stratton to undergo concussion-recognition training. In January 2012, Colorado law made such safety training mandatory for coaches and made it mandatory for players between the ages of 11 and 19 to receive written permission from a health care provider before they could return to play. The Jake Snakenberg Youth Concussion Act, named for the Grandview High School player who died after multiple head traumas in 2004, was signed into law in March 2011.
\n\u201cEveryone says that this generation is so soft,\u201d Stratton said. \u201cIt’s not necessarily that kids today are soft. I just think that it’s a situation where they’re coming up in an era where they don’t claim a loser or they turn off the scoreboard at certain times. Where they’re just comforting the kids’ feelings rather than teaching tough, hard decisions. Which is, I think, good for football.\u201d
\n\u201cWe tackle better now\u201d
\nStratton believes CHSAA’s emphasis on safety over style, maturity over machismo, is good for football at the high school level, too.
\n\u201cEven though I’m a part-time coach, just like most of our staff, we understand how to properly tackle and wrap up with our heads up versus keeping their heads down,\u201d Stratton said. \u201cAnd being in good communication with injuries and things that they’re feeling and making sure that our trainers are involved as well. I can only speak to …read more<\/a> <\/p>\n

Via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DENVER (AP) \u2014 He’s 27. An old 27. After seven surgeries, it’s gotten to the point where Sam Stratton’s knee and ankle take turns getting funky on him when the weather turns cold.
\n\u201cI’ve been asked that question so many times by doctors and reporters: \u2018How many concussions have you had?’\u201d Stratton said.
\nWe ask anyway. Fifteen, he says. Maybe 20. When a bell’s been rung that many times, the lines start to blur. Along with other things.
\n\u201cThat’s always an interesting thing I’ve noticed, still being around the game,\u201d noted Stratton, the former dual-threat quarterback at Chatfield High School, where he now serves as an assistant coach, \u201cis that the head injuries have been taken much more seriously by your coach and trainers and players as well.\u201d
\nHe remembers throbbing. Irritation. The play, not so much. As a freshman quarterback at Chatfield, Stratton was reaching for a first-down marker when a collision with a defender sent him helicoptering into the air; the descent saw him land head-first onto the ground, concussed.
\n\u201cBecause as a quarterback, I ran around a lot and hurdled people and jumped around, after that play, my dad nicknamed me \u2018Spider-Man,’\u201d said Stratton, who scored 54 touchdowns for the Chargers before a torn ACL ended his senior season. \u201cHe started calling me that because of that play.
\n\u201cI didn’t remember anything the following day on film. I kept playing. That was my first really bad one because I didn’t allow myself to take any time to heal.\u201d
\nStratton wishes he knew then what he knows now, although that’s not saying a whole heck of a lot, in retrospect. In order to serve on the Chatfield staff, the Colorado High School Activities Association required Stratton to undergo concussion-recognition training. In January 2012, Colorado law made such safety training mandatory for coaches and made it mandatory for players between the ages of 11 and 19 to receive written permission from a health care provider before they could return to play. The Jake Snakenberg Youth Concussion Act, named for the Grandview High School player who died after multiple head traumas in 2004, was signed into law in March 2011.
\n\u201cEveryone says that this generation is so soft,\u201d Stratton said. \u201cIt’s not necessarily that kids today are soft. I just think that it’s a situation where they’re coming up in an era where they don’t claim a loser or they turn off the scoreboard at certain times. Where they’re just comforting the kids’ feelings rather than teaching tough, hard decisions. Which is, I think, good for football.\u201d
\n\u201cWe tackle better now\u201d
\nStratton believes CHSAA’s emphasis on safety over style, maturity over machismo, is good for football at the high school level, too.
\n\u201cEven though I’m a part-time coach, just like most of our staff, we understand how to properly tackle and wrap up with our heads up versus keeping their heads down,\u201d Stratton said. \u201cAnd being in good communication with injuries and things that they’re feeling and making sure that our trainers are involved as well. I can only speak to …read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1381484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 06:32:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KKCH - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1381484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1381484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}