Moses Lake Grid Kids modernizes, focuses on safety

MOSES LAKE — Over the past few seasons in the NFL, the Seattle Seahawks’ defense has become one of the fiercest units in the league.

The defensive backfield — known affectionately as the Legion of Boom — is led by hard-hitting safety Kam Chancellor. So it would come as a bit of a surprise that the team is on the forefront of reducing head injuries and creating a safer environment on the football field.

Seattle head coach Pete Carroll and the rest of the Seahawks have released instructional videos about safe tackling each year that are used from youth football to the collegiate level.

“Our tackling system features shoulder tackling with a renewed emphasis to take the head out of tackling,” Carroll said in the 2014 video. “We found our style to be successful in the NFL and college and we believe it can be employed at all levels.”

Recently, Moses Lake Grid Kids has implemented those tackling techniques taught by the Seahawks and partnered with USA Football to make all of its coaches “Heads Up” certified to increase player safety.

Heads Up training includes: Concussion recognition and response, heat preparedness and hydration, sudden cardiac arrest, proper equipment fitting, heads up tacking and heads up blocking.

A thorough new website — wwww.moseslakegridkids.com — has also helped usher in a new era for Grid Kids.

“Really modernizing it to make it so it will go into the future and that parents will have more of a trusting attitude towards having their child be involved,” administrator Brian Gwinn said.

Founded in 1999, Grid Kids has three divisions: Chief (fifth and sixth grade), Warrior (third and fourth grade) and Pee Wee (first and second grade). The Pee Wee Division is flag football, while the two upper classes play tackle football.

This season, some changes to Moses Lake Grid Kids will feature a detailed code of conduct and rulebook, new equipment and mandated practice time

Limiting contact during practice has become a focal point for the program.

“We’re trying to get them away from contact in practice,” vice president Brett Hill said. “At least kid on kid. That’s why we bought those practice dummies so they can practice getting their head in the right spot and there’s no variable.”

A change that has received mixed reviews is the decrease of games to seven.

“We did scale back the amount of games, which I know some people have been upset about,” Gwinn said. “But some people have taken it pretty well.”

In preparation for the 2016 season, Grid Kids is holding summer workouts every Thursday at Chief Moses Middle School from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Gear will be issued Aug. 1 and July 31 is the last day to register before incurring a late fee.

Moses Lake Grid Kids, which not only features players from Moses Lake but also around the Columbia Basin, is ready to move forward with the evolution of football.

“It builds in self confidence and letting them learn abound integrity and having a forum for them to not experiment with emotions, but learn to control emotions and all the things that go along with youth sports,” Hill said. “Competition and things that make good citizens and generate good character are really important.”

Complete information on registration, safety tips, program changes and contacts can be found at www.moseslakegridkids.com.