The football coaching staff from GW Graham Middle Secondary are making football education a top priority. The staff recently attended the three day Washington State Football Coaches Association clinic in Seattle and will be attending the three day Northwest All-Sports GTM football clinic and Glazier football clinic in the next two weeks, both in Seattle. In addition to the US based clinics, the coaches will be attending several local high school clinics in the Fraser Valley and lower mainland.

“Good coaches love clinics, because they love learning more about the game” noted Head Coach Laurie Smith, “the interesting thing about these clinics is the number of very accomplished coaches with 20 or 30 years experience who attend every session.” Smith feels football is a dynamic game and what is being taught in terms of fundamentals and systems is constantly changing. “We want to stay ahead of the curve in terms of player safety and proper blocking and tackling fundamentals. Even what was being taught just 5 years ago is now obsolete based on what we now know about concussions.”

The Graham coaches also meet regularly and have arranged to bring in guest coaches from US High Schools to help with their progression as a staff. “We have an enormous amount of collective experience in this group of 19 coaches, but we also know you never stop learning” concluded Smith.

For more information about the coaching staff, coaching clinics or the Graham football program go to www.grahamfootball.ca.