Arizona high school coaches taking steps to have padded spring football next year

Some Arizona high school football coaches have started to take steps to have padded spring football practices, beginning next year.

Chandler Hamilton coach Mike Zdebski said it started with a vote among Chandler Unified School District head football coaches. That was a 6-0 vote in favor, Zdebski said.

Zdebski said they then presented this to Brophy Prep coach Jason Jewell, who is president of the Arizona High School Football Coaches Association, who reached out to 6A coaches to get feedback last week.

"We are in the initial stages of discussion and gathering data," Jewell said in a text. "Honestly, not much more to it at this time."

Jewell said the sentiment to have it has mostly been positive.

"Trying to get a feel how 6A coaches feel about it," he said. "Only have about half of their responses."

Several steps have to be taken for this to become a reality. And if only 6A schools adopt padded spring football, teams from the other conferences are going to want to fall in line. And, the biggest hurdles are clearing it through administrators and the Arizona Interscholastic Association's Executive Board, and perhaps the AIA Legislative Council.

Zdebski sent a copy of a proposal that would lay out the plan for the 18-day spring practices that schools already are allotted through the AIA bylaws.

They would be:

-Two days helmets only, three days helmets and shoulder pads only. After the fifth day, full pads can be worn.

-A scrimmage can be within the team, another team or three other teams.

Zdebski said there was a Zoom call among 6A coaches and it was discussed at the coaches association's clinic. He said they are looking for unanimous support from 6A coaches.

"It's centered on safety," Zdebski said.

Zdebski cited Georgia and Florida among states that already have had padded high school spring football practices.

Zdebski said he believes this is big for recruiting, as well, when college coaches want to see kids in pads.

But Scottsdale Saguaro first-year head coach Zak Hill, who was one of those coaches who went through high school spring football practices in the past two years as a recruiter as offensive coordinator at Arizona State and Boise State, doesn't believe having kids in pads in spring practices will make or break their recruiting.

But he's not against it. He feels there are some benefits with padded spring practices, especially with the teaching part of it on blocking and tackling techniques.

"Honestly, I could go either way with it," Hill said in an email. "I would be fine with having 8-10 padded practices. I don't think we would want to push it much higher than that. I'm also OK with not dealing with pads and limiting the actual contact through the year.

"It would be fun to be able to have the ability to work the OL, DL more with pads on, as well as being able to scrimmage within the team. I don't think it's going to make or break any recruiting with college evals. I guess if I was leaning one way or another, I would want to have some spring padded practices. I do think some of the tackling and blocking technique is important to work on with this age group. I think it should be the same across the board for all levels though. Not just a 6A thing."

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona HS coaches taking steps for padded spring football practices