By: Niki Hampton

 

In just a few weeks, three generations of UO Ducks fans, all frocked in yellow and green, will gather around the television just like hundreds of other Saturdays over the past four years. Rebecca Humble, her husband, and two children love the game of football. A love instilled by parents on both sides of the family. “I love the way watching football together makes my grandma happy,” said Humble. “She is 92 years old now and doesn’t get out much. This is a great activity that is easy for her to be a part of.” Since her children, Harley, 13, and Mason, 11, were little they have been sharing their weekends with family enjoying their favorite sport. It’s this love of football that drew her son, Mason, to the game.

Over the last two seasons they’ve been involved in youth tackle football, Humble and her son have experienced both sides of coaching. “He had one coach that was a great coach with really great skills at getting the boys to be good friends and work together – cheering each other on,” said Humble. The next season was quite different. They ended up with a coach who was viewed by many parents as inappropriate and was reported to the league on multiple occasions. That experience was a low point for Humble and her son. They questioned whether they should continue with the sport.

When asked if he was worried about getting hurt, Mason said, “It’s intimidating mostly when someone is stronger [than] me, but I always want to take them down.” It is exactly this viewpoint from her son that worries Humble as she looks to the future of whether to play football. The combination of inadequate coaching and her son’s dislike of being paired against larger opponents that led her to the decision to remove her son from tackle football. While, he will always have a love for football, it will be expressed from a couch instead of the field. Mason has been wanting to go back to MMA and Humble welcomes the activity over football. With youth sports participation numbers falling every year, Mason may just be one more casualty of youth tackle football in an ever-changing industry.