Hello National HS Football Coaches Alliance & Coach Association Directors/Presidents –

I was hired in late January as a senior consultant for high school football to lead the partnership between the NFHS and the NFL. A primary focus on this position is working with football stakeholders (like the HS Alliance and state coaches associations) across the country to gain a better understanding of the participation and perception trends in high school football.

To that end, the NFHS and the NFL have partnered with UpMetrics to conduct a national research project, which involves surveying of state coach association administrators, athletic directors, football coaches, high school student-athletes (current and former football players), parents and officials about their experiences in football and the benefits of participation.

Last month, the survey was initially sent to your state association executive director by Karissa Niehoff, executive director of the NFHS. 

UpMetrics platform will allow for “live” data population. Data will be presented in a variety of forms: “heat maps”, bar graphs, pie charts, etc. based on responses, and based on zip code. The data from this survey can help to inform your state association office and state football coaches association, along with school leaders and athletic directors about the participation and perception trends in their school and perhaps spark strategic efforts to grow/sustain football programs.

Once we have enough respondents from your state, the state data will be live and viewable – I’ll pass along your specific state link next week as a follow-up. In the meantime, to help garner as much feedback as possible specific to the football landscape in your state, I ask that you pass along the links below to football coaches and your membership (and any possible athletic directors), along with any football officiating groups your association works with across your state. Please also encourage them to pass the survey along to parents of football players, along with both current and former high school football players as well.

Thank you for assisting us in this important research to best identify trends and perceptions specific to high school football.

· Students Please send this link to students currently playing and (if possible) to those who no longer play.

· Parents  Please send this link to parents of students currently playing and (if possible) to those parents of students no longer playing.

· Coaches/ADs Please send this link to coaches and athletic directors.

· Officials  Please send this link to officials

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best,

Ed Passino

Senior Consultant, High School Football