Jr Raiders Continues to Improve Player Safety Programs

The Jr Raiders are continuing to add new programs and procedures to make sure player safety is our top priority.  Last year we joined forces Premier Sports Medicine.  Premier Sports Medicine provides the Jr Raiders with professionally trained athletic trainers during our football games.  Partnering with Premier Sports ensures your athlete will be given professional care if the need arises.  If an injury occurs Premier Sports monitors the athletes health until they are cleared to return.  The Jr. Raiders are the only youth football organization in Hillsborough that offers professionally trained athletic trainers.

The Jr Raiders will continue our partnership with USA Football (www.usafootball.com).  USA Football provides training courses and online material to educate players, parents and coaches with regard to player safety, coaching technique, nutrition, conditioning and injury identification. The USA Football "Heads Up Football" player safety program has developed educational guidelines for teaching our directors and coaches how to coach with player safety as the number one objective. USA Football has brought together the best coaches, trainers, former players and medical professionals in the business to develop their curriculum. The Jr Raiders have adopted these programs and provides each participating family a free membership to USA Football.  The memberships give all players, coaches and parents access to the USA Football website and content.

We have also updated our trainer certification program to include CPR, AED, Basic First Aid and Concussion Identification.  A Certified Trainer is always on site for practices and games.  The Jr Raiders have certified instructors for Red Cross training and Rutgers S.A.F.T.E.Y clinicians as part of our volunteer staff. 

All coaches and junior coaches are required to complete the following minimum safety courses:

Rutgers S.A.F.E.T.Y. 

Background checks

USA Football tackle certification / recertification

CPR/First Aid/AED (optional)

Our focus is to provide a program that has the interests of player safety at the forefront of everything we do. We are as concerned as parents about the potential for injury and believe in providing the tools and education for our parents and their children to limit this exposure. Using these tools and education the Jr Raiders have put the best available systems in place to provide Hillsborough's youth athletes and their families a place to play in an environment where safety and education are first priority. We believe that the life lessons learned through participating in organized sports develops the foundation for the student athlete in a safe, instructional and inclusive environment.
 
We welcome the opportunity to answer your questions in person or you may email us at  .