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Buchanan returns to Royals' pre-season workouts following trip to NFL Youth Summit
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By CHUCK HAMILTON Sports Writer
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Mason County head football coach David Buchanan returned from last week's National Football League Youth Summit in Canton, Ohio, and came away "really impressed" with the league for all it does for youth football across the nation.
The Youth Summit is held in during the week leading up to the Hall of Fame festivities, and 51 high school coaches, one from each state and the District of Columbia, are nominated from essays submitted to the league.
"The NFL spends millions of dollars on youth football in their cities," said Buchanan. "Their main focus is applying football to life lessons and helping young men become successful and productive people."
The coach said there wasn't any chalk talk involving the X's and O's of football. Instead, the emphasis was kept on character building and safety concerns.
"It was a very positive and neat experience and all of the speakers were really outstanding," Buchanan said. "There were sports psychologists from the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers, and former NFL players who are now high school coaches, including former Buffalo Bills players Phil Hansen and Joe O'Donnell. Gil Brandt (the Dallas Cowboys vice president of player personnel from 1960-1989), who put together many of those great Cowboys teams, did a really good speaking job as well. Another excellent talk was given by Randall Minor, who is a life skills speaker. He provided a lot of insight and goes around to the NFL camps to talk to the rookies and speaks to them about making good decisions off the field."
Buchanan, who was the Kentucky representative among the 51 high school coaches, visited the NFL Hall of Fame on Wednesday evening and said it was interesting to meet former players and hear some of their stories. He was also impressed with the USA Football organization, which can be found online at www.usafootball.com.
"USA Football is a tremendous resource for youth football and they do an outstanding job," Buchanan said. "There's also a very good possibility we will be hosting a USA Football Clinic in April, which will bring over 100 coaches to Maysville. We hope we will be able to show off our facilities to the attendees and we're excited about an event which would be great for the community."
Buchanan said the NFL Youth Summit served to reinforce what is already being done locally.
"Of course, we want to win every game we play, but even more importantly, we want to help our guys be successful in life," he said. "I'm really thankful to live in a community that cares about its young people, and the Tom Browning Boys & Girls Club and Camp Discovery are just a couple of examples of what this community does for the youth in Mason County."
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