NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans have named Barry Liles of Claiborne High School as the Week 2 Titans High School Coach of the Week.
The second week of high school football was once again filled with great action and there was no greater example than the Claiborne Bulldogs.
This past Friday his squad held the Cumberland Gap Panthers to 20 yards of total offense, resulting in a 41-0 victory. The defensive effort was a combination of great coaching and outstanding tackling.
Coach Liles believes in proper tackling and reinforcing the safety of the game. With those beliefs, Liles chose to register his Bulldogs to the USA Football Heads Up Football program. We discussed the initiative with Coach Liles and the benefits his football program has gained.
Q: Why did you decide Claiborne High School should be a part of Heads Up Football? LYLES: We wanted to take care of our athletes and do what was best for them and if we can do anything to prevent our athletes from getting hurt, then that's what we want to do. The biggest reason is we want to make sure the coaching staff teaches correct tackling and decreasing our kids' chances of injury.
Q: What results have you witnessed since implicating the Heads Up program? Are you seeing surer tackling? LYLES:** *We are! The team is doing a much better job! Our coaching staff has really stressed proper techniques during the preseason. We would do about a 10 minute tackling session everyday using the Heads Up Football tackling drills and it has helped us quite a bit. Especially this past week against Cumberland Gap, we held them to only 20 yards of total offense and a lot of it goes back to the way we tackled *
Q: As a coach, do you believe your athletes are safer after implementing the heads up tackling technique? LYLES:* *Yes. I think it helps and I also believe it helps us coaches on legal point (chuckles) to be able to say we are teaching this type of tackling. But yes, I feel our kids are safer because they understand we expect them to tackle with their head up. That's the one thing we as coaches have preached for years and with this program, it helps reinforce the training.
Coach Liles will continue his efforts to make the game safer for his youth. Additionally, as the Coach of the Week winner, he will receive a $1,000 grant benefiting the Claiborne High School football program.
To date, the Tennessee Titans has provided $176,000 toward the Titans High School Coach of the Week program.
