CSA Youth Football Coaching Clinic

June 21, 2008

By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions

This is the time of year when NFL players take some time off before training camps open in late July, but Chargers veteran center Cory Withrow visited Chargers Park Saturday to speak to a full house of 287 youth football coaches.

The coaches attended the USA Football Youth Football Coaching Clinic hosted by the Chargers to receive their certificate to permit them to coach youth football in 2008.

Withrow spoke as more than a ninth-year NFL veteran who has filled in so well for the last Chargers the last couple seasons as Pro Bowl center Nick Hardwick’s backup. He spoke as someone who played youth football and has coached it. He said youth football changed the course of his life.

“I was a bad kid,” Withrow said, “until a mentor picked me up and said, ‘You can end up in jail or you can use your body for something good.’ ”

That was the beginning of his football career, although he admitted it was inauspicious. He wore a stripe on his helmet and a different color jersey when he first joined the team.

Withrow emphasized the need to teach kids techniques, even at a young age. He told a story of a friend that was just lining up the kids with little instruction.

“The techniques are good for their career and they’re also good for safety reasons,” Withrow said. “If you’re not teaching techniques, you’re not helping kids, you’re hurting them.”

Withrow also relied on Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson as an example for coaches to encourage kids to follow. He was asked how to encourage kids to play the offensive line if they were reluctant to be cast in that role.

“When I was in college (Washington State), when our receivers scored a touchdown, they always waited in the end zone for the offensive linemen to come down and celebrate with them,” Withrow said. “LT does the same thing with us. You point out to the offensive linemen that the one guy can’t do it on his own. You have to do things like that to get kids to see the big picture.”

Withrow, who started his career with the Cincinnati Bengals and played for the Minnesota Vikings, joined the Chargers in 2006. He played so well in a backup role he was signed to a three-year contract before the 2007 season.

When Hardwick was injured in Week 6 against the Oakland Raiders, Withrow replaced him and Tomlinson scored four touchdowns. Withrow started four games before Hardwick returned to the lineup.

The USA Football Coaching Clinic also include talks from San Diego State head coach Chuck Long, University of San Diego head coach Ron Caragher and former Chargers defensive coordinator Tom Bass, a long-time NFL assistant coach that organized the clinic for USA Football.

Although 150 coaches had to be turned away from the clinic because 287 was capacity, the next clinic for coaches to receive their certificate is July 19 at the Hall of Champions. Check-in and registration begins at 8 a.m. For information, call Aly at 619-699-2310.