Assemblyman Juan Alanis sent a letter last week to colleagues on the Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, & Tourism on AB 734, which would ban youth tackle football until the age of 12 years old in California.

“An outright ban on youth tackle football will have wide-ranging, unintended consequences for youth across the state, especially throughout our most financially insecure and underserved communities,” said Assemblyman Alanis. “I am deeply concerned about the loss of future academic and athletic opportunities for future scholar-athletes. If we ban the most formative years of this sport one has to wonder how many of our most underserved kids, and our most underserved communities will be affected over the course of the next generation? How many athletic scholarships to our nation’s finest academic institutions might be lost of our state’s most talented young athletes who fall behind in development?”

AB 734 which was authored by Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) will be heard in the Assembly Committee for Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism at the State Capitol in hearing room 127 on Wednesday, January 10th at 9:00 am.

In his letter Alanis argues that more can be done to strengthen the training and safety standards for youth sports. He calls an outright ban draconian, premature, which will adversely affect young people across the state.

“We should be supporting youth development, not banning this vital tradition, outlet, and opportunity for our youth, added Alanis. “We should allow parents to decide if this sport suits their children while ensuring that best practices and safety standards are implemented statewide.”