What do Taylor Swift and the Chicago Bears have in common? Well, this month, they both descended on Edinburgh and left hundreds of happy faces in their wake. But, unfortunately for the little girl who asked of Bears alumni Kaseem Sinceno ‘do you know Taylor Swift?’, no he doesn’t.
The Chicago Bears NFL team arrived in Edinburgh last week to deliver their Mini Monster youth coaching clinic, with 600 children from 8 schools across the city taking part in the 90-minute coaching sessions over 2 days at Juniper Green Primary school.
Leading the sessions was the Bears Manager of Youth Football and Community Programmes, Gustavo Silva, and Sinceno, who said: ‘It was awesome to be able to make the trip to Edinburgh… Initiatives like this offer young people the perfect introduction to American Football.
‘Young people are the future of our sport, and so it was great to see so much positive energy and smiling faces today.’
Chicago Bears legend Kaseem Sinceno surrounded by happy faces after Mini Monsters youth clinic
When I arrived at the camp, it could have been easy to write it off as the sort of slick PR initiative you might expect from an American Football team. Banners, flags and training equipment adorned with Bears and Nike logos were set up and ready to go.
But when the training camps kicked off, and later when I sat down to speak to Gustavo and Kaseem, their passion for the benefits and potential lasting impact of the project shone through – physical fitness, healthy eating, and most importantly happy faces on the children taking part.
And an impression seemed to have been made – after the session, Kaseem could barely move for the gleeful children crowding around him, clamouring for his attention with outstretched hands. Quite the turn for kids who probably had no knowledge of American football besides the fact that Taylor Swift’s boyfriend plays in the NFL.
I personally haven’t seen kids this engaged with sports since my own school sports day, when there was a chance that one of my classmates might not actually be the fastest person alive.
But I shouldn’t be surprised, Kaseem and Gustavo both have backgrounds in education and coaching, and they both put across that they were continually evolving and improving the programme and the coaching techniques they use.
Kaseem now coaches High School football, and Gustavo has a degree in teaching and was a coach and educator before joining the Bears in 2018. Kaseem tells me: ‘With our high school backgrounds, and just love for kids, right? Wanting to be a mentor to kids is very important to me and him – wanting that positive message and for them to see positive role models, no matter their background, their demographic, their financial, whatever it is, we want to reach everybody.’
Gustavo Silva, Chicago Bears Manager of Youth Football and Community Programmes, gets hands on in Edinburgh
Inclusivity and accessibility is of paramount importance to the Mini Monsters camp
Gustavo and Kaseem have done their homework, and they tell me their plans are not to usurp football or rugby, and they understand the difficulties involved with underserved communities and the difficulties of children accessing sports in these communities, drawing parallels between the communities in Scotland and Chicago.
‘Health is the number one thing, right?’ Gustavo tells me. ‘That’s the most important thing, health is the one thing that money can’t buy. Anybody can be healthy. We understand that in certain communities, it’s harder to be healthy.
‘So we’re passionate about encouraging people to put healthy things in their body, encouraging people to have an active lifestyle. That’s number one across the board. That’s the priority.
‘And then you have secondary opportunities. Like in the UK, we have an opportunity to really introduce the sport of American football in a fun and engaging way.’
It’s this grassroots, personal approach with a focus on accessibility and fun that they are hoping will spark interest in the sport here in the UK, as Gustavo says: ‘We are trying to grow the sport by making it inclusive of everybody, making it accessible to everybody. And that leads to why we’re in the UK.
‘We’re trying to make it accessible… We want the game to be diverse. Some people are receivers, some people are [running] backs. There’s so many different skill sets that are used in the game. We feel like there’s a place for everybody within the game, and I think that that’s one of our greatest strengths in American football, and that’s one of the reasons that I love it.
‘And if there’s something that’s keeping people to have access to the game, we need to identify that barrier and we need to take it down in. The biggest barrier in the UK has been access.’
Access indeed – American football requires space, and specialist equipment. I spoke to Graeme from Juniper Green, who has helped organise the camps with other schools, and he mentioned the Bears have spoken to him about providing equipment.
600 children from 8 schools across Edinburgh were introduced to several American football training drills
Kaseem relays to me his own experience in this regard: ‘I’ve been coaching football for seven years now. But last year I took on a head coaching role on the South Side of Chicago, which is lower income area in Chicago.
‘The Bears put up all the starter kit, all the money to get the programme going. Schools and budgets, they’re very tight. You go in and you say, hey, why don’t you play a new sport?
‘The Bears are coming in, and they’re also giving you the money and access to start this, all you really have to do is find coaches that want to give their time.’
Along with the kids camp, Gustavo and Kaseem also ran a coaching clinic, teaching their drills and techniques with teachers in the hopes that these teachers can then continue the lessons after they are gone, with a more permanent outlook for the future.
If they continue to engage in the way they have, I can only see the sport growing in popularity as a result. But more importantly, they can leave behind a legacy of healthy, happy people with a love for sports.
