By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
For Ian Essig, taking over as the new head football coach at Ballard High School was about more than leading a team on Friday nights. As a Ballard alumnus, it was also an opportunity to return home and build a program around a goal he believes can be accomplished immediately: making Ballard football the safest program in Washington state.
“We can’t really become the best program in one year, but we can become the safest,” Essig said. “So that is what I’m passionate about, just making the game fun and safe.”
Essig said he inherited a football program that was in the red, with a negative balance of $1,921.30. To raise money for his safety initiatives, Essig turned to local businesses and the community, generating $10,500 in donations and another $33,500 through a Snap! Raise campaign for safety equipment.
“These private schools get the best athletes from our neighborhood, and the next best athletes in our neighborhood don’t play football at Ballard because their moms don’t think it’s safe,” said Essig. “It’s not safe. Football is dangerous. But if we’re the safest program in the state, we will keep more players safe.”
That philosophy has influenced nearly every part of the program, from equipment to practice structure.
Ballard received 63 practice-worn Guardian Caps and 114 Nike cleats through donations from the Seattle Seahawks. The program also added 18 new VICIS helmets for linemen and other “box” players, including running backs and linebackers. Essig also changed the team’s practice schedule to reduce full-speed collisions and spend more time teaching fundamentals.
“In years past, we would spend 40 minutes three times a week where we’re doing full-speed collisions. And this year we do 15 minutes twice a week,” Essig said. “It’s more of us learning everything before the contact, as opposed to initiating contact against each other. We just want to stay healthy, so we focus on the fundamentals now.”
“On Mondays, we have a primarily defensive day. On Tuesdays, we have a fundamental day (no team periods, no long-distance running). On Wednesdays, we have a primarily offensive day. On Thursdays, our walkthroughs are true walkthroughs,” Essig added.
The changes have extended beyond the field. Essig said the program moved to morning weights, added food and snacks for players, and created more opportunities for athletes to check in with teachers after school. But one of his most visible changes came when he introduced Guardian Caps to the team.
“Their response was mixed, to say the least. They candidly told me that when they were in junior football they spent a lot of time making fun of teams that wore Guardian Caps, and so it’s a shift in culture,” Essig said. “They said that they were scared of people making fun of them for the way that they look. So, I told them that it is up to the leaders of the team to set an expectation of wearing them, and now our players have fully bought it and wear the guardian caps without even thinking about it.”
“We want to be the safest program, and it starts by wearing guardian caps,” Essig continued.
That buy-in became especially significant during Ballard’s first league game of the season. According to Essig, the Beavers became the first Seattle Public Schools varsity football team to have its entire roster wear Guardian Caps during a league game.
For Essig, the accomplishment represented the type of commitment he wanted from his players when he took over the program. Beyond their commitment to wearing Guardian Caps, Essig said the players have developed into a connected group, pointing to their offseason participation as another example of their buy-in.
“They’ve been coming to the weight room the entire offseason, four days a week. They’re committed to morning weights. We have one captain on our team, but we have a lot of leaders within the program,” Essig said. “We do our best to be connected, and I think we do a really good job of that. We definitely lift each other up.”
As the season continues, Essig is less focused on establishing a specific win-loss record and more focused on whether his players believe in what the program is becoming.
“I don’t think about the results,” he said. “We have low expectations of what a win-loss record looks like. So, we measure our success based on player buy-in.”
Ultimately, Essig wants Ballard football to become a community experience built around passion, energy, safety and connection.
“I want people to look at us and say that they wish that they played for Ballard. Not because of wins and losses, but because of the energy and the impact that our coaching staff has on the players, and that our leaders have on their fellow teammates,” Essig said. “I hope people say that we are a top team that plays with passion and energy, and that people look at Ballard as one of the premier events in the city when it comes to an athletic event.”
