Banner Health’s Dr. Damien Richardson was spot on Saturday when he helped kick off the first ever flag football combine at Banner Sports Medicine Scottsdale.

“The number one ability for an athlete is availability,” the orthopedic surgeon told the large group of high school athletes.

Dr. Damien Richardson helped kick off Saturday's combine. (Jackson Shaw/azpreps365)More than 40 of Banner Health’s staff members were present to help guide the athletes through a series of drills at the High Performance Center of Banner Sports.

Along with the combine, Banner’s staff also shared their expertise during a clinic for more than 40 flag football coaches.

Aside from improving and testing their skills, the students were educated on health and safety protocols. Each participant left the combine with an ACL injury prevention program and received mouth guards from Delta Dental of Arizona.

“I really liked how supportive this atmosphere was,” said Boulder Creek defensive back Emma Pence.

Pence was interviewed during azpreps365’s Saturday Morning Radio Show.

During the combine, the girls were separated into groups and rotated through five stations, where they got an accurate analysis of their athletic profiles and skills. The five stations included a vertical jump station, broad jump station, medicine ball toss, 40-yard dash, and numerous agility drills at the High Performance Center’s turf field.

“We want to support all athletes, but especially the female athlete,” said Tyler Wallace, director of business operations at the High Performance Center. “We felt it was very important to help them understand where their performance levels are, how we might be able to help them, and most importantly help them prevent injuries,”

From professionals to youth, the High Performance Center is available to athletes of all variants year-round.

They host camps and workshops for hundreds of teams, coaches or individuals for any sport as well.

“What’s nice is we can create anything based on the need for the individual or the group or the team,” said Dr. Sierra Dimberg, a sport psychologist at Banner.

The High Performance Center provides athletes with access to a plethora of resources.

That includes a 3D biomechanics analysis, sports science testing and state of the art equipment that help in “developing comprehensive athlete profiles in order to understand each individual’s human performance and personalize interventions for each athlete,” according to bannerhealth.com.

Dr. Richardson was a co-captain alongside Pat Tillman when he played football at Arizona State before getting drafted by the Carolina Panthers in 1998 and playing for seven years. He now works in Banner’s foot and ankle orthopedic surgery unit and was one of the dozens of doctors who attended the combine.

Banner's staff members prepare to put flag football players through their paces at Banner's High Performance Center. (Jackson Shaw/azpreps365)

He kicked off the event by providing insight into his life and emphasizing the importance of health and safety in sports.

Dr. Leah Brown, an orthopedic surgeon at Banner, was the second guest speaker. She flew in from Paris to attend the combine, where she was helping out Team USA at the 2024 Olympic Games.

Brown won two national gymnastics championships at Georgia and is an advocate for women’s sports.

“I love that there is excitement around women being the best athletes they can be,” Brown said.

In 2023, about 500,000 girls aged six to 17 participated in flag football, a 63% increase since 2019, according to NFHS.

“It shows that we care about them,” Dimberg said. “This is something that I don’t think, to my knowledge, has been done before, putting on a combine like this. So showing them we care, giving them these resources and access shows that we care and gives them these opportunities and just kind of highlights their sport a little bit more.”