The remarkable thing about the sports concussions epidemic is that just when you think you could not be more alarmed about it, you get more alarmed.
Tonight, the reporting that stirs the concern is on Frontline and a documentary called Football High.
The show deals with many health risks in youth football - not just head trauma but heat stroke, obesity and the mindset that hitting a kid isn't as good as hitting a kid hard enough to crack his helmet.
The school profiled is Euless Trinity High School in Texas where these issues seem to be either chronically under appreciated or ignored.
One kid tells Frontline, “You’re only 17 once. I mean, I have the rest of my life to worry about pain and stuff like that. I can only, you know, play football for so long. I might as well use the time I have and worry about the effects later.”
That's the kind of thing that 17-year-olds are supposed to say. They're 17, after all. The adults are supposed to protect them from themselves. We don't do a very good job of that in sports.
Showing posts with label heat stroke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heat stroke. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
More on youth football and heat stroke
Rhonda Fincher of Rogers, Arkansas saw last week's post on Max Gilpin's death and contacted me about a loss in her family. In 1995, her son Kendrick went off to the first day of football practice. He got overheated during the workout and collapsed. Max Gilpin was 15 when he died from heatstroke last August. Kendrick Fincher was 13.
Rhonda is executive director of the Kendrick Fincher Memorial Foundation, which raises awareness about the issue.
She wrote: "I don't believe coaches go into coaching to hurt anyone. They want to help children become the best athlete they can and many of them are interested in helping that child become the best adult they can. Sadly, many of these coaches were raised in an era without air conditioning, video games, energy drinks and soda--all things, I believe, that contribute to the increase in heat related incidences of children in sports. Coaching has to be different today and parents and the athletes also need to share a role in the responsibility."
Rhonda is executive director of the Kendrick Fincher Memorial Foundation, which raises awareness about the issue.
She wrote: "I don't believe coaches go into coaching to hurt anyone. They want to help children become the best athlete they can and many of them are interested in helping that child become the best adult they can. Sadly, many of these coaches were raised in an era without air conditioning, video games, energy drinks and soda--all things, I believe, that contribute to the increase in heat related incidences of children in sports. Coaching has to be different today and parents and the athletes also need to share a role in the responsibility."
Friday, February 13, 2009
Learning from the tragedy of Max Gilpin
Perhaps something positive will come from the tragic story of Max Gilpin, the 15-year-old from Louisville who died after suffering heat stroke last summer during a high school football practice. Max's coach has been charged with reckless homicide.
The Louisville Courier-Journal reports on a bill introduced in the Kentucky state legislature that would mandate ice pools be available during practices and games when the heat index is above 94 degrees. The bill, introduced by Rep. Joni Jenkins, also calls for coaches to be certified in CPR and to be trained to use a portable device for treating people in cardiac arrest, according to the newspaper.
Max's mother, Michele Crockett,told the C-J: "After Max died, I said his death is not going to be in vain, and I am so excited to see somebody feels this is as important as we do."
The Louisville Courier-Journal reports on a bill introduced in the Kentucky state legislature that would mandate ice pools be available during practices and games when the heat index is above 94 degrees. The bill, introduced by Rep. Joni Jenkins, also calls for coaches to be certified in CPR and to be trained to use a portable device for treating people in cardiac arrest, according to the newspaper.
Max's mother, Michele Crockett,told the C-J: "After Max died, I said his death is not going to be in vain, and I am so excited to see somebody feels this is as important as we do."
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
More on concussions, criminal charges
Sadly, kids and sports injuries seem to be at the top of the news this week.
NPR's Talk of the Nation aired a pointed discussion on the Louisville prep coach charged in the death of the young player who died from heat stroke. Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights, the Grapes of Wrath of youth sports books, was one of the guests and let's just say it's a good thing for the accused coach that Buzz won't be sitting on the jury. The other guest was Antoinette "Toni" Konz, education reporter for The Louisville Courier-Journal who explained that rather than rush to judgment, the prosecutors actually showed great restraint. Their investigation went on for months before they presented their case - which apparently included numerous accounts of the coach denying water to his players - to a grand jury - .
Then there was the report released yesterday further establishing the link between concussions suffered by football players - mostly NFL players, but not all - and early onset dementia.
The headline from that story as it will be reported in most places is that six former NFL players are now known to have died early from a degenerative brain disease caused by head trauma, the latest being Tom McHale, a former Tampa Bay Buc. The report goes on to say that for the first time evidence of the same brain condition has been discovered in an 18-year-old boy "who suffered multiple concussions in high school football."
From a press release issued by the Boston University School of Medicine:
"The discovery of the initial stages of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy)in an 18-year-old should move the discussion of football's concussion crisis toward youth football. The identity of the 18-year-old will not be revealed at the family's request. According to Cantu [Robert Cantu, MD, chief of Neurosurgery and director of Sports Medicine at Emerson Hospital in
Concord, Mass and a study co-author], "Our efforts to educate athletes, coaches, and parents on the need to identify and rest concussions have only been moderately
successful because people have been willing to look the other way when a
child suffers a concussion. I hope the discovery of CTE in a child creates the urgency this issue needs. It is morally and ethically wrong to allow our children to voluntarily suffer this kind of brain trauma
without taking the simple educational steps needed to protect them."
It's comforting to think that the answer is education. If the coaches and parents understood the risks, they wouldn't be putting the star quarterback who'd just had his bell rung back into the game. Comforting because if the fix were that simple, these injuries could be reduced or even eliminated within a matter of months or, worst case, years. It isn't that simple.
NPR's Talk of the Nation aired a pointed discussion on the Louisville prep coach charged in the death of the young player who died from heat stroke. Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights, the Grapes of Wrath of youth sports books, was one of the guests and let's just say it's a good thing for the accused coach that Buzz won't be sitting on the jury. The other guest was Antoinette "Toni" Konz, education reporter for The Louisville Courier-Journal who explained that rather than rush to judgment, the prosecutors actually showed great restraint. Their investigation went on for months before they presented their case - which apparently included numerous accounts of the coach denying water to his players - to a grand jury - .
Then there was the report released yesterday further establishing the link between concussions suffered by football players - mostly NFL players, but not all - and early onset dementia.
The headline from that story as it will be reported in most places is that six former NFL players are now known to have died early from a degenerative brain disease caused by head trauma, the latest being Tom McHale, a former Tampa Bay Buc. The report goes on to say that for the first time evidence of the same brain condition has been discovered in an 18-year-old boy "who suffered multiple concussions in high school football."
From a press release issued by the Boston University School of Medicine:
"The discovery of the initial stages of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy)in an 18-year-old should move the discussion of football's concussion crisis toward youth football. The identity of the 18-year-old will not be revealed at the family's request. According to Cantu [Robert Cantu, MD, chief of Neurosurgery and director of Sports Medicine at Emerson Hospital in
Concord, Mass and a study co-author], "Our efforts to educate athletes, coaches, and parents on the need to identify and rest concussions have only been moderately
successful because people have been willing to look the other way when a
child suffers a concussion. I hope the discovery of CTE in a child creates the urgency this issue needs. It is morally and ethically wrong to allow our children to voluntarily suffer this kind of brain trauma
without taking the simple educational steps needed to protect them."
It's comforting to think that the answer is education. If the coaches and parents understood the risks, they wouldn't be putting the star quarterback who'd just had his bell rung back into the game. Comforting because if the fix were that simple, these injuries could be reduced or even eliminated within a matter of months or, worst case, years. It isn't that simple.
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