New Calif. law could bring high school sports' entire fall calendar in question

[tango]

I guess people who rip on California don't eat vegetables...

[gonzoron]

31 minutes ago, tango said:

I guess people who rip on California don't eat vegetables...

True. Downright weird.

[Coach Nowlin]

7 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Thank you for this info, Irishman.   But these guidelines appear to be mainly for practices.  What about actual games?

 

Monday, JV game was moved back to start at 7pm, Sun was down and breeze picked up, it was a real pleasant night.   90 mins prior, not so much 

as many mentioned before, many of our programs have had the Wet Bulb measurements for YEARS, and the codes, this is not new for anyone in Indiana 

[Muda69]

32 minutes ago, Coach Nowlin said:

Monday, JV game was moved back to start at 7pm, Sun was down and breeze picked up, it was a real pleasant night.   90 mins prior, not so much 

as many mentioned before, many of our programs have had the Wet Bulb measurements for YEARS, and the codes, this is not new for anyone in Indiana 

Thank you Coach.  Do you know if these wet bulb measurements were instituted as part of a state law passed by the Indiana legislature or are they recommendations and/or requirements from the IHSAA?

[btownqbcoach1]

1 hour ago, tango said:

I guess people who rip on California don't eat vegetables...

My backyard is in California!?! 

Outside of that-- chances are my potatoes are grown in Idaho

Our middle linebacker grows the sweet corn. He lives in Wegan. 

[tango]

3 minutes ago, btownqbcoach1 said:

My backyard is in California!?! 

Outside of that-- chances are my potatoes are grown in Idaho

Our middle linebacker grows the sweet corn. He lives in Wegan. 

Some of us aren't that lucky Coach. I only have enough space for herbs... 😀 

[tango]

19 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

Thank you Coach.  Do you know if these wet bulb measurements were instituted as part of a state law passed by the Indiana legislature or are they recommendations and/or requirements from the IHSAA?

I was coaching one of younger teams back then and I believe it was the IHSAA, which usually adopts whatever the NFHS does.  

[gonzoron]

2 hours ago, btownqbcoach1 said:

chances are my potatoes are grown in Idaho

Chances are higher that they're grown in China

[btownqbcoach1]

2 hours ago, tango said:

Some of us aren't that lucky Coach. I only have enough space for herbs... 😀 

😅😅😅

11 minutes ago, gonzoron said:

Chances are higher that they're grown in China

They aren't 

[Coach Nowlin]

6 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Thank you Coach.  Do you know if these wet bulb measurements were instituted as part of a state law passed by the Indiana legislature or are they recommendations and/or requirements from the IHSAA?

To my knowledge, I know of zero state law that mandates Wet Bulb measurements for heat index, I do know that most smaller schools who are VERY FORTUNATE to have an ATC available to them, they most likely are utilizing a local hospital and their ATC employees.   Some school Corps/Districts I am sure have funds to hire their own, Rensselaer is not one of those districts, however, we have a great relationship with Franciscan out of Lafayette and have always had an ATC in my 22 years on the sidelines, however,, I know this is not a reality for all programs/ teams.   

I remember being at the IFCA board meeting YEARS ago where IFCA worked with IHSAA on these recommendation/guidelines with the color chart that we see today, at the time, all 50 states was ranked by the Kory Stringer institute, which began after his unfortunate death of Heat while with Vikings.  This Institute is out with University of Connecticut and Indiana did not grade out well.  I believe there was conversations with IHSAA and General Assembly at the time, making sure this report was being taken serious and implemented in our outdoor sports, if those conversation ended up as a Law on book over the years then I am not aware, could be, just don't know, I do know since that meeting, the general procedures we've seen this past week have been in place for a long time.   

I like to believe the coaches in Indiana understand their responsibility and how to keep their players safe.    

Just at our practice tonight:   I saw our ATC wet bulb out full time taking up to the sec readings and she had pre made a pool of cold water, 

 

[1st_and_10]

11 hours ago, Coach Nowlin said:

To my knowledge, I know of zero state law that mandates Wet Bulb measurements for heat index, I do know that most smaller schools who are VERY FORTUNATE to have an ATC available to them, they most likely are utilizing a local hospital and their ATC employees.   Some school Corps/Districts I am sure have funds to hire their own, Rensselaer is not one of those districts, however, we have a great relationship with Franciscan out of Lafayette and have always had an ATC in my 22 years on the sidelines, however,, I know this is not a reality for all programs/ teams.   

I remember being at the IFCA board meeting YEARS ago where IFCA worked with IHSAA on these recommendation/guidelines with the color chart that we see today, at the time, all 50 states was ranked by the Kory Stringer institute, which began after his unfortunate death of Heat while with Vikings.  This Institute is out with University of Connecticut and Indiana did not grade out well.  I believe there was conversations with IHSAA and General Assembly at the time, making sure this report was being taken serious and implemented in our outdoor sports, if those conversation ended up as a Law on book over the years then I am not aware, could be, just don't know, I do know since that meeting, the general procedures we've seen this past week have been in place for a long time.   

I like to believe the coaches in Indiana understand their responsibility and how to keep their players safe.    

Just at our practice tonight:   I saw our ATC wet bulb out full time taking up to the sec readings and she had pre made a pool of cold water, 

 

Agree.  Also add in the courses coaches are required to take via NFHS... Sudden Cardiac, Concussion, and Heat related illness are all mandatory. 

[Muda69]

Six high school football players have died in recent weeks. It’s time to take action

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/29/high-school-football-deaths-public-health-crisis

Quote

Six teenagers have now died while playing school football in less than three weeks. This astonishing rash of football-related school deaths should be understood as nothing less than a public health emergency. It is also a clarion call to question why we are exposing our young people to such a dangerous activity at all, much less in institutions designed to care for and nurture them.

The first four of these recent deaths were due to apparently heat-related causes and the latest two due to head trauma. Five of the athletes were high schoolers, the eldest only 16, and one was a 13-year-old eighth-grade student. The young athletes who died were Ovet Gomez-Regalado, age 15, in Kansas City; Semaj Wilkins, age 14, in Alabama; Jayvion Taylor, age 15, in Virginia; Leslie Noble, age 16, in Maryland; Caden Tellier, age 16, in Alabama; and Cohen Craddock, age 13, in West Virginia.

This is in addition to the death of 18-year-old college freshman Calvin Dickey Jr, who died on 12 July, two days after passing out at a Bucknell University practice from sickle cell-related rhabdomyolysis.

There should be no sugar-coating what has transpired here, nor any claims of coincidence. We already know that football can cause life-altering harm. Between 2018 and 2022, at least 11 amateur or professional football players have died in the US from heat-related causes. We also know that every 2.6 years of participation in tackle football – a sport many American kids are enrolled in as young as five – doubles the chances of contracting the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). We also now know that football players have a 61% greater chance compared to athletes in other organized sports to develop Parkinson’s disease, a risk that is 2.93 times higher for college and professional players.

The effects of tackle football on the brain – while long understood at this point, and acknowledged by the NFL in its concussion settlement – are often easy to normalize and dismiss because they are obscured by helmets and skulls and the convenience of the passage of time. But the traumatic deaths of kids playing football at school must not be ignored.

Kathleen Bachynski, assistant professor of public health at Muhlenberg College, author of No Game For Boys to Play: The History of Youth Football and the Origins of a Public Health Crisis, is unequivocal about what is at stake.

“Can you imagine the public outcry if one NFL player, let alone six, died from heatstroke or head injuries?” she says. “We should be equally outraged about the deaths of children.”

Similarly, a former Southeastern Conference football player, who asked to remain anonymous, was shocked by the recent deaths.

“Hearing about this is horrifying,” he told us. “I’m not sure what the typical number is when it comes to kids or young men dying playing football, but six in the past month just sounds wrong. Being both a player and a coach myself, the system seems stacked against our players, regardless if the program the athletes are at has a high amount of resources or not.

“I personally had an experience where I was at an SEC football camp and asked a trainer for heat guard – something my Alabama high school coaches and eventually my college program stressed when playing in hot or humid conditions. I was denied the salt tablets even after telling them I was cramping and didn’t feel good. Within the hour, I had blacked out and fallen on concrete.”

Former Vanderbilt offensive lineman Jabo Burrow is also not surprised by the recent news.

“I am horrified by the start to this season, but not at all surprised,” he told us. “I still hold to the belief that traumatic brain injuries and football are synonymous. Participation in the sport, at any level, will lead to long lasting changes to your neurological state, regardless of your skill level, and it only increases and compounds the longer you play.

“At the high school level and below, it is past time to ask ourselves the question of what is the allowable level of risk when allowing our children to participate in any organized, state sanctioned activity? When tragedies happen, they are usually accompanied by the phrase, ‘freak accident’. Freak may apply, but it’s definitely not an accident. The ultimate risk of participating in football is death by traumatic brain injury.”

For Burrow, “There will continue to be changes to the game, but the root issue will stay unchanged. Practicing and/or playing football where there is head-to-head contact, or contact between the head and the ground, or contact with the head whatsoever, you will always be at risk of brain injury – which means you are at some risk of death. The articles on the young person that died in Alabama last week seem to state that witnesses could not pinpoint a single moment that led to the death of the player. Football is the moment. Every collision that involves the head is a moment where it could happen. Football can not exist in its current state if you choose to eliminate that risk from your child’s life. I personally believe that allowing participation in tackle football is signing a waiver stating that you understand those risks. It shouldn’t be downplayed and it shouldn’t be swept aside as a freak accident.”

Similarly, some of the former college football players we spoke to for our forthcoming book were convinced after their experiences in the sport that it was not morally sustainable given its devastating costs.

One player explained, “I don’t think the game should exist. You can’t consider yourself an advanced society while having this continue to be so pervasive … That’s why the game shouldn’t exist. You cannot guarantee you can keep these kids safe from that game, in that game, during that game. Your rules and your whistle does not keep them safe.”

Another player added, “I played basketball my whole life. And then my high school coach … convinced me to play football, because I was bigger ... So yeah, no, I would have never played football. I would say that’s probably the worst mistake I’ve ever made … If I knew what I knew, I would have never played.”

He later added, “Football is absolutely the worst sport ever created. Like, I would be more OK with two people just trying to kill each other in a boxing ring, because at least that happens once every few months. This is like every day.”

In 1905, 18 people died playing football, leading multiple colleges to drop the sport, US president Teddy Roosevelt to push for safety reforms and Harvard’s president to call the game “more brutalizing than prizefighting, cockfighting or bullfighting”. Over a century later, it’s clear that the reforms that have ensued have not been sufficient to protect our kids from that brutality.

If we genuinely want to protect our kids, reforms just aren’t enough. We need to take seriously the question of abolishing tackle football – especially in our schools.

As Burrow put it in describing the reality of tackle football as it currently exists, “You will sustain some type of trauma to your brain, you may never know the full consequence of your participation in the sport, and you are always at risk of death.”

• Nathan Kalman-Lamb is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. Derek Silva is Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology at King’s University College at Western University. They are co-authors of The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game (UNC Press, December 2024) and co-hosts (with Johanna Mellis) of The End of Sport podcast.

Are the ban hammers coming?

 

[Muda69]

More on this scourge of deaths:  https://apnews.com/article/football-deaths-safety-3664f801aaa2ca84ebd9338d0279f800

Quote

HEWETT, W.Va. (AP) — Ryan Craddock had seen his share of tragedy during two decades as a coal miner and firefighter.

Then came the toughest heartbreak of all: his own.

Craddock and his family are mourning the loss of his 13-year-old son, Cohen, who died from brain trauma last month after making a tackle during football practice at his middle school.

Cohen’s death, and the death of a 16-year-old Alabama high school player from a brain injury on the same day, have sparked renewed debate about whether the safety risks of youths playing football outweigh the benefits that the sport brings to a community.

“I don’t think we need to do away with football,” Craddock said. “A lot of people enjoy football, including myself. I just think we need to maybe put more safety measures out there to protect our kids.”

Craddock is among those who believe that some concrete actions need to be taken to prevent more deaths.

Proposals in individual states to ban tackle football for younger children during a critical period of their brain development have gotten little traction. At the same time, youth participation in tackle football has been declining for years, and efforts to steer young boys into flag football are growing.

 

In 2023, three young football players died of head injuries and 10 players died of other causes, such as heat stroke, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Robert Cantu, medical director of the organization, which has been tracking football-related deaths for more than 40 years, calls that a “typical” year.

 

“So I would not be particularly alarmed about two deaths in a week,” he said. “But I would be very alarmed if we had two deaths per week for four or five weeks in a row. Because we’ve never had that before.”

Cantu also subscribes to another philosophy: “No hits to the head are good,” he says.

In the past, Cantu has recommended that for kids under 14 there be no tackling in football, no heading in soccer and no full-body-checking in hockey.

In football practices, at least, most helmet-to-helmet contact can be eliminated by using noncollision methods such as tackling dummies, said Cantu, who is also co-founder of the Boston-based Concussion Legacy Foundation, which supports patients and families struggling with brain-trauma symptoms. He suggests children play flag football until they enter high school.

Flag football is already wildly popular among girls and is sanctioned as an Olympic sport for men and women at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. About 500,000 girls ages 6 to 17 played flag football in 2023, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Whether that popularity transfers to boys remains to be seen. The Concussion Legacy Foundation has a “Flag Football under 14” initiative and has compiled a list of Pro Football Hall of Famers who waited until high school to play tackle football, including Tom Brady, Jerry Rice, Jim Brown and Walter Payton.

“I suggest age 12 would be a good place to start the conversation,” said Dr. Chris Nowinski, the foundation’s CEO and a former WWE wrestler who retired due to a concussion. “But any minimum age requirement that takes into consideration brain health for children would be welcome.”

Nowinski said even the NFL has limited full-contact practices during the regular season and recently changed kickoff rules aimed at preventing concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease that medical studies have linked to the head trauma of NFL players.

“Yet middle and high school football has made neither change,” he said.

Efforts to ban tackling in youth football have met strong resistance. A New York lawmaker fought unsuccessfully for 10 years to enact such a rule. In January, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would not sign a similar bill if it were to reach his desk.

There has been some progress, however. For instance, all 50 states have some form of sports-related concussion laws, mostly requiring athletes to leave a game or practice if a concussion is suspected and be cleared by a medical professional before they can return.

An increase in reported concussions from 2005-06 through 2017-18 was likely due to that additional education and awareness, said Christy Collins, president of the Indianapolis-based Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention. The center uses a sampling of high schools nationwide to calculate injury rates involving football practices and games combined.

“Athletes (and their parents) may have been more likely to recognize symptoms of concussion and report those symptoms to medical professionals,” Collins said.

Loren Montgomery, who has won nine Oklahoma state championships in 14 seasons as the head coach at Bixby High School, believes football is “safer than ever.” He cites efforts to minimize injury risk such as penalizing helmet-to-helmet contact and certain types of blocks, along with technology including cognitive tests for concussion assessment and protective soft-shell helmet covers known as Guardian caps.

“Obviously there is inherent risk in all contact sports, but the values of teamwork, hard work and overcoming adversity far outweigh the risk involved,” Montgomery said. He allowed his son to play football starting in the fourth grade, “and I believe it has made him a more well-rounded young man.”

Guardian caps are used from the NFL on down to the youth level. One cap made by Guardian Sports sells on Amazon for $75. But the caps have only a six-month limited warranty from the date of purchase, meaning they could be pricey for a school district to have to replace every season.

Guardian Sports also warns on its website that no helmet, helmet pad or practice apparatus prevents or eliminates the risk of concussions or other serious head injuries while playing sports.

Still, Craddock has vowed to look into the caps’ use at Madison Middle School in Cohen’s memory.

On Wednesday, several days before his son was to be laid to rest, Craddock found the strength to speak with Cohen’s teammates.

“I told them that this was a bad accident, to move forward,” he said. “I didn’t want them to have the weight of my son on their shoulders. But I wanted them to play for him. I wanted them to play ‘Cohen strong.’”