Football death at our HS

Parents Forum
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<p>This is a really important topic. </p>

<p>I am writing from Central FL where a football player just died not from a concussion but from the even more rare for football injuries a blow to the chest area that caused cardiac arrest. There was no warning. There was nothing anyone could do to save the young man’s life. </p>

<p>In addition to concussions being fatal you have to add in heat relate deaths and events like the one above. Don’t forget the equally terrifying neck injuries that result in paraylsis. </p>

<p>And you still want your kid to play football? </p>

<p>And then do it again in college? </p>

<p>Why? So he can be an over grown adolescent his whole life like 50% of the people who attach themselves to high school and youth football are? </p>

<p>No one loves football more than I do. In fact, I was just reading a football message board devoted to local high school sports and followed a link to a YouTube video for, I am not making this up, “the hardest hitting 6-year old on earth.” Amazingly, some grown men are in their offices jumping up and down like cave men watching some 6-year nail other 6-year olds. </p>

<p>These are the kind of guys who think football should be a 24/7 passion for anyone associated with the program to include fund raising and big hits and wins and watchever. </p>

<p>Yeah, I have mixed feelings about my love for football. </p>

<p>I think my porblem is that I have a normal sized brain and I think football is just a game. Sure, it is nice to win but winning doesn’t make me any richer or better looking. It is just a game, right? </p>

<p>I’m going to read the entire thread now. </p>

<p>I love/hate football. In related news, because the coaches are upset at the effort of some of the seniors, my just turned 16 year old son, a junior, will start his first varsity football game in about 29 hours (not that I am counting or anything). </p>

<p>I hope he doesn’t get killed. I’d hate to be taping the game with my camera and have that happened. He has worked his ass off to get into this position. I hope he enjoys it and then gets out of football the minute his last game next year is over. We have had enough. We do not need it. He isn’t going to the NFL.</p>

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<p>Class of 15,</p>

<p>That was such a great suggestion. I called the school to offer my assistance, but they informed me the 2 buses to take Varsity, JV and Freshman will be accompanied with The Principal. 2 VP, all of the guidance counselors plus the count grief counselors.</p>

<p>In other words they are holding the students hands. If you add up the FB coaches and their staff, plus the administration it probably 1 adult to every 5 kids.</p>

<p>I will sit in the wings, but knowing this now I think I will let the professionals step in if our DS has an issue before me. </p>

<p>Again, as sad as this is, I have to say during a time when we criticize the public school system, this one school has in many ways filled a void that gets lost in these moments. School is not only about grades and SATs it is about nurturing.</p>

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<p>So sorry to hear of your loss, b&p, and of yours from commodio cordis (chest wall blow that stops the heart) ACCeil [Commotio</a> Cordis Leads to Sudden Cardiac Arrest | MomsTeam](<a href=“http://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/cardiac-safety/general/commotio-cordis-leads-to-sudden-cardiac-arrest]Commotio”>Commotio Cordis Leads to Sudden Cardiac Arrest | MomsTeam)</p>

<p>Being in the field of head/brain injury, I am glad that more and more schools both HS and college level, are requiring baseline evaluations (ImPact is one of the several concussion/cognitive sports screening tools used) that can then be used for comparison after a head injury or concussion. To clarify one small point, concussion is the general term for a constellation of symptoms following a closed head injury that may or may not have involved a loss of consciousness. Death, while fortunately rare, comes from either swelling that causes undue pressure on the brain or brain stem that can cause problems with respiration, cardiac function and other autonomic activities, or from an internal bleed. As has been mentioned above, repeat concussions can have additive factors. There has been suggestion (though the literature is inconsistent) that soccer players “heading” the ball can cause brain injury. I had a patient who had persistent concussive symptoms from the football team smacking their helmeted heads together to get psyched up prior to a game. </p>

<p>My younger s had a concussion playing on the HS Varsity ultimate frisbee team. They did a very cursory concussion screen, and let him play again later in the game. I was not happy when I found out. The coach and I had a little chat.</p>

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<p>I don’t know what is right for your son, but some years ago a 16 year old girl my son knew died. One month she was playing soccer, the next she was gone due to a sudden and aggressive cancer; she played on her high school girl’s soccer team. During the service, she was in an open casket dressed in her soccer team sweats. Right before the service, the entire team walked in dressed as she was and lined up standing on one side of the church where they remained throughout the service. They went up past the open casket as a team which, as you can imagine, was very emotional for the girls. But it seemed to me that not only was it enormously meaningful to everyone present to see her team like that, I think it was very helpful to those girls. I imagine some of them had parents in the church, the principal of the school was there and I imagine some teachers and they had support. But I really got the feeling that they needed each other a lot right then and that it helped them to be together.</p>

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<p>That has been our exact experience. In addition to losing a student to suicide, the following year my son’s beloved offensive line coach died of a massive heart attack at a school basketball game and one of son’s bf’s father died when the boys were 13. </p>

<p>Each and every time the kids in son’s group pulled together to be there for each other and formed extraordinary bonds that continue on today even though many of them are at different colleges. I am often touched by their loyalty and commitment to each other.</p>

<p>It is important for the kids to decide what they need and often, more than anything else, they need to be with their peers at a time like this. It is a difficult and sad part of life but one that can’t be swept under the rug. They need to grieve this loss in order to get past it. Things like the funeral and playing for their deceased teammate are very symbolic and necessary. Pima, I suspect your son will be fine. Hugs.</p>

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<p>Yes, MomLive, as I think about it more, my kids have been to far more funerals of friends than they should have, particularly my oldest. Our kids went to a small camp that is a very tight community. When one of the former campers died at 19, dozens of people from the camp community came to the service, including former campers who were grown and scattered. Although many parents of campers were there, the kids sat together with their camp friends and the head of the camp ministry (it was a religious camp.) During the eulogy, given by the camp director, he asked the campers to stand so the parents could see how many had come, even from other states. I saw the parents faces when they turned to look and it was obvious it meant the world to them to see all those kids there. I also think it helped the kids to sit together and to remember him together. Their memories were their memories and belonged to them as a group in a unique way.</p>

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That summer practice sounds excessive. Since football is revered in your town, I checked to see what the guidelines are. Seems as if all but 3 weeks (before the first game) of that summer “practice” is supposed to be “conditioning” and open to all students. Is it? From doing some further research, it seems that there is widespread violation of the high school rules regarding out-of-season practices in your state.</p>

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<p>I live in this town. Although athletics is part of the culture, schools are more known for what speciality program you host. Our county high schools offer IB, Cambridge, IT, Fine Arts, Governor’s School for Science and Technology, Bio Tech, and Environmental and Natural Sciences speciality high schools. Our middle schools also offer IB, Math & Science, and Language speciality schools. At the elementary level we also offer speciality schools with IB, Math & Science, and World Language focus. All programs are competitive by application even if held in your home district school.</p>

<p>If you are interested in learning about Prince William County Schools as a whole, please visit their main website to get a full view of what their emphasis is placed on.</p>

<p>[Prince</a> William County Public Schools Web Site](<a href=“http://www.pwcs.edu/]Prince”>http://www.pwcs.edu/)</p>

<p>From speaking to parents here on CC who have students in the deep south, I believe our ‘Friday Night Lights’ don’t hold a candle to the emphasis placed on football in other areas of the country.</p>

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<p>Pima, I guess the service is over by now. I just checked back in this thread and was shocked to see that the death was ruled suicide…certainly there is much there for the kids to deal with.</p>

<p>I just wanted to tell you that when my S was in HS the founder of Safe Passage, a wonderful organization that educates the children of families that live and work in the Guatemala City garbage dump (and also supports the families in many ways) was killed in a road accident in Guatemala. Like a number of his friends, S had volunteered there and knew her slightly. I took S and the friend with whom we went to Guatemala to the wake, which was open casket. Both chose to join the line that went up to see her. I then took both of them to her memorial service, which was so enormous that it had to be held in a HS gym. Amongst the crowd were hundreds of volunteers, many of them kids, wearing their Safe Passage uniform t-shirts. It was very moving. </p>

<p>In any case, although they obviously were not as close to Hanley as your S was to Austin, they both coped very well with the wake. I think that everyone feels unease at some deep level in the face of death. I also think that it is good for kids to be encouraged to view death as a natural part of life, albeit sometimes terribly sad, rather than developing the inability to deal with it that so many adults have. In our society it is so common for people and even beloved pets to die in mechanized medical settings, rather than among their family and friends. I think it is unfortunate. This summer, my father died at home, with hospice care provided by my mother and myself. While it was not easy, the ability to be there with him (and her) was a huge gift. I have noted that she and I are more at peace with his death than the rest of the family.</p>

<p>Big hugs to you and yours.</p>

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<p>I agree, we have lived in NC and in the south football is a Friday night thing. Even if you don’t have a kid at the school, people still come out for the game. Friday night after we came home from the game, Bullet was flipping through channels and on ESPN they were televising a hs football game. I looked at him and said, this is hs football? They had some many bleachers, I swear they sat 10K on a bad day. Texas it’s all about football.</p>

<p>Additionally, as blue stated people in this area do not move to the school district for the athletic dept. They move for the specialty program offered at the school. Our school is the only one on the West side of 95 to offer the Cambridge program, thus parents move into this area for that program. You must compete to get into the program, but you still move there because if they get in and you are across district lines, they will not bus your child, which creates an issue.</p>

<p>All I know is they start practice the 1st week of July and hold that schedule until the last week of August. The reason they change the schedule that week is because teachers must report back 1 week prior to school, so the coaches can’t be having practice since it conflicts with their actual job.</p>

<p>As for what occurred friday and saturday it was very special. The stands were a sea of white t-shirts that kids hand painted with Austin’s number and name on them. Austin’s younger brother’s friends sat in a huge group next to us, and they made up their own little cheers calling out Cody’s name all night long. The two younger brothers wore Austins jersey that night and were allowed to be on the sidelines throughout the game.</p>

<p>Traditionally after the game the parents make a tunnel for the kids to walk through, but that night there were 2 tunnels. One leaving the field and one with the hs kids by the locker room as they entered.</p>

<p>Immediately afterwards they held a candle light vigil in honor of Austin.</p>

<p>Sat was the funeral and after the family entered there were 125 kids that entered. They were all members of the FB and LAX team in jerseys. </p>

<p>I got the chance to talk to his parents on Friday, and I must say they were amazing. They appeared to have accepted what occurred, and all they kept saying was we were blessed by God to have him for 17 1/2 yrs. The rest of it didn’t matter.</p>

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<p>I was responding to this quote by the OP:</p>

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<p>OP wrote:

Then this appears to be in violation of your high school’s handbook, which states that member schools shall confine practices to the seasonal limitations. I looked it up further, and I believe your state high school sports governing body is the Virginia High School League. They state that “practices” are not to to be held before 3 weeks before the first game. “Conditioning” sessions are allowed. It sounds to me that 8-hour/day, 5 day/week “conditioning” sessions are more than that – they are practices. I also read that apparently there are widespread violations to this rule in Virginia, which apparently is why the league may change it.</p>

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<p>To be honest, unless you have a student in PWCS, then I don’t see what you have to be gained by digging through the high school handbook, looking for violations. I’m not sure what you are looking for, but it isn’t going to get you anywhere here. If you want to start another thread about your concern of ‘widespread violations in Virginia’ then do so. Perhaps you can take the time to look at high school handbooks in other states, compare, look for violations, and discuss which states are the worst offenders. I highly doubt Virginia would stand out.</p>

<p>Austin’s death was tragic. It was not due to violations regarding length of season or practice schedule.</p>

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<p>Okay,</p>

<p>1st off FB is a big player in this town, so is Volleyball, swimming, LAX, and XC. This is a very small hs compared to the other hs in PWC. The avg hs in PWC has @800+ per class grade…we have 300.</p>

<p>Okay now the next part…practices.</p>

<p>I don’t know what to tell you. All I can say, which probably will drive you even more insane is they also have a thing called combine. This is where parents pay 125 bucks for basically football camp at the hs for 2 weeks.</p>

<p>Now about practice. The kids have what is called 3 sessions each day. One session is inside where they review plays and video tapes of last yrs game. One session is either aerobic or weight training depending on the day. One session is on the field running plays. Between the 3 sessions they have a 30-45 minute break. By the time they get into the locker room and out again it is @ 1hr., thus, the 3 sessions are 2 hours each.</p>

<p>The coaches and trainers are very conscious about the kids health. When they are on the field training they are randomly pulled aside for a urine test regarding hydration. Each child at some point during the day will be tested. Too many fail in one group and practice is halted. There have been times that I have picked up our DS at 1 in the afternoon and days where I picked him up at 4. However, every single day I always dropped him off by 6:40 because he had to be suited up by 7. </p>

<p>Now the next issue, our gear/uniform is not officially given to the kids until the last week of July. When they practice in July they use gear, and this may be how they get around it because they can consider it try outs. Our school being so small, nobody is ever cut.</p>

<p>The 3 week rule would actually hurt our team, because you must have 15 practices in gear to play. If a child is injured, like my son was, they are not allowed to play with full gear for 5 practices. That means if you miss 2 practices like our DS (he helped us move his sister into college and we had an OOS wedding to attend). He would not have been eligible to play, since the 1st game is the 1st week of school. </p>

<p>Again, these coaches really are very diligent regarding placing the kids health first. If they weren’t we would have a winning record instead of a losing record.</p>

<p>Not one parent, including the Trenums does not have faith in these coaches or trainers that they will always put our kids 1st, and know that no win is worth the child.</p>

<p>It was our trainer that noticed my DS had a concussion, not Bullet and I and not the teachers that saw him all day. They were the ones to contact me and instructed my to take him to the hospital immediately.</p>

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<p>Hey Pima,
Our town is CRAZY about FB (and I think it always was, even before we had the NFL commissioner calling it home). You make a lot of good points. With this tragic death, everyone wants to figure out why, and overanalyzing practice schedules is their way of doing it. It sounds like your school has a very sound program, and the kids are monitored for health and safety concerns. But no matter what – football is a sport where there are concussions. Like LAX and soccer and hockey. So it’s part of that kind of life. Thank God your trainer spotted the concussion. I think (like you said) there should be a poster (like the “choking” poster) that each FB parent gets and each team has in their locker room – “signs of a concussion” and “long term effects of a mild concussion”. The best thing that can come out of this is awareness and open discussions. No more kids hiding the fact they had a concussion so they can play in the next game.</p>

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<p>I agree, there are kids hiding the fact they are injured just to play. Those antics are rare here. Our team is like which came 1st the chicken or the egg? We have had for yrs a losing record. Do we have it because our school places more emphasis on the kids health instead of winning a game? I think so.</p>

<p>Our Varsity team will never win a championship, but every week, the bleachers are filled with kids and parents to watch their butts be handed to us. The irony is the JV and Freshman teams have always been a winning team (last yr the two of them were undefeated or had 1 or 2 losses, this year they are both undefeated). This town could not care less about winning or losing, it is all about that 1950’s attitude of camaraderie and school spirit. </p>

<p>Something, I think we has as a society has lost is that spirit, we care more about bragging rights than just the love of watching kids play a sport they love. We are all wrapped up in getting a foot up for our kids, that we lost why hs sports were created. They weren’t created to get your kid into college. They weren’t created to hold state championships. They were created to bond students and parents into another community for school spirit.</p>

<p>I think that as parents we need to be parents. We need to see the big picture. Not the picture about my kid didn’t play or they played the whole game. We need to have schools like ours, where they don’t cut kids… go to practice and you are on the team. We need to have a school like ours where the coaches place the kid before the win. </p>

<p>If any of you could attend a home game for our team you would say that the kids hate losing, but week after week the bleachers are full and they go out there not for themselves, or their parents, but for the school and the community. And week after week the students and the community shows up for the game, makes tunnels for the players as they leave the field, loss after loss. To me, to quote Hillary Clinton “it takes a village to raise a child” is why we are all there week after week. The win is a treat, but it isn’t the reason we attend the games. We attend because we are a village. Austin’s death drove that home this past week. Even before his death, no spectator would dare leave the game before they walked off the field, and that goes for the 40 to 13 game. You stayed just to make the tunnel for the team. You were there for the kids.</p>

<p>Bullet and I are blessed to be a part of this village. I am, like the Trenums, thankful for the fact that my child is in this village. I know without a doubt that they believe my kid is their kid and they will do everything to protect him.</p>

<p>For other parents who are in contact sports, I hope that they have a frank conversation with their child and the coaches. Ask them, do they do hydration urine tests during practice. What is their reg for calling a “black flag” practice. Ask them if they have an athletic trainer. These quick questions will make a difference. If you feel through your new found info regarding how we handle our school and training, that you have fears contact the administration. Don’t jump their position by going to the BOE. Maybe, they never thought about these issues, give them the time to address it. </p>

<p>Education and the school system should be viewed as a co-parenting issue. They have our kids for 8 waking hours a day. Give them that respect, but they should also give you the respect that this is your child. It is a pull and tug relationship. You can’t let them say to you this is how we do it when you know in your gut it is wrong. You can’t as a parent also plow over them and tell them they do it your way when you have no knowledge regarding the regs set forth by the state. It is all about respect and trust!</p>

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<p><a href=“Rutgers Player Is Paralyzed Below the Neck - The New York Times”>Rutgers Player Is Paralyzed Below the Neck - The New York Times;

<p>Paralysis - another terrible injury in football</p>