Schools cut football because of injuries.

[Tigercannon71]

I saw this article on MSN and I thought it would be a good topic of discussion on here. All our teams in this area has seen their fair share of injuries throughout the years. Ill put my opinion later.


Heres the link:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/missou ... ?li=AA54ur

Heres the article:

MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — Students and families at Maplewood Richmond Heights High School are looking forward to homecoming, the highlight of the autumn school calendar for decades. But for the first time, the centerpiece event will be soccer, not football.
The school board in Maplewood, a St. Louis suburb, disbanded the high school’s football team in June, even though it reached the state championship game five years ago. A decade ago, such a move would have seemed radical. But concerns are growing about football players’ safety, and soccer and other sports are gaining popularity.

“Over all, it was, ‘Can we field a team that is competitive and safe for the kids to perform?’ ” said Nelson Mitten, the president of the Maplewood Richmond Heights School Board, who said players’ injuries last season included a broken ankle, a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a significant head injury. “Whenever you have anything like that, you have to be a responsible board and discuss what we can do to make sure we can field a team.”

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The viability of football at the high school level remains unquestioned in most communities in the United States. But situations like the one in Maplewood are becoming more familiar.

Ridgefield Memorial High School in New Jersey scrapped its varsity football program this season because only 13 students tried out. Camden Hills Regional High School in Maine announced last week that it would cancel the final five games of its football season because injuries had left the team with younger, less experienced players who were at risk of being injured as well.

“I want to make sure folks know that this had nothing to do with wins and losses, lack of effort on our kids’ part, coaching, or anything but numbers,” said Nick Ithomitis, the Camden Hills principal.

Over the weekend, concerns about player safety intensified when Evan Murray, the star quarterback at Warren Hills Regional High School in New Jersey, collapsed on the field after a hit and died soon after. The medical examiner in Morris County ruled the death accidental and determined that Murray had lacerated his spleen. The spleen was abnormally large, making it more susceptible to injury, and there was no evidence of head trauma, the examiner said.

Murray was the third high school football player this season to die directly from injuries in a game. Five football players died last year, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research.

There are no precise statistics on how many schools have shut down their football programs because of safety concerns, but a number of teams have been disbanded as participation in tackle football nationwide has declined amid rising awareness of concussions and other dangers.

Despite the popularity of college and professional football, the number of male high school football players has fallen to about 1.08 million this year, a 2.4 percent decline from five years ago.

Pop Warner, the largest youth football organization, has seen larger decreases. It has also been sued by a parent of a player who committed suicide at 25 and was found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain disease linked to repeated head hits.

The football deaths this year have involved a range of positions.

This month, Tyrell Cameron, a sophomore at Franklin Parish High School in Louisiana, died after being hit during a punt return. The local coroner has not determined a cause of death. In Oklahoma, Ben Hamm, a 16-year-old linebacker at Wesleyan Christian School, died on Sept. 19, eight days after he was hit in a game.

No such tragedies have occurred at Maplewood. But the number and seriousness of the injuries to football players have weighed on parents, eroding support for what was once the school’s showpiece sport. More parents are enrolling their children in a growing number of youth soccer programs, leaving fewer students playing football by the time they reach high school.

“The boys I’ve seen, they’re growing up with soccer,” said Betty Pearson, whose oldest son played football at Maplewood but whose youngest son plays soccer. “I come out, and there are 10 kids kicking the ball around in the street. I don’t think I’ve seen that with football.”

In 2010, the 300-student school had 38 players on the football team, twice as many as on the soccer team. Last season, only 20 students were on the football team, three fewer than the minimum recommended by the state. The team had to forfeit a game because injuries left the sideline depleted. A student who sustained a head injury sat out the rest of the season.

Mitten, the school board president, said that the series of injuries last season led the board to discuss disbanding the team. The students were polled about their interests, and just 15 said they would try out for the team this season, including only five returning players. Although a few alumni were not happy with the board’s proposal, no parents attended board meetings to complain.

“When you simply don’t have the players, it’s obvious,” Mitten said. “I had two parents informally raise concerns, but this was more of a student-participation-driven decision. It withered.”

Declining youth participation rates have started to worry the N.F.L. because the league’s long-term health could be affected. The league has donated tens of millions of dollars to USA Football, which has been training coaches and promoting a safe-tackling program to reassure parents.

N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell, speaking at a conference in New Orleans this month, said the sport was “safer than ever” because of awareness about injuries.

“I had a concussion playing baseball, and they didn’t do anything about it,” Goodell added. “We’re smarter about how long we practice.”

Youth leagues and high schools have followed the N.F.L.’s lead and reduced contact in practice, but most serious injuries occur in games.

Safety standards also vary widely. Many schools, for instance, still do not require trainers and emergency workers to be present at games. Coaches are sometimes unable to recognize the symptoms of concussions and unwilling to take players out.

“So many player protections — equipment, practice formats, drills, regimens — that are standard in pro and college football are unknown in high school football,” said Terry O’Neil, the founder of Practice Like Pros, a group that advocates safer football techniques. “After all the many excellent rule changes in the last few years, we don’t expect any future rule changes to change the game drastically. Game day will always be dangerous.”

Mitten agreed.

“I was very concerned about the number of injuries I saw our student-athletes were suffering,” he said. “I didn’t think there was any need for them to be doing that if that’s what was going to be the result.”

[wobycat]

They should outlaw cars, lightning bolts, swimming pools, guns, crossbows, food, etc.

Death is tragic at a very young age but any of the items in the list above can cause the same tragedy. Perhaps we should put our faith in God, who sets our appointments.

[jinks]

Mr. Cat, I don't think they said anything about "outlawing" football. I believe the opinion is that parents may not want their children to play,& evidently many more students are opting not to play.

[BlizzardMan]

They should outlaw cars, lightning bolts, swimming pools, guns, crossbows, food, etc.

Death is tragic at a very young age but any of the items in the list above can cause the same tragedy. Perhaps we should put our faith in God, who sets our appointments.

Good point. That's one reason I don't carry a gun. If it's my time it's my time. I trust God to keep me safe.

[Tigercannon71]

Honestly I think its part of a media witch hunt and part of a liberal theory to wussify our nation. You can get hurt in any sport it dont matter if its Volleyball, Baseball, Cheerleading, Football, etc... The media though these past few years has taken enjoyment in pointing out cases especially when it comes to football injuries. Really its common sense to know when 22 people are colliding on a field like they do in football at some point there will be injuries minor to severe. Thats the nature of the game. Now people are surprised to find that out. You shouldnt be. I think this school and a lot of parents are jumping to conclusions and instead of using common sense they are feeding the irrational fear of football that the media is trying to build up.
Really, if there is an increase in injuries its due to parents, associations over sports, and the kids themselves. What I mean by that is look outside and see how many kids are playing outside(I mean after school). You rarely see kids outside playing anymore. They would rather be inside playing video games or doing whatever instead of being active. Thats when the parents need top step in and say go outside and play. Kids get banged up outside and it toughens them up. Now you got states saying you can only hit for like 60 minutes a week. So you limit the full contact during the week and then expect them to go play for 48 minutes of live contact on friday night. Kids bodies arent used to the hitting so they get hurt. Like anything you got to get acclimated to the environment you are getting into. Kids themselves need to take it upon to be more active and get out there and do stuff. Now I know you do have kids that are very active and they get hurt. I understand that, but sometimes an injury just happens. Ive seen kids get upended and land helmet first and they crumple their neck you think hes dead or broken neck . They get up fine and then you see a kid go down with a torn ACL without anyone touching him and all he was doing was running. Its a freak thing injuries. Theres stuff you can do to prevent them being active and working out is one thing, but in the end if its going to happen its going to happen.

[nice guy]

I have a word for this but I will not discuss it on here.
People are scared of everything today.

[Raider6309]

This is a poor bad small school. Had little to do with injuries and more with the team not being any good

[RvFan02]

This is really sad. I had more injuries from playing outside and wrecking bikes then I ever did from playing football as a kid/teenager. They fail to understand that out of 40, 50 , or 60 kids on a football team, maybe 4-5 will suffer a major injury, if any at all. The life lessons that sports teach these kids far out weigh the risks of injury.
Do not hear many people adults sitting around talking about their days of chemistry class and what test scores they received. Hear plenty of stories about football and the memories if left them with!!

[smurray]

The "politically correct" left (which is totally WRONG) is destroying this Country.

[mister b]

Many schools are fielding teams with less than 35 players and are trying to field both a varsity and JV team.

When I was in school, Belpre fielded seperate teams in both 7th and 8th grade with appox 35 players per team. We had a 9th grade team that fielded appox 30 players. The Varsity team, grades 10-11-12, was composed of about 60 players with nearly 1/2 of these only playing in the JV game and hardly ever playing in the varsity game.

The reason for this was that players played against other teams that were of similar age and size.

Now Belpre has a combined 7th & 8th grade team of around 30, if their lucky, no 9th grade team and around 33 varsity members including jv members. It is very hard to have a jv schedule with these numbers but you have to have a jv team to gain experience for your under age and less physical players. Kids don't want to go to practice all week for 2 years and get beat up AND never get into a game until their junior year. They also gain very little experience by holding a blocking dummy in practice or by getting continually beat on everyday in practice by older, more mature players. Many injuries are the type that are built up over time. Football is a physical, collision sport that contributes to this. Its not that kids today are wussies, it is just very hard to put the average 14 year old 9th grader up against a 17-18 year old senior and expect him to do well on a daily basis. Yes, you have exceptions but even those kids get beat on during the course of a year.

Now, factor in that many kids start playing football around the age of 6-7 in pee-wee each August and playing a season almost as long as a HS team and these kids are tired of football when they get to 7th grade so they look for something else to play.

Lets face it, football is a numbers game more than any other sport as injuries are more of a constant struggle for football coaches today than ever because of the reduced numbers of players on the squads.

Also, in my opinion, football isn't considered a "skilled" sport. It has some "skill" positions but any decent athlete can start playing football in 7th grade and in a matter of a few weeks of good coaching, they can easily catch up to the player who has played football since the age of 6-7.

Other sports, baseball, basketball and softball, are sports that are skilled sports and require much more time to develop "skills" that are necessary to be successful in that respective sport than football.

I love football, but I think that we are actually driving kids away from the sport by having pee-wee teams. 98% of your hs players aren't going to play football past hs. If you were to ask players whom I went to school with that played football, they enjoyed it but after playing organized football from 7th grade thru 12th grade, they were pretty much done with the sport as a player and they have no regrets of not playing after their senior seasons nor do they regret not playing an additional 4 years of pee-wee ball up to their 7th grade year.

Schools are cutting football teams because of reduced participants more so than injuries.

Just my opinion

[RvFan02]

I agree with you Mister B. Here in Caldwell pee wee always started with 5/6 grade. There was a push to add 3/4 grade and i was completely against it. The argument was we were already behing everyone else. Was a funny argument as Caldwell has always fielded pretty good HS teams over the years. Those that did have 3/4 grade not so much.

The only reason i was ever against it was just what you stated.....kids will get tired of it starting at such a young age.

[Tigercannon71]

I do think having flag football start in like kindergarten then going on up you continue to play hurts as well. That way to much football and kids get burnt out. I do think that having your sophomores being tackling dummies so to speak is huge in their development as players. I hate to use this phrase, but when I played I was a 180lb tackle as a sophomore. I got beat on every day in practice by guys twice my size, but I believed it helped because when I got in games and faced bigger guys I knew they werent anything compared to what I practiced against on a daily basis. Now I know that isnt for everyone.

[G.W.A.]

Many schools are fielding teams with less than 35 players and are trying to field both a varsity and JV team.

When I was in school, Belpre fielded seperate teams in both 7th and 8th grade with appox 35 players per team. We had a 9th grade team that fielded appox 30 players. The Varsity team, grades 10-11-12, was composed of about 60 players with nearly 1/2 of these only playing in the JV game and hardly ever playing in the varsity game.

The reason for this was that players played against other teams that were of similar age and size.

Now Belpre has a combined 7th & 8th grade team of around 30, if their lucky, no 9th grade team and around 33 varsity members including jv members. It is very hard to have a jv schedule with these numbers but you have to have a jv team to gain experience for your under age and less physical players. Kids don't want to go to practice all week for 2 years and get beat up AND never get into a game until their junior year. They also gain very little experience by holding a blocking dummy in practice or by getting continually beat on everyday in practice by older, more mature players. Many injuries are the type that are built up over time. Football is a physical, collision sport that contributes to this. Its not that kids today are wussies, it is just very hard to put the average 14 year old 9th grader up against a 17-18 year old senior and expect him to do well on a daily basis. Yes, you have exceptions but even those kids get beat on during the course of a year.

Now, factor in that many kids start playing football around the age of 6-7 in pee-wee each August and playing a season almost as long as a HS team and these kids are tired of football when they get to 7th grade so they look for something else to play.

Lets face it, football is a numbers game more than any other sport as injuries are more of a constant struggle for football coaches today than ever because of the reduced numbers of players on the squads.

Also, in my opinion, football isn't considered a "skilled" sport. It has some "skill" positions but any decent athlete can start playing football in 7th grade and in a matter of a few weeks of good coaching, they can easily catch up to the player who has played football since the age of 6-7.

Other sports, baseball, basketball and softball, are sports that are skilled sports and require much more time to develop "skills" that are necessary to be successful in that respective sport than football.

I love football, but I think that we are actually driving kids away from the sport by having pee-wee teams. 98% of your hs players aren't going to play football past hs. If you were to ask players whom I went to school with that played football, they enjoyed it but after playing organized football from 7th grade thru 12th grade, they were pretty much done with the sport as a player and they have no regrets of not playing after their senior seasons nor do they regret not playing an additional 4 years of pee-wee ball up to their 7th grade year.

Schools are cutting football teams because of reduced participants more so than injuries.

Just my opinion

The best post I have ever read on this site. Now I am going to go purchase a bag of Mister Bee's and eat them all. Good read and I could not agree more.