SportsLetter

Dr. Cantu on recent concussions in youth football

Dr. Robert Cantu today spoke with NPR about the youth football game in Massachusetts that resulted in five concussions for five players from one team. He also reiterated much of what he told SportsLetter earlier this month in an interview on concussions in youth sports.

As heard on NPR:

Robert Cantu:  “Several years ago I went to the leaders of USA Football and basically expressed my concerns ... and I said ‘It’s insane to be putting five-year-olds out there and letting them bash heads.’  And they said to me, basically, ‘Bob, look, we wouldn’t care if we were playing flag football but the parents won’t sign the kids up for flag football so we have to offer them tackle football.’ ”

Five kids, five concussions, one team, one game

Five youth football players suffered concussions in one Pop Warner football game last month, a 52-0 blowout that resulted in the suspensions of coaches and youth football association presidents, reports the Boston Globe.

From Bob Hohler and Boston.com:

In an alarming case of young athletes being put at risk, five children suffered concussions last month in a Pop Warner football game that resulted in disciplinary action against both coaches and association presidents.

The injured children, all 10 to 12 years old, played for the Tantasqua Pee Wees Sept. 15 when they were overrun, 52-0, by a Southbridge team whose website’s banner states, “Are You Tough Enough.’’

The five children missed various numbers of school days because of their injuries, and one has not returned to the field.

The coaches, Southbridge’s Scott Lazo and Tantasqua’s Erik Iller, were suspended for the remainder of the season and placed on probation through the 2013 season after a lengthy hearing Thursday conducted by Central Mass. Pop Warner.

The association presidents, Lazo’s brother, Doug Lazo of Southbridge, and Iller’s wife, Jen Iller of Tantasqua, also were placed on probation through the 2013 season because they attended the game and failed to take action, according to the hearing committee.

In addition, the three officials who worked the game have been permanently banned by Central Mass. Pop Warner.

And this from Deadspin:

One wonders how much character was built among the Tantasqua Pee Wees, as they were run over by the bigger, faster Southbridge team on Sept. 15. En route to a 52-0 blowout, five Tantasqua players—all between 10 and 12 years old—suffered concussions, were checked out on the sidelines, then sent right back in the game to get hit again.

Perhaps the worst thing about this is that there are rules in place to stop massacres like this from happening. A mercy rule that should have been invoked at 28-0 was ignored. Referees were supposed to stop the game if it became unsafe. Players were supposed to weigh-in before the game, to make sure they were below a certain size—a procedure Tantasqua coaches claim Southbridge skipped.

Playing way, way up

Parents in the Anoka-Hennepin School District (Minnesota) have filed complaints with both the U.S. Department of Education and the ACLU against the district because high schools there will not allow 7th and 8th grade middle school students to play on some high school VARSITY teams.

Minnesota State High School League eligibility for high school varsity athletes is grades seven through 12, according to CBS Minnesota.

Parent Brandon Paulson's daughter Sydney is a seventh grader competing on Anoka Senior High School's junior varsity cross country team.  He feels she should be on the varsity team and claims the district is guilty of age discrimination.

From CBS Minnesota:

Talent trumps age when it comes to certain sports.

That’s why parents in the Anoka-Hennepin School District say seventh and eighth graders should be allowed to try out for varsity teams.

District policy says athletes in sports like cross country can’t compete at varsity unless they are in grades nine through 12.

Parents say changing the district’s policy could help schools land more state championships.

and

“So, generally in a large school, there are a lot of students competing for very few spots,” said Mary Olson with the Anoka-Hennepin District.

They are spots the district says should be reserved for high school-aged athletes only. For some, they say, it could be their last opportunity.

“The board doesn’t believe that winning is absolutely the ultimate, but that students should have an opportunity to have a good experience,” Olson said.

Some parents beg to differ, putting performance before participation.

“The Anoka-Hennepin School Board I don’t think understands that teaching these kids to be competitors; that’s great for life,” Brandon Paulson said.

Head trauma's impact on youth football

Growing parent concerns about head trauma in youth football is having an impact on youth football league participation and policies around the country.

NPR's Tom Goldman reports:

But in fact, amid the cheering, there's concern — a growing anxiety about head injuries in the sport, from the NFL all the way down to the pee-wee leagues. Some say kids shouldn't be playing until their teenage years. High-profile NFL players have gone on record saying they don't want their children playing at all because of the concussion risk.

Yet, despite increased awareness of the risks, in some parts of football-mad Texas youth football participation has gone up.

From NPR:

This is the first year that STYFA [South Texas Youth Football Association] has had a concussion policy, featured on the association website homepage. Lonzie Helms, STYFA's safety coordinator, helped write up the policy.

"We didn't want to get caught behind the curve if something comes up," he says. "There are people actually talking about not playing football before high school. So we wanted to be proactive as possible."

Still, Helms was worried about a possible drop in participation this year. During STYFA's sign-up period, there were many media reports about concussions, including the story about the suicide of former NFL star Junior Seau. There was speculation at the time of his death that it was prompted by brain disease from football head injuries.

But Helms was amazed to see a 20 percent increase in football sign-ups.

"We had so many kids so early, we thought that maybe one of the other leagues had gone away or something. We were getting kids so fast," he says, adding, "It turns out, the other leagues were doing just as well as we were."

Helms says he has no idea why the surge happened. But there is one possible clue: Helms says this year 3,000 people are expected at Pearland Stadium to watch the pee-wee championship game between 7- and 8-year-olds.

"This is Texas," Helms says. "This is what we do. We play football."

Time Warner Cable Deportes to Broadcast LA Prep Sports

Time Warner Cable Deportes will broadcast live Los Angeles high school sports events.   TWCD in partnership with California Interscholastic Federation’s Los Angeles City Section will provide coverage of several sports and produce a Spanish-language series, “#LAPREPA.”  Airing Mondays at 7:00 p.m., “#LAPREPA” will “profile the inspiring and often untold stories of young athletes and coaches from the community.” 

“Time Warner Cable has been very supportive of our students in the past and this new coverage will take our high school sports to new heights,” said CIF Los Angeles City Section Commissioner Barbara Fiege. “Time Warner Cable Deportes is making a real commitment to our student athletes, their families and communities.  We are excited to see our youth celebrated across all of Southern California."

And at some point a football game was played

Earlier this month a high school football player in Sacramento, Calif., was kicked off the team for skipping a football game to attend a "monster" baseball showcase in Arizona with his travel baseball team.  The player felt it was one of his “last chances to land a college scholarship.”  Reports say he had given his football coach three weeks notice about the conflict.

Eleven other players then quit the football team in support of the player.  After the coach refused to reinstate the players, he and two of his assistants were fired by the high school principal.

Sounds like fun!

From the Sacramento Bee:

Is this what we want? Coaches so demanding of a player's time that they give up all other sports? Kids playing only the sport offering the best shot at a scholarship? Can we really judge parents faced with steep college tuition costs? Should youth sports be fun or a financial pathway?

and:

"We've designed a very competitive childhood as a means for preparing children to become functional adults," says one child psychologist. " 'It's a cruel world,' we tell children, 'You have to be on top.' "

Former NBA player Bob Bigelow, author of the 2001 book "Just Let the Kids Play," says this new world has one overriding philosophy: "Getting better means training more, training harder, training younger." Even at age 8?

We lament pro sports being "all business," and college teams obsessing over bowl money. What did last year's sex scandal say about Penn State's priorities? And now this "business" attitude is seeping into high school and youth sports.

Whatever happened to, "it's just a game"?

"It's a business," [Arizona high school baseball coach Jeff] Shillington said. "This is the way things are going.

"It's not going back."

SL Interview: Dr. Robert Cantu speaks out about concussions in youth sports

Dr. Robert Cantu is one of the world's foremost authorities on concussions and brain trauma in sports, with a lengthy resume.  He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, where he pitched on the baseball team, and then his medical degree at the University of California Medical School in San Francisco.  Currently, he is the chief of neurosurgery as well as the director of the Service of Sports Medicine at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass.  He is the co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University, which is investigating the link between concussions and progressive brain disease.  He consults with numerous NFL, NHL, and NBA teams.

Along with journalist Mark Hyman, Dr. Cantu has authored a new book titled "Concussions and Our Kids: America's Leading Expert on How to Protect Young Athletes and Keep Sports Safe" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).  The book defines what a concussion is, examines the causes and symptoms of concussions among youth athletes, explains why complete cognitive and physical rest is the best therapy for post-concussion syndrome, and provides easy-to-follow guidelines for parents and coaches to use in protecting their youth athletes.

Part polemic and part prescription, the book discusses the dangers in contact and non-contact youth sports, including soccer, ice hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, wrestling, boxing, mixed martial arts, basketball, baseball and softball, tennis, skateboarding and cheerleading.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the authors identify football at the youth level as "the greatest challenge by far.  Children are among the most vulnerable to injury because they have weak necks and immature musculature, and their brains are still developing.  And youth football by far accounts for the largest number of players -- almost three million from ages six to fourteen, according to USA Football." 

SportsLetter recently spoke with Dr. Cantu over the phone from his office.

--David Davis