Posted on 09/05/2008 8:06:35 PM PDT by Coleus
LAST MONDAY, Sean Fisher of Waldwick collapsed while running drills. It was reported he may have had an undetected heart condition. Fisher died that day. It was his 13th birthday. On Tuesday, Douglas Morales of Cliffside Park died of injuries sustained during a football practice the previous week. He ruptured a blood vessel to the brain. He was 17 years old.
Communities are in mourning, young athletes are unsettled by the untimely deaths of teammates and parents are trying to figure out what happened and how to prevent it from recurring. While each case is different and it’s too early to know all |the details of the injuries and underlying medical conditions, it would be foolhardy to look for meaning in the tragedy. Catastrophic high school football injuries are rare.
The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research publishes the Annual Survey of Football Injury Research. According to its research, in 2007, there were only three deaths of high school athletes directly attributed to football. The numbers are based on 1.5 million junior and senior high school players. There were only six deaths attributed indirectly to football. According to those figures, a total of nine high school athletes died directly or indirectly from playing football — nine out of 1.5 million.
And last week, two high school boys died in North Jersey. Statistically, it seems almost impossible. The research reports that helmet-related injuries are one of the leading causes of injuries. There are rules to limit the kind of helmet contact that can prove fatal. The report states, “Coaches who are teaching helmet or face-to-the-numbers tackling and blocking are not only breaking the football rules, but are placing their players at risk for permanent paralysis or death.”
Commenting on what happened to Morales during practice, Cliffside Park Mayor Gerald Calabrese told The Record, “They have a drill where you run and another guy tackles you, and his helmet hit the shoulder pad of the tackler. I was told by one of the coaches that he wasn’t hit that hard.” No doubt, there are still many questions to be answered.
But horrible accidents occur. Two years ago, after Little League pitcher Steven Domalewski was severely injured by a ball hit with a metal bat, there was a loud statewide cry to ban metal bats. Experts on the use of metal and wood bats weighed in on the subject. And manufacturers of metal bats have not remained silent on the issue. No one wants a young player injured, left permanently disabled or, worse, dead. But are there ways of ensuring no injuries, no fatalities? As much as parents want to protect their children, medical screenings do not always catch everything, and it is possible, regardless of the odds, that a ball hit a particular way with a metal bat could strike a player at the exact millisecond his heart is not beating.
I run a fair amount of road races. There’s a disclaimer I click through quickly in the online registration process. I attest that I am in good heath and that I understand that race organizers are not responsible if I have a medical emergency because of the run. Occasionally, races are marred by deaths, usually attributed to heat. In a late-July race, there was 90 percent humidity. I didn’t run well, but I didn’t end up needing medical attention either.
It is not just enough to play and train smart. There are no guarantees. There are no answers. Living in the suburbs, we often take life for granted or, at least, long life for our children, for granted. A few years back, there was a great documentary about inner-city basketball players called “Hoop Dreams.” What I recall most was a scene in which a mother talked about how common it was for boys growing up in gritty neighborhoods to end up dead because of gang violence. It was as remarkable to this mom that her son would reach adulthood as it was that her son might achieve athletic distinction at a university. In Waldwick and Cliffside Park, we expect that all boys will grow into men. And most will. But inexplicable things occur. We want answers. We want explanations. Instead, we have funerals.
So true! I remember in high school when a rival wrestler fractured his neck and ended up dead. That was my first clue.
Every parent’s , coach’s, teammates’ nightmare. It’s so hard to balance the competitive spirit and safety. We try to enforce discipline, awareness, and proper procedure. Prayers up for families and friends.
About a week ago a young man from a Bakersfield Christian high school died after football practice—heat related.
:-(
it’s so sad to see these kids die. a simple ultrasound test can save many lives but I guess it just costs too much to test millions of school athletes every year.
It might be wise for the parents to have the test done if their child wants to play.
Really though most parents would not suspect such a thing could happen and it is so rare I can understand that.
My daughters grew up competing in rodeo events and over the years one child that competed in our area ended up severely brain damaged and two died. Our kids had broken bones and one had to have facial reconstruction. Everyone has to weigh the risk of their child competing in sports of all kinds. We knew there was a certain amount of risk involved— but to be realistic a child is much more likely to get injured or die from an auto accident on the way to practice or an event than they are while engaged in any sport.
The alternative is to stop all high school sports and totally wussify our children. The vast majority of kids who play sports, male and female, suffer no ill effects and gain much from doing so. Most of them make their own decision as to play or not and parents have the final say. I am glad my mother didn’t stop me from playing sports in HS because some of my best memories are from playing those sports. None of the kids I played with died playing sports, several of them died in Vietnam and many more came back alive. We can’t place our children in bubble wrap and expect them to grow up with even a modicum of self assurance and confidence.
Past ten years of age, the condition can be fatal if left untreated. It's why kids in junior high, and high school, keel over dead in the middle of the field with, “an undetected heart condition”.
The nice thing about her disease, was that it was fixable. A fairly sophisticated operation at Denver Children's Hospital with two pediatric cardiologists attending solved the problem permanently. Amazingly, she went home that afternoon with a couple of band-aids. Mom and Dad thanked the doctors, the hospital staff, and divine intervention.
I'm not convinced that sports are the cause of all of the deaths. A significant number of these kids would have dropped dead simply because that had aged into the “danger years”. It just happened that they died playing sports. Arguably, they might have met their demise walking in the park.
That said, the Reaper can be cheated upon occasion. We're happy our daughter was one of those who did it.
“Sean Fisher of Waldwick collapsed while running drills. It was reported he may have had an undetected heart condition. Fisher died that day. It was his 13th birthday”
I hope his family has all his other siblings (if there are any) tested for the same condition. When these things are genetic, they can get passed on to more than one relative.
Just incredibly sad. Prayers for the families.
A local teen here was buried today from injuries from a football game last Friday night. He was 15 on the JV team and an only child..........
My son had some real problems with the heat during “The Crucible” at Parris Island in late August during some very hot weather. Someone forgot to salt some of the water, apparently. He was hospitalized for several days, and it could easily have been fatal.
I am constantly thankful to God, science, human perseverance etc. as I study history and think what life must have been like in the 1850s in the USA with medical care as it was then. Glad I'm alive today, even with modern frustrations and dingbats.
I find myself wondering if many of these incidents are due to insufficient conditioning(?) Maybe these kids are asking their bodies to do more than they are prepared for?
Back when I played football in Georgia, there was no such thing as water break during practice. The coaches should have been arrested for neglect/abuse. It’s a wonder no one died.
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