Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Blog: High Schools Reach Record Participation
Prying money loose to keep high school athletic facilities in good repair can be like — well, just go ahead and pick your trite simile: getting blood out of a potato, milking a turnip, herding slugs, etc.
But as long as you're making your case, there's some good hard evidence to throw onto the bargaining table — more high school students than ever are playing sports, and those students will need good facilities and proper equipment if the school wants them to stay in the game.
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, which tracks such information, participation in high school sports increased for the 22nd consecutive school year in 2010-11. In its annual High School Athletics Participation Survey, NFHS recorded a total number of 7,667,955 kids playing sports. Boys’ and girls’ participation figures also reached respective all-time highs with 4,494,406 boys and 3,173,549 girls participating in 2010-11 — an overall increase of 39,578 participants from 2009-10.
Cross-country (seventh most popular sport in terms of participation) and outdoor track and field (second) gained the most participants in boys’ sports last year, with increases of 7,340 and 7,179, respectively. Among girls’ sports, the emerging sport of lacrosse (10th most popular, with 74,927 participants) led the way with an additional 6,155 participants, an increase of 9 percent from the previous year. Outdoor track and field saw the second biggest gains.
Although the rise in girls’ participation numbers was not as large this past year (NFHS says this is caused in part by significant drops in competitive spirit numbers in two states), the percentage increase rate has more than doubled the rate for boys during the past 20 years (63 percent to 31 percent). Twenty years ago, girls constituted 36 percent of the total number of participants; this past year, that number had climbed to 41 percent. In Oklahoma, the number of girls’ participants actually exceeded the number of boys this past year (44,112 to 42,694).
Something else intriguing? The NFHS has been compiling these numbers since 1971, making this the fourth decade of recording school sports data. That's a lot to record, and a lot of changes. During the 1971-72 school year, more than 3.6 million boys played some sort of high school sport — and fewer than 300,000 girls. Adapted sports? Not even a possibility. It makes for interesting reading — even if you're in the enviable position of not needing money to update your facilities or equipment.
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Monday, August 29, 2011
LHSAA Sues Government Over Spending by Ex-Commish
Questionable spending by Tommy Henry, the former longtime commissioner of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, has forced the group to sue the U.S. government in an effort to recover federal employment taxes, interest and related penalties. The Baton Rouge Advocate reports that the LHSAA is seeking a refund of more than $12,000 that the association paid the Internal Revenue Service in December, contending that the taxes, interest and penalties were “erroneously or illegally assessed and collected," according to the complaint filed in Baton Rouge federal court.
That figure represents just one of 12 quarterly bills that the IRS says the group owes from the third quarter of 2004 to the second quarter of 2007. The association states in the complaint that it “had been subject to an annual independent outside audit by a CPA firm, and had never been notified that any expense documentation was insufficient." If the LHSAA wins, it would be refunded the $12,247, Tim Burgmeier, the association's tax attorney, told reporter Joe Gyan Jr. If it loses, the LHSAA would likely owe the IRS some $180,000 in total taxes, plus interest and penalties that continue to accrue.
According to the Advocate, the 12 quarters of taxes were assessed after an IRS agent determined that questionable spending by Henry should be considered taxable income rather than business expenses. A legislative audit released last year concluded that Henry, who served as the LHSAA's commissioner from 1983 until he retired in 2007, may have fraudulently spent thousands of dollars of association money — including an estimated $50,000 on cigars. Meals, clothes, golf equipment and fees, along with expense filings that were seen to be duplicates, also were cited in the audit. The LHSAA, however, claims the audit does not show whether the misspending was intentional or the result of poor record keeping on the part of Henry, but it has since changed its financial procedures, Gyan reports.
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Notre Dame Launches Campaign to Promote Lift Safety
The University of Notre Dame has created a website promoting safety
considerations for colleges and high schools that use aerial lifts to
shoot video of sports and band practices. The site, launched Friday in accordance with a settlement
over the death of student videographer Declan Sullivan last fall,
includes a video introduction to aerial lift safety and video segments
covering setup, training, weather information and safety contact. Fact
sheets and fliers (detailing an organization’s established wind-limit
policy, for example) are available for printing and posting wherever
aerial lifts are used.
Sullivan’s scissor lift was blown to the ground in 50-mile-per-hour winds at a Notre Dame football practice in October. The university banned hydraulic lift use on its campus in March, and other schools, including the University of Florida, have installed permanent observation towers at their practice facilities.
Sullivan’s
parents have expressed support for the UpRight! awareness campaign. “We
believe this is a positive step in preventing aerial lift accidents in
the future,” said Barry Sullivan in a university media release. “Our
hope is that schools that use these lifts will pay attention to the
information presented on the website and make sure to institute a
robust lift safety program.”
According to the Indiana Department
of Labor, which helped support Notre Dame’s effort, nearly 30 people
lose their lives each year in accidents involving aerial lifts, which
are widely used in the construction industry. Other groups endorsing
UpRight! include the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health
Association, the University Risk Management and Insurance Association,
the Campus Safety Health and Environmental Management Association, the
National Federation of State High School Associations and the National
Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
“While we
cannot bring Declan back, we have said since last fall that we are
committed to working with the Sullivan family and IOSHA to share the
lessons we have learned to help reduce the possibility of an accident
like this ever happening again,” said Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s
president. “The materials and information provided on the website are a
part of our effort in that regard, and while not a substitute for
formal training, they’re a start for helping others understand key
considerations for aerial lift safety.”
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Friday, August 26, 2011
College Replaces Anthem with 'America the Beautiful'
Goshen College has decided to play “America the Beautiful” before its sporting events instead of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” The Mennonite Church-affiliated institution located in northern Indiana has long had an issue with the latter piece, since its depiction of glaring rockets and bursting bombs conflicts with Goshen’s motto of “healing the world — peace by peace.”
Before it ever gained official recognition as our country’s national anthem, the “Star-Spangled Banner” became entwined in our unofficial national pastime. Inspired by the War of 1812, it was first played at baseball games during the 1918 World Series, as the United States was fighting World War I. By the end of World War II, the playing and singing of the anthem had spread to other sports, as well, and became a lasting pregame ritual. (The singing of “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch of Major League Baseball games has endured as a post-911 Sunday tradition.)
Goshen, which competes as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, went so far as to play an instrumental version of the national anthem before games last year, but was immediately met by peaceful protests among students, more than half of whom are Mennonite. The school suspended the practice (though it denied banning the anthem, as some headlines suggested) until a suitable alternative could be identified.
“The words of ‘America the Beautiful’ are wonderfully descriptive of creation’s beauty in the heartland, in the coastlands and in urban and rural settings,” read a statement by Goshen president Jim Brenneman, who also considered “God Bless America” and “This Land is Your Land.” “They petition God’s gracious blessing upon America. Just as we might petition God’s grace upon our college, homes, us individually or another nation we love, such requests are never mutually exclusive.”
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Blog: Closed for Maintenance? Be Open to Other Options
Humans are creatures of habit, and nowhere is this more evident than at the health club.
Oh, come on: you know what I mean. Arrival time? Departure time? Favorite machines? Corner shower stall? Check, check, check and check. I'm guilty, too.
But once a year, my health club goes into its weeklong summer shutdown, so that staff members can do spruce-ups, upgrades and more. And generally, that causes much moaning and groaning. But over the years, I've seen different members handle it different ways.
Some people look at it as a break. One woman told me she pretends it's a vacation, eats junk food and doesn't exercise at all. Others find a way to stick to the regular routine — proof of the whole creature-of-habit rule. The boot camp people form their own boot camp. Three times a week, they meet at the club — even though it's closed — at 6 a.m. They stretch, run, do calisthenics and then disperse. The racquetball and tennis players move to an affiliated facility for the week. Same thing for the people who love cardio equipment.
As I was cleaning out my locker this year, a woman I see periodically told me she uses the annual shutdown as a chance to try something new. One year, it was cycling; she had her bike tuned up at the local sporting goods store and spent a week exploring our community's pathways and trails. One year, it was jogging, and she wound up participating in a fun run/walk at the end of the week. This year, she bought an inflatable kayak, and she's planning to take it out on the lake in the park every day.
It made me stop and think. While the rest of us were grousing about having to lug our shampoo, racquets, shoes and whatnot out of the club, she was jazzed because she got to try something new. For us, it was a pain. For her, it was an opportunity.
Instead of just posting notices announcing the dates for the annual closure, clubs ought to encourage people to stay active and to broaden their horizons during that time. Try posting a list of some of the local facilities that are open and free — parks, municipal basketball and tennis courts, athletic fields, walking trails and more. High schools and college wellness centers should do this, too — after all, who doesn't want students to stay active during breaks?
Maybe some are hesitant to try this, worrying that members, seeing the free facilities available, might let their memberships lapse. But what actually happens is the reverse — they don't become unmotivated because they haven't been inactive during downtime. Consequently, they keep coming back.
The next time your club goes dark, remember that it could be a great opportunity for enlightenment.
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
ACE Reinvents Personal Training Using Behavioral Science
The American Council on Exercise recently introduced the ACE Integrated Fitness Training™ Model (ACE IFT™), the first comprehensive personal training program designed by a national organization customized to suit the fitness goals, communication style, behavioral tendencies and personality of each client. It incorporates behavioral sciences by integrating psychological and emotional concepts — thereby potentially changing the future of personal training, according to ACE officials.
“We recognize that many personal trainers have been using popular yet outdated training models to develop programs for clients," says Cedric X. Bryant, ACE's chief science officer. "To keep ACE-certified personal trainers on the forefront of fitness and ensure clients reach their fitness, health and performance goals, we have turned not only to exercise science, but also behavioral science — something that has never been done before in our industry. By considering the physiological, psychological and emotional needs of clients, we can truly create personalized programs that yield real and lasting results. In addition, our platform is the first to veer from relying on target heart rates and the first to target individuals’ metabolic targets, which ultimately equates to better results for weight loss and weight management.”
The ACE IFT Model represents the key component of ACE’s larger “Personal Training. Reinvented.” initiative, aimed at raising awareness of the most effective, research-proven ways to train clients. To educate fitness professionals on this new approach, ACE has developed science-based curriculum, expert blogs, textbooks, online courses (including a free introductory webinar) and live workshops. The organization also is tapping into its network of 50,000 certified fitness professionals to help educate consumers about the benefits of this model.
For more information, click here.
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Pat Summitt Speaks About Dementia Diagnosis
News that legendary women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt had been
diagnosed with early onset dementia sent a wave of shock and concern
throughout Tennessee, college basketball and beyond this week. At the
same time, Summitt’s determination to coach the Lady Vols through the
2011-12 season drew widespread admiration, including praise among Alzheimer’s disease experts.
On Tuesday, the University of Tennessee released a statement about the
situation from the 59-year-old Summitt herself, as well as statements
from UT officials and her son, Tyler. Click here to see video and text versions of Summitt’s statement.
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Newark Bears Promo 'New Low' for Embattled Franchise
A message on the Newark Bears website assured parents with children at the team’s youth baseball clinic Tuesday that the kids were kept on the field during the East Coast earthquake, that they were having lunch with the players and that they were fine. The Bears, however, remain on shaky ground.
Just check out these recent media rumblings.
On Monday, the New York Times asked if Newark had bet on the wrong sport when it welcomed minor league baseball back to the city in 1999 by opening a $30 million ballpark. Harvey Araton reported, “The Bears are more than $800,000 in arrears on rent to Essex County and have provided little in ticket and sponsorship revenue due the county. Whatever the team’s fate, the county and the city must each pay $1.1 million a year in debt service on the ballpark until 2029.” While the Bears are seeing only a couple hundred fans trip the turnstiles at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, a Major League Soccer team next door in Harrison is packing 17-month-old Red Bull Arena.
Back on July 17, Amy Brittain of the Newark Star-Ledger traced the team’s slide toward instability in a 4,000-word piece titled “Newark Bears: A tale of a sidetracked baseball franchise.”
But the most unvarnished view of the Bears current desperation comes from Star-Ledger columnist Steve Politi, who took the team to task on Tuesday for planning to announce a $2,000 donation to Mothers Against Drunk Driving on Beer Pong Night, part of its season-long “Thirsty Thursdays” promotion. “The Newark Bears clearly think any publicity is good publicity,” Politi wrote, “but the latest attempt at drumming up attention might be a new low.”
The MADD donation is a part of a special farewell to Jim Leyritz, a Bears coach who was acquitted of DUI manslaughter in November. A team press release reads, “Although a Beer Pong Tournament will be hosted that night, the owners thought by hosting this event with all parties and attractions, it would support the important need of how people can have fun responsibly.” Politi added that Leyritz and another Newark coach, Ozzie Canseco, who was charged with DUI in January, will be available to sign autographs.
Not surprisingly, Jill Pepper, executive director of TEAM Coalition, a nonprofit organization that provides alcohol management training to concessionaires, colleges and professional sports franchises, doesn’t agree with the Bears’ brain trust. “Donating money to MADD is great,” Pepper says. “The beer pong tournament is where we are concerned. Drinking games can easily lead to impairment.”
According to Pepper, concessionaire Aramark held TEAM training for 48 employees in April 2009, but Aramark no longer handles food and beverage at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, and TEAM has no direct relationship with the Bears.
“I would be curious if MADD accepts the donation,” Pepper adds. “I know that when the NFL player Donte Stallworth tried to donate money to MADD after he was convicted of a DUI and manslaughter in 2009, the organization refused the donation.”
UPDATE: According to ESPN New York, MADD has rejected the $2,000 donation in honor of Leyritz, and the Newark Bears have canceled tonight's planned announcement. For his part, Leyritz, a former Yankee, said he did not wish to be connected to any promotion that encouraged alcohol consumption.
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Ohio High School Football Coaches Torn on Tressel Tie Tribute
Beginning tonight, many high school football coaches throughout Ohio will wear ties on the sideline in an opening-weekend tribute to ousted Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel — who was seldom seen in public without his famous neckwear.
But if a survey conducted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer is any indication, not all coaches like the idea, which was conceived by Solon High School football coach Jim McQuaide as a way to thank Tressel for his contributions to high school football and the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association scholarship fund. In fact, of the coaches responding to the newspaper, 48 said they would not don a tie, 25 stated they would and nine were undecided. According to reporter Tim Warsinskey, "the vast majority of 'no' responses said they have some appreciation for Tressel's support of high school football but preferred their players be the center of attention instead."
Among the more insightful responses Warsinskey received:
• "I cannot stand in front of my team honoring someone who talked about 'trust,' 'honesty' and 'doing the right things on and off the field,' as we do in our program, and have this same man go against everything he preached," Strongsville High coach Russ Jacques, who won't be wearing a tie, said in an e-mail. "He has done a lot for high school football, but what he did by lying is inexcusable as far as the integrity of our game and our profession. When [former OSU] coach [Woody] Hayes was fired, did the high school football coaches honor him that first week of the season? He did a lot more for high school football and Ohio State than Tressel did. And he didn't lie!"
• "Jim Tressel made a mistake and has certainly received the consequences," e-mailed St. Ignatius High coach Chuck Kyle, who plans to wear a tie. "The friendship and goodwill that he has for Ohio high school football should not be discarded because of that mistake. Young people can learn that a friend can make a mistake, serve a consequence, and still be a friend. Hopefully, young people can still see the good within the person. Maybe we all need to reread The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne."
As for McQuaide, he told Warsinskey he doesn't really care if his colleagues from other schools wear a tie or not: "[Tressel] did a tremendous amount for high school football in the state as the leader of the leading football university in the state. If they disagree, that's fine. I don't keep a tally sheet. Some people have gotten very upset and expressed that to me, and it was just meant to say 'thank you.' "
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Blog: Lifeguards Save, and Touch, Young Lives
Ask any little kid to name his or her heroes. At least one is bound to be a high-profile athlete.
Sports heroes do seem to have it all — at least in the eyes of a child. Pro athletes have all the skills, they keep their cool in the clutch and they make things happen when they need to.
It wasn’t until just recently, though, that I realized that other athletes, with much lower public profiles, might be some of the first role models these kids meet.
Case in point: During a recent beach vacation, my husband and I happened to park our chairs and towels near one of the lifeguard stands. In the few hours we sat on the beach, lost children presented themselves to the guard on the stand at about the rate of one every five to ten minutes.
That's a lot of lost kids, but the lifeguards dealt with them all — children sobbing so hard they could barely be understood, children who just looked irritated about misplacing their parents, and everything in between. And they did it with kindness, understanding and a sense of humor.
Each time, the guards would help the lost child climb up and sit in the chair with them to see if they could see their parents from that height. They’d radio the other guard towers and spread the word, and they'd talk with the kids — how old they were, whether they liked the beach, that sort of thing. And within a few minutes, a parent — sometimes crying uncontrollably, sometimes embarrassed or flustered — would arrive.
Every time, the kids would climb down from the tower and hug their parents like they’d just come back from the war. But the telling moment came as they were walking off. Every single one of those kids cast this backward glance of absolute starry-eyed awe up at the guard.
It occurred to me that a heck of a lot of kids were leaving the beach that day with a new hero to worship. And I’m pretty sure those lost-and-found children are the reason the small-size T-shirts and hats that say LIFEGUARD and the plastic whistles sell so well on the boardwalk. The kids recognized a friendly authority figure who was cool in the clutch and who made things happen when things needed to happen.
Local athletes — those who coach rec-level teams or after-school programs, or who teach P.E. — can have the same effect on little kids. As the people helping them learn a sport or master a skill, they may be some kids’ first role models.
Those who volunteer with or work with kids in sports might not be fully aware of the impact they can have. But that day, as I sat on the beach, I saw exactly what good role models are capable of. I can only hope we all strive for that.
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Radical Student-Athlete Policy Goes Beyond Sports, Grades
Student-athletes at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., must adhere to a radical new policy this academic year that puts greater emphasis on both academic and civic responsibilities.
Under the Scholar Athletic Policy, developed by principal Bernard Gassaway, all student-athletes must complete at least 30 hours of community service, pass their first-period class (to reduce late arrivals), adhere to a strict dress code and maintain higher academic standards. Gassaway is hoping the new policy will begin to change the culture of athletics at Boys and Girls High School, reports the online news source Bed-Stuy Patch, and student-athletes who fail to adhere to it will not be allowed to play. "We emphasize scholarship, because of the implication of higher
expectations," Gassaway said. "We cannot be successful
on the court without being successful in the classroom."
Among the academic requirements is a stipulation that seniors pass all classes and maintain a GPA of 70 percent or better. Sophomore and junior students would be allowed only one failing grade per marking period. “It’s about building character," Gassaway told radio station WINS, using as an example his mandate that students not be seen walking down the street with their pants riding low on their buttocks. "If they are down, you won’t be playing basketball at Boys and Girls High School.”
Gassaway told the Patch that the new policy was inspired by the achievements of the school's 2011 valedictorian and salutatorian, who also were both outstanding athletes.
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Two-A-Days: High Schools Tread Where NFL, NCAA Fear
Some high schools have already begun playing football games, but other teams are still entrenched in a time-honored tradition that the NFL and NCAA have either limited or done away with: two-a-day practices. While the pros eliminated two full-contact practices on the same day as part of new rules designed to curb concussions — and colleges have placed restrictions on them since 2003 — The Washington Post reports that two-a-days remain a staple in the high school ranks.
Coaches told reporter James Wagner that two-a-days are conducted partly out of necessity and partly out of tradition. But if that is, indeed, the case, medical experts think high school athletics administrators need to rethink their priorities in the wake of increased concussions and heat-related illnesses and deaths.
“It’s inconceivable to me that you can take young scholar athletes at an age that is more vulnerable and have them play more dangerously than at the highest professional level,” Robert Cantu, a co-director of Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy and a leading specialist in sports-related concussions, told The Post.
“You always worry about contact and you try to limit it,” countered Jerry Gordon, the head coach at Woodgrove High School in Purcellville, Va. “But you have to be able to play football.”
The National Athletic Trainers Association recommends acclimating players to two-a-days (and, perhaps more importantly, the heat risks that go with them) in steps over a five-day period, and the Arkansas Activities Association recently approved new requirements for football coaches that limit the number of preseason two-a-days.
Cantu suggests that teams still holding two-a-days limit hitting in practice. He told The Post's Wagner that even teenagers and young adults can display early signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease caused by head trauma, from small non-concussive hits to full-blown concussions. When hitting is needed, Cantu said proper technique must be stressed. Coaches also should consider using dummies to prevent full-force hits between colliding bodies, and during walk-throughs in which plays are rehearsed, players should not wear helmets, he said, thereby discouraging hits.
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Thursday, August 18, 2011
Lifeguard Fired For Not Wearing Speedo; Lawsuit Reinstated
When the New York Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
required Jones Beach State Park lifeguard Roy Lester to wear a skimpy
bathing suit for his annual swim test in 2007, Lester — then in his late
50s — refused. So the state fired him.
Since that time, Lester,
now 61 and a four-decade guarding vet, has sued the department — twice —
claiming age discrimination and arguing, as the New York Daily News
puts it, that Speedos are "for the washboard stomach set, not aging
dads like him." Both previous lawsuits were dismissed on technical
grounds in 2008 and 2009, but now an appeals court has reinstated
Lester's claim. His case could go to trial later this year or next year
in Nassau County, the Daily News reports.
Lester told
reporter Thomas Zambito that the Speedo edict was an attempt to rid
Jones Beach of its aging lifeguards; it has been estimated that more
than 80 percent of lifeguards at Jones Beach — a popular Long Island
destination and one of eight state beaches in New York — are older than
40. "This was not right," said Lester, a bankruptcy lawyer who is
representing himself in the age discrimination claim and who has
previously accused state officials of disciplining Jewish lifeguards
more often than non-Jews. "They were just trying to get rid of the older
guys. To me, the whole key to being a good lifeguard is experience. An
older guy sees a save before anyone else. [He knows] the water."
Male
lifeguards must wear "boxer[s], briefs or board shorts" during a
100-yard swim they must finish in 75 seconds, according to state
standards. Lester preferred to wear a more modest pair of biking shorts
for his test in 2007, but was not given the option.
"I wore a Speedo when I was in my 20s," Lester, who now guards at a private beach, told the Daily News. "Come on. There should be a law prohibiting anyone over the age of 50 from wearing a Speedo."
State officials have not commented on Lester's suit.
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Miami Didn't Seem to Care, But Should the NCAA?
Revelations this week that University of Miami booster Nevin Shapiro claims to have lavished cash, gifts and sex parties on recruits and Hurricane players over the course of several years brought predictable reaction, with most directly implicated in the alleged contacts refusing to comment. At least one former coach expressed (through a spokesperson) his confidence and comfort in how he conducted himself at Miami, and one former recruit, who wound up at Nebraska and who had been photographed on Shapiro’s $1.6 million yacht, said only that the booster was “cool” and “a nice guy.”
University president Donna Shalala, who was captured next to Shapiro holding a $50,000 donation check in a photo accompanying Yahoo! Sports reporter Charles Robinson’s exposé, published Tuesday, said in a statement the following day that she was “upset, disheartened and saddened by the recent allegations leveled against some current and past student-athletes and members of our Athletic Department.” One of those past student-athletes, current Cleveland Indians pitcher Chris Perez, tweeted, “I’m not upset about the U allegations, I’m mad we didn’t win anything while we were cheating.”
It’s that kind of attitude that led Sports Illustrated writer Michael Rosenberg to conclude, “The people at Miami didn’t care about the rules. I don’t mean they didn’t care about right and wrong. I mean, that it didn’t seem like a matter of right and wrong. I would bet that most of the players didn’t think they were cheating. Oh, they might have known what they were doing was against the rules. But did they ever think Miami was getting some kind of competitive advantage? Did they think it was wrong? I doubt it.”
And for that reason, sanctions aren’t likely to change the culture in Coral Gables, or on any other campus where such business is taking place. NCAA rules — and at least four major ones were broken by Shapiro and his Miami contacts, according to Robinson’s report — shouldn’t even be covering such topics as alcohol, sex and material goods, according to Rosenberg, who asks, “Why does the NCAA get to stand in judgment of students at the University of Miami who partied too much and took cash from a guy who was desperate to give it to them?”
Pointing out the real tragedy, Rosenberg reminds readers that Miami fired head football coach Randy Shannon last year, despite the fact his players posted the third-best Academic Progress Rate in the nation. “Miami succeeded in the realm that should matter,” Rosenberg wrote, “but completely failed in the realm that the NCAA has decided matters more.”
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Blog: More Young Triathletes Going the Distance
As much as I love sports, and as much as I am a booster of youth sports, I'm against parents who push kids so hard to excel that they miss out on the typical experiences of growing up. We all know the horror stories surrounding parents who are convinced their kid is the next Hope Solo or Michael Phelps.
That's why I was just a little skeptical when I heard about triathlons for kids. Ugh, I thought. Sounds like another outlet for frustrated superjocks who have nothing better to do than pressure their kids.
While I'm sure there are plenty of those parents still out there, a recent local event helped me see that there are also plenty of kids who are just plain excited about participating in triathlons. The recent Columbia Kidz Triathlon was set up for ages 7-14, and the distance of each event increased for each age group. For example, ages 7-8 had a 50-yard swim, a two-mile bike race and a half-mile run. Ages 13-14 swam 200 yards, biked six miles and ran one mile.
The whole program was incredibly safe: all the swimming events took place in one well-supervised pool, and all the cycling and running events were held around a nearby elementary school to create a closed course that kept kids out of traffic. It was also an opportunity for the local bike shop to do safety checks on kids' helmets, and for a sun-safety program to give out tubes of waterproof sunblock.
The main goal for the day was making sure all kids had a great time. In fact, posters for the event noted, "Winning is finishing what you start." Every time they finished an event, kids were entered to win one of the 10 grand prizes being given out that day. They also came away with goodie bags, shirts, hats and finishers' medals, had their own post-race party, could see photos by the official race photographer, and more.
According to IronKids, the global youth triathlon organization, participation in these types of programs is strong. In 2010, the average IronKids event had a race field of 392 participants. The largest race field ever was 1,380. The number of sanctioned youth races has gone from 181 in 2006 to 325 in 2010. And these numbers should continue to increase. Kids enrolled in an event like this tend to tell their friends, who then want to do it, too, creating free promotion for the program and bragging rights for all kids involved. It also creates an opportunity for fitness facility owners who want to hold periodic "tri-training days" for kids throughout the school year. A Saturday of swimming, group cycling and perhaps a pizza party and movie afterward could be a fun option for kids and an incentive to keep active.
Admittedly, the number of kids enrolled in tri programs doesn't come close to the figures for Little League or soccer, but they do represent a group that isn't sitting around in front of the TV or the computer. And that in itself is a victory in my book.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011
U. of North Dakota to Retire 'Sioux' by Year's End
University of North Dakota president Robert Kelley announced Monday that he had been directed by the State Board of Higher Education to resume the process of retiring the school’s “Fighting Sioux” nickname and logo, with the goal of substantially completing the process by year’s end.
The directive came on the heels of a meeting Friday between North Dakota and NCAA representatives at which the latter group refused to retreat from the association’s stance that continued use of the Sioux name and imagery would lead to sanctions against the university, including disqualifying it from hosting NCAA postseason events.
Monday marked the original retirement deadline established last year by the higher education board, and the university was working toward that end. However, the state Legislature voted in the meantime to outlaw the change, forcing Kelley to suspend the retirement process.
Governor Jack Dalrymple has indicated that he will urge the Legislature to readdress the issue during a special session in November.
A years-old debate, during which the university has been compared to — and some would argue singled out among — other schools that use Native American imagery, not to mention sued by UND students, may be finally coming to a close. But traditions, such as replacing the last word of the National Anthem with “Sioux” at ice hockey games, no doubt will die hard. The university, which in 2000 saw funding for the $100 million hockey arena it has leased since 2001 teeter over the mascot issue, is allowed to use the nickname for another four and a half months. Starting now, though, it can once again call itself the home of the brave.
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Chlorine Mishap Injures at Least 20 at California Waterpark
A high concentration of chlorine was released into the wave pool at a waterpark in Sacramento, Calif., Monday afternoon, sending at least 20 people — including nine children and three park employees — to area hospitals. A faulty pump at the privately owned and operated Raging Waters, located at the Cal Expo Fairgrounds, is being blamed. Doug Osborn, spokesman for the Sacramento County Environmental Management Department, told local reporters that when one pump stopped working, it created a backup of chlorine that was flushed out when the secondary pump was turned on.
Lifeguards managed the critical incident by quickly moving visitors away from the wave pool, which is expected to remain closed until the accident has been fully investigated.
"It started out with just a few people with complaints of burning respiratory tracts and eyes" and then escalated, Sacramento City Fire Department assistant chief Niko King told the Associated Press. "The water dilutes [chlorine] pretty well. But obviously, because it's so strong, it turns to gas. That's what they're affected by."
Patrons told Sacramento ABC-TV affiliate News10 that people initially panicked as they began to have trouble breathing. "Profuse coughing. You know, like involuntary, my son could not get his breath and they administered oxygen right away," said parent Mark Schiller, whose wife and 5-year-old son were overcome by chlorine fumes. All patients were released from local hospitals by Monday night.
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, dispatched investigators from its amusement ride and tramway unit, and the Sacramento district office of Cal/OSHA was expected to open a separate investigation Tuesday because waterpark workers were injured and exposed to hazardous material.
According to the AP, state records indicate one minor safety violation at Raging Waters since 2008, unrelated to the chlorine system.
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3:12 PM
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Struck Pitcher Strikes Out in Court
In Bukowski v. Clarkson University, a sharply split appeals court has held that an injured pitcher, struck in the face by a baseball during an indoor “live” batting practice, assumed the risk of injury and cannot sue his school. The pitcher, Shane Bukowski, admitted that he was an experienced baseball player. He argued, however, that the inherent risk of being struck by an errant baseball was increased because the defendants did not require protective screening for indoor “live” practices and because the poor lighting conditions made it more difficult for him to see and react to batted balls.
At trial, the court tossed the pitcher’s negligence action. The court rejected his arguments that the risk of injury was unreasonably increased due to an absence of an L-screen (the screen that protects a pitcher when balls are batted directly at him) or because the indoor lighting conditions were insufficient.
The appellate court determined that the evidence presented at trial (including expert testimony) could not defeat an assumption-of-risk defense. Under New York law, the risks assumed by athletes include the risk of injury presented by less than optimal playing conditions. Voluntary participants in sporting activities are deemed to have assumed the commonly appreciated risks inherent in the activity. That includes the risk of being struck by a line drive during batting practice. The presence of protective screening was irrelevant: the appellate court held that Bukowski’s assumption of risk extended to risks that are engendered by less than optimal playing conditions, so long as those conditions are open and obvious and readily appreciable.
The two dissenting justices did not agree: they held that a participant does not assume the risk of injury presented by concealed or unreasonably increased risks beyond those inherent in the sport. The plaintiff offered “ample evidence,” in their view, from which a jury could conclude that the risk of injury was unreasonably increased and that, commensurate with that finding, that the defendants owed a duty to protect him from those risks.
Because the appellate court was divided 3-2, New York’s Court of Appeals may agree to hear the case. If the appeals court does so, Bukowski may get to make his legal pitch a second time.
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Statue to Honor Shannon, Cooper Stone as Rangers Fans
While it’s uncertain what impact the Texas Rangers’ decision to raise railings in front of seating at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington to a uniform height of 42 inches will have on future stadium construction/renovation, building codes or even fan safety, the team announced Monday yet another project at its home venue — the commissioning of a bronze statue honoring Shannon Stone, the 39-year-old firefighter who fell from the stands and died reaching for a baseball while attending a game with his son in July.
Like the railing renovation itself, the life-size statue of Stone and six-year-old Cooper is expected to be completed by next season. The statue will likely be located outside the ballpark’s gate behind home plate.
Statues honoring sports figures living and dead have become part of the game-day experience at an increasing number of stadiums and arenas, including at the college level, but rarely is a memorial constructed for the common man. Visitors to Milwaukee’s Miller Park have likely looked upon not only representations of Hall of Fame players Henry Aaron and Robin Yount and former Brewers owner and current Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, but also Workers Monument, dedicated to the 5,000-plus construction workers who helped build the park. Oddly, though, the three individuals depicted in the statue titled “Teamwork” bear no likeness to the three workers — Jeffrey Wischer, William De Grave and Jerome Starr — who lost their lives in the construction process.
According to the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, the statue in Arlington is tentatively titled “Rangers Fans.” “I got to thinking about what we as an organization could do, and I felt like this was only appropriate,” Rangers president Nolan Ryan said. “I want fans, when they come in, to see it and remember Shannon and Cooper, and also the fact that they represent what I think we’re about. That’s making memories for our fans.”
“Shannon and Cooper had a special relationship, and we are touched and grateful that it will be memorialized at one of their favorite places,” said Stone’s wife, Jenny, in a statement. “Our hope is that this statue will not be a symbol of our family tragedy but rather a reminder of the importance of a family’s love — love of each other, love of spending time together and love of the game.”
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Monday, August 15, 2011
IHSA: Football Player in Basic Training Must Sit Out Opener
An Illinois high school football player who missed several practices while attending basic training for the U.S. Army National Guard will have to sit out the team's season opener. The Illinois High School Association has denied Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School senior Eddie Nuss a waiver to play on Aug. 26, citing concerns over his safety because he was unable to attend the mandated 12 preseason practices. Nuss has been in military training in Fort Benning, Ga., since June and is expected to return home later this week. PBL opens it season next Friday.
"I’m disappointed,” Nuss’s father, Pat, told the Paxton Record. “It’s not like he’s on vacation. He’s not running around doing something illegal. He’s doing something good for the country. ... Four days a week, [Eddie] runs five miles with his gear and pack on.
That’s an extra 20-30 pounds in 100-plus degrees. He’ll be in better shape than any kid on the football field when he’s out of basic training.”
“There’s this overriding safety issue,” countered IHSA executive director Marty Hickman to the Record's Cody Westerlund. “Our sports medicine committee continues to feel that being in shape and being in football shape are two different things. We’ve had this issue a number of times. It’s been brought to the board’s attention, and they’ve consistently said that they’re not interested in modifying this policy."
Consequently, the board did not accept a signed waiver from the Nuss family's attorney releasing the association from any liability. Hickman said the IHSA’s attorney claims that Pat Nuss (himself an Army veteran) signing off on his son’s rights “would not necessarily fully protect us in the event of an injury.”
State Sen. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga, isn't happy with the ISHA's decision and told ESPN Chicago that he planned to propose legislation that would prevent something like this from happening again. "Eddie's going to lose out, but this will be for everyone else," Cultra told reporter Scott Powers. "I think there should be exceptions. This would only deal with kids in the military. The law I would propose would be for those who don't have enough practices, their coaches and athletic directors could make a recommendation to the school board, and they would have the right to waive up to the 12 practices."
"Here a kid is, doing the right thing, taking his military training over the summer, but he can’t get back in time and they’re going to penalize him? I don’t think it’s right," Cultra additionally told the Record. "I think some allowances need to be made. It doesn’t make any sense.”
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Recent Tragedies Put New Focus on Shallow Water Blackout
The July deaths of two 21-year-old men in a Staten Island, N.Y., public pool brought increased attention to shallow water blackout — a largely unknown and potentially fatal condition that occurs when an insufficient amount of carbon dioxide is available to activate the body’s natural impulse to breathe. Swimmers and free divers who practice prolonged underwater breath-holding are particularly at risk.
By hyperventilating prior to submersion, an individual blows off an excessive amount of carbon dioxide and can, in the process, surrender his or her breathing reflex. When the oxygen level in the blood runs low enough, that person loses consciousness. He or she never actually feels the need to breathe underwater and sometimes even experiences euphoria. A series of events — including water inhalation, possible convulsions and ultimately cardiac arrest and death — follows. Unlike regular drowning, which can take six to eight minutes before brain damage and death occur, SWB can kill within two and a half minutes, experts say.
Image © Roberto A. Sanchez/iStockphoto.com
“I truly believe that shallow water blackout is the leading cause of drowning for those who already know how to swim,” says Tom Griffiths, president of the State College, Pa.-based Aquatic Safety Research Group, who began warning of SWB dangers nearly 30 years ago and now advocates for signage preventing underwater breath-holding at every public and residential pool in the United States. “We jumped through hoops with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act to stop suction entrapment deaths. We’ve never had more than a dozen people die from suction entrapment. I don’t want to say we don’t need that law. But we don’t have any law saying you can’t hold your breath underwater in pools. It’s a much bigger problem.”
How much bigger? Because medical examiners typically state the cause of death as “drowning” — simply based on the fact that water is in the victim’s lungs — no one really knows. Official statistics on shallow water blackout fatalities don’t exist, but observers have nevertheless speculated.
Neal Pollock, research director of the nonprofit health and safety organization Divers Alert Network recently told California’s Laguna Beach Independent that there have been an average of 44 breath-holding fatalities each year since 2004. Of those, he estimates approximately half are the result of shallow water blackout. “It’s very unreported, because there isn’t a lot of physical evidence left,” Pollock told reporter Ted Reckas shortly after free diver Andrew Brislen died in May from what is now believed to be shallow water blackout near Laguna Beach’s Picnic Beach.
“If the Divers Alert Network sees that many shallow water blackouts a year, the number of shallow water blackouts in pools should be much higher,” Griffiths predicts. He says awareness of SWB has been around since the 1950s, when it was a U.S. Navy term used to describe a temporary condition deep-sea divers experienced shortly before surfacing. “It wasn’t until the ’90s that we figured out shallow water blackout was killing people in swimming pools.”
People like Sam Goodenough, a 16-year-old New Zealander, who died Jan. 4 after he was pulled from the bottom of a pool a week earlier while competing with friends to see who could hold their breath underwater the longest. The boy blacked out and failed to surface, according to reports; his friends thought he was just playing around.
In March, a 43-year-old father of three died while practicing breath-holding in a Maine YMCA swimming pool, and in July, off-duty lifeguard Jonathan Proce and his friend Bohdan Vitenko suffered cardiac arrest at the bottom of Staten Island’s Lyons Pool while performing breath-holding exercises in preparation for military duty. Vitenko died in the pool; Proce died five days later. Both men were regulars at the pool, reportedly participating in grueling workout routines that included underwater sit-ups.
“They would just be typical drowning victims if the pool staff hadn’t known them and hadn’t known what they were doing,” Griffiths says. “There are many more shallow water blackout victims that go unnoticed because the lifeguards and the staff didn’t watch them holding their breath or didn’t know their history of training underwater.”
The April death of 25-year-old free diver Whitner Milner was ruled a drowning, but his family and friends now realize he succumbed to SWB while practicing holding his breath in a residential pool after dark. He was found at the bottom, one arm across his abdomen and his other arm resting under his chin — a typical posture for underwater breath holders. In fact, many underwater breath-holders simply sit down in a corner of a pool with a weight belt on their lap to keep them from surfacing.
“I had never heard of shallow water blackout,” admits Rhonda Milner, Whitner’s mother and a retired radiologist who recently created the Norcross, Ga.-based nonprofit education and awareness organization Shallow Water Blackout Prevention. “I’m a physician, and everyone in my family is a certified scuba diver, and none of us had heard of it.”
Since launching Shallow Water Blackout Prevention in June, she has received e-mails and phone calls from relatives of other victims on an almost daily basis, and more reported cases of suspected SWB are beginning to surface. Milner ultimately hopes to create an online memorial for victims on the organization’s website. “It’s a huge part of healing when some significance can come out of your tragedy,” she says. “For me, this was a natural response. How could I not respond?”
Milner plans to join Griffiths at several upcoming industry events to tell her son’s story and advocate for greater education and legislation. “In the past, all of these shallow water blackout victims kind of just faded away,” Griffiths says. “But now we have a mother who lost her son. We need her, because it really puts a face on the tragedy. Most people don’t know this is even a problem. First and foremost, before we can get regulation, we need education.”
That begins with lifeguards. For reasons Griffiths can’t explain, the American Red Cross — which trains the majority of lifeguards in the United States — did not include SWB in its manuals between 1995 and 2007. Furthermore, he suggests lifeguards are intimidated by underwater breath-holders, who often are more physically fit or better swimmers than the guards themselves. “They think, ‘Who am I to tell them not to do this?” Griffiths says. “There’s your recipe for disaster.”
In most all SWB cases, victims hold their breath “under the mistaken assumption that they can increase their own cardiovascular capacity,” Kevin Trapani, president and chief executive officer of The Redwoods Group, a North Carolina-based insurance provider to YMCAs, says in a video message on the company’s website. “It doesn’t work. We cannot allow people to practice breath-hold training at our YMCAs, at our JCCs, at our camps, in our pools, in our lakes, anywhere. Ever.”
Trapani added that SWB education is a never-ending process: “Part of our challenge is that we have very high turnover among our aquatics staff.”
As The Redwoods Group states in some of its SWB literature, “A lifeguard’s role is to ensure the safety of swimmers — that includes enforcing pool safety protocols. All lifeguards should be thoroughly knowledgeable regarding the dangers of shallow water blackout. They should understand that they have the power and responsibility to stop any hypoxic activity that is being done in their pools. Management should clearly communicate their support of the lifeguards in the enforcement of this policy.”
Griffiths and Milner are pushing for mandatory signage at all aquatic facilities prohibiting underwater training and long breath-holding. At least one company, Milford, Pa.-based Clarion Safety Systems LLC, has developed copyrighted signs targeting SWB, including a diamond-shaped yellow sign that shows a person plugging his nose surrounded by a red circle with a line through it. Below, the copy reads: “No Long Breath Holding.” A similar sign includes additional verbiage, explaining why underwater breath-holding is dangerous. Signs can be customized in several different languages.
Image courtesy of Clarion Safety Systems LLC
The assassination of Osama bin Laden by a group of Navy SEALs has heightened interest in the SEALs program and motivated more people to practice underwater breath-holding on their own, according to Griffiths. In fact, Navy SEALs hopefuls (such as Vitenko) are prime SWB candidates. “People should not be doing any underwater breath-holding activities until they get in the military,” where they are supervised, he says.
Swimmers who go multiple pool lengths without taking a breath — “I promise you, somewhere that’s happening right now,” Trapani says in his video message — also are at great risk. In Griffiths’ research, every swimmer who died while attempting to swim laps underwater died while swimming the third pool length. Breath-holding swimmers who take long, exaggerated strokes before eventually just stopping altogether may be exhibiting potentially deadly SWB symptoms.
That said, Griffiths contends that the majority of swimming coaches still encourage hypoxic training with low-frequency breathing patterns. In 2009, an Indiana high school swim coach passed out while swimming beneath the surface and had to be rescued by a freshman member of the team. He reportedly had challenged his swimmers to see who could swim farther than him without coming up for air. On his third lap, the coach twisted suddenly and floated to the surface, yet his head remained submerged. “Not only did that coach almost kill himself, he almost showed 50 other people how to kill themselves,” Griffiths says. “If all facilities were signed properly, there is a good chance that people wouldn’t do it. And if they did do it, the media would say there was a sign stating they shouldn’t, but they did it anyway. That would help get the word out about the dangers of shallow water blackout.”
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Friday, August 12, 2011
NCHSAA: Down Syndrome Athlete Too Old to Suit Up
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association is standing firm in its decision to bar a 19-year-old student with Down syndrome from suiting up for football games based on the association’s age restrictions, FoxNews.com reports.
For the past two seasons, Brett Bowden, a junior at Hobbton High School in Newton Grove, had participated in practices and led the team onto the field for games. He even scored a touchdown in limited playing time.
Bowden will still be able to don a jersey, lead the team onto the field, and participate in pre- and postgame activities, but only as a manager or coach. Ineligible players are not allowed to wear equipment, according to NCHSAA rules.
According to Pat Bowden, her son doesn’t see himself as having Down syndrome. “Brett wants just to be one of those guys, out there dressed, thinking that he is a football player, feeling like he’s a football player,” she told Wilmington’s WWAY-TV.
“I want to be clear that the student-athlete has not been ‘kicked off the team,’ ” said NCHSAA commissioner Davis Whitfield in a statement Wednesday. “The only thing that he cannot do now that he could do before is dress out in full uniform, since a student must be eligible to be dressed for a contest. He is over the age limit based on the eligibility rules, and this State Board of Education policy is one we are not allowed to set aside.”
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Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Blog: To Boost ‘Dying’ Sports, You Have to Act
I'm never happy when I read about a sport that is having trouble attracting participants, and AB’s story on the decline of slow-pitch softball really bothered me. It's a sport that traditionally draws more mature players, and nobody in our industry wants to see people become inactive as they get older.
What was good, though, was seeing the steps some areas are taking to reignite interest in the sport. In particular, the fact that some new facilities were being built is a hopeful sign. It's about time someone took this course of action, since it never seems to occur to people that a facility that isn’t cared for won't attract new players.
All too often, community members look at a program with falling numbers, then blame the lack of participation on the sport itself, and say it's dead for good and what a shame, blah blah blah. Then they immediately turn the old facility into something else to accommodate the hot sport of the moment. It's always the path of least resistance and it's often totally off-base.
In 1994, Sports Illustrated ran an article headlined, "Is Tennis Dying?" Its purpose was to examine participation numbers and why those numbers were falling, but it helped light a fire under the industry. New player initiatives were developed, as was a series of programs to help communities get their facilities in playing shape again. It's not all the USTA did to bring in participants, though. They now have staffers called Tennis Service Representatives, who work within USTA's geographic sections and travel to community fairs, schools, rec centers, parks and more to promote tennis on a recreational level.
Tennis isn't the only sport to take the initiative when things looked bad. In 1989, when youth baseball participation was way down in urban areas, MLB created the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program. Part of that effort was starting teams and programs, promoting them, pulling kids in and giving them places to play. As a result, participation numbers have grown in this sector, and there is an RBI World Series each year.
The point of all this? It's easy to throw up your hands and say a sport is dead and that nobody plays it any longer. What is harder is realizing that sometimes, players lose interest because nobody wants to play at a facility that is falling apart, and because nobody is out there actively trying to pull people in. Sports that make the effort by keeping up their facilities and using good in-person promotion can and will make their comeback.
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Monday, August 08, 2011
Illinois To Keep Testing High School Athletes for Steroids
Illinois will remain one of three states to test student-athletes for performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids. On Monday, the Illinois High School Association's Board of Directors voted to continue the testing program, which began with the 2008-09 school year — joining Florida, Texas and New Jersey. Florida discontinued its efforts in 2009.
The IHSA’s testing program changed slightly after its inaugural year, when a new law was enacted for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years requiring certain testing benchmarks to be met annually, as well as requiring an educational component to be completed by all member school coaches. “The state law mandating the testing has sunset,” says Marty Hickman, IHSA's executive director. “Regardless, the IHSA funded the program during its first year and was prepared to do so again. Our board believes in this program and made it clear that they want it to continue. I commend them for that decision.”
During the 2010-11 school year, the IHSA tested 747 student-athletes,
resulting in four positive tests. Two of the four were cleared by a
medical review officer — marking the first two punishable offenses in
the program’s history. Over the course of its three-year history, 1,758 tests have been conducted by the IHSA's Performance-Enhancing Drug Testing Program.
“Some people will look at the number of positive test results and conclude that the testing is not working,” Hickman adds. “But it is important to maintain perspective. The scope of our testing was never going to be large enough to catch every student who may be using performance-enhancing drugs. The program was put into place to be a deterrent to help prevent students from using these harmful drugs, and we believe it is successfully serving that purpose.”
The State of New Jersey and the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association have spent $400,000 to test approximately 2,000 student-athletes, according to The Press of Atlantic City — with only one positive test result. The NJSIAA randomly tests 500 athletes each year, but that group comes only from students who participate in state tournament competition.
Criticism of the testing program in Texas has been mounting after it was spared the budget axe in May. According to the Associated Press, more than 50,000 tests yielded fewer than 30 confirmed findings of steroid use since 2008. The state will now focus its testing efforts on select sports, including football, baseball and track. Gov. David Dewhurst, according to his spokesman Mike Walz, "believes the program is important and that it saves lives."
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Pediatricians Revise Heat Guidelines for Young Athletes
As temperatures continued to reach dangerously high levels across the parts of the United States on Monday, drawing weather alerts in many areas, the American Academy of Pediatrics revised its guidelines regarding high school and youth sports athletes practicing in hot weather.
In a revised policy statement titled “Climatic Heat Stress and Exercising Children and Adolescents,” published in the September 2011 issue of Pediatrics, the AAP recommends that youth sports program administrators implement comprehensive strategies to safeguard against heat illness. “Most healthy children and athletes can safely participate in outdoor sports and activities in a wide range of warm to hot weather, but adults sometimes create situations that are potentially dangerous,” says Stephen G. Rice, co-author of the policy statement and a former member of the executive committee of the AAP's Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. “Heat illness is entirely preventable if coaches and other adults take some precautions to protect the young athletes.”
The AAP's announcement comes after what heat-illness expert Douglas Casa called "the worst week in the last 35 years in terms of athlete deaths" — including the heat-related deaths of two high school football players in Georgia and a high school football coach in Texas.
Among the academy's recommendations:
• Provide risk-reduction training for coaches, trainers and other adults.
• Ensure trained staff are available on-site to monitor for and promptly treat heat illness.
• Educate children about preparing for the heat to improve safety and reduce the risk for heat illness.
• Allow children to gradually adapt to physical activity in the heat.
• Offer time for and encourage sufficient fluid intake before, during and after exercise.
• Modify activity as needed given the heat and limitations of individual athletes. Understand that practices and games may need to be canceled or rescheduled until the weather cools down.
• Provide rest periods of at least two hours between same-day contests in warm and hot weather.
• Limit participation of children who have had a recent illness or have other risk factors that would reduce exercise-heat tolerance.
• Develop and have in place an emergency action plan.
The most notable change in the AAP's policy is the recognition that children can tolerate and adapt to exercise in heat as well as similarly fit adults — when adequate hydration is maintained. The previous AAP policy, issued in 2000, suggested that children were less able to tolerate and adapt to heat stress compared to adults, but more recent research has found children and adults have similar physiological responses when exercising under the same conditions.
The revised policy focuses on what factors put kids in danger of exertional heat illness and how adults can modify youth athletic activities to minimize heat illness risk. The policy includes a detailed list of risk factors and possible modifications. But the new statement, unlike the previous one, does not give precise rules about whether games or practices should be canceled if temperatures reach a certain level.
“While coaches should make on-the-field decisions to improve safety for a team or event as a whole, individual participants may require more or less concern based on their health status and conditioning,” says statement co-author Michael F. Bergeron, director of the National Institute for Athletic Health & Performance at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, S.D.
As an example, the policy statement describes a healthy 12-year-old who is fit and accustomed to the heat who would be fine playing soccer on a 95-degree day. But an overweight football player, who recently recovered from diarrhea and is running wind sprints at the end of the second three-hour workout on the first warm day of preseason football, would be at higher risk even if the temperature was only 85 degrees.
“Athletic directors, coaches, teachers and other adults overseeing children exercising in the heat should make themselves aware of ways to reduce the risk of heat illness, and they should develop an emergency action plan,” says Cynthia Devore, co-author of the statement and chairperson of the AAP Council on School Health. “This is especially important [in] high school football.”
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3:20 PM
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Friday, August 05, 2011
Doctor: The 'Worst Week' in 35 Years for Athlete Deaths
Douglas Casa, doctor and author of the book Preventing Sudden Death in Sports and Physical Activity, is calling the past five days "the worst week in the last 35 years in terms of athlete deaths." At least three heat-related deaths on high school football practice fields have been reported, including two players in Georgia and a coach in Texas. Additionally, four high school players in Arkansas were hospitalized for dehydration Wednesday as temperatures soared to a record 114 degrees. And the death of 28-year-old runner Jeremiah Morris in an endurance race called the Warrior Dash on Sunday is being blamed on heatstroke.
Casa, who also is chief operating officer of the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut, told CNN.com that parents need to demand more specific and enforced rules for high school coaches training in extreme heat and other severe weather. Currently, there is no set of national rules; most state athletic associations issue guidelines to member schools, although some states (including Arkansas) have outlawed consecutive two-a-day practices, and three days of conditioning with only football helmets and shorts are mandatory before full pads can be worn. Still, if stricter oversight and enforcement doesn't happen soon, Casa predicts that the tragedies will continue. "It's not like the NCAA, where they mandate rules and the colleges have to follow them," he said. "The [state] high school association can make some recommendations, but they don't have any power or teeth to have those policies actually implemented."
The NCAA's heat mandates have been in place for eight years; during that time, there has been only one heat-related death in college football, CNN reports. (In addition to adhering to NCAA rules regarding practicing in hot weather, Georgia State University football players now wear tiny sensors in their helmets that transmit body temperatures to a handheld device carried by one of the team's certified athletic trainers. When a player's temperature reaches 102.5 degrees, a warning signal goes off in the device. But players are often pulled from practice before their bodies overheat that much, according to Bob Murphy, Georgia State's associate athletic director for medicine and nutrition.)
"Heatstrokes are completely survivable," Casa said. He suggests having a certified athletic trainer on the field at all times, someone who not only can recognize the signs of heat-related issues but also treat them. During August football practices in extreme heat, most high schools have only coaches on the field, he said.
Casa also encourages coaches to keep a tub or portable pool of cold water on the sidelines. An athlete suffering from heatstroke can recover if cooled immediately, he said, adding that too many coaches simply call 911 and wait for help to arrive — wasting valuable time during which the victim's brain and vital organs continue to overheat. Death can come within 30 minutes.
"The No. 1 thing is to stay ahead of it," Steve Carpenter, a veteran certified athletic trainer in Tennessee told the Chattanooga Times Free Press on Monday. "By the time a kid starts getting dehydrated, it will be difficult to get him back to normal quickly. We tell them that they should come to practice already hydrated and be able to urinate clear fluids. Of course, you have to have frequent water breaks, and you need to keep an eye on them. If they're starting to fatigue, give them a break. "
The Korey Stringer Institute, named after the Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman who died from heatstroke 10 years ago this week, has posted its "top 10 tips to stay safe when exercising in the crazy heat." The National Athletic Trainers Association also has issued comprehensive heat-acclimation guidelines for high school sports programs, and the American Football Coaches Association posted an online video featuring a conversation with Texas A&M University's head athletic trainer David Weir about how coaches and administrators should address heat issues during football practice.
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11:06 AM
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Yankee Stadium Concrete Tests Faked, Indictment Alleges
Executives representing the company employed to test concrete strength at Yankee Stadium and other New York construction projects were indicted Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court for allegedly submitting fabricated testing results.
As reported by the New York Daily News, the indictment states that officials of American Standard Testing and Consulting Laboratories Inc. “regularly skipped vital safety tests and created false reports to create the impression that the tests were performed.” The indictment describes faked field tests and strength analysis involving the breaking of concrete cylinders at various stages of the curing process. It did not state whether the structural integrity of Yankee Stadium or any of the other buildings was compromised.
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9:28 AM
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Safety Focus: UF Videographers Get Permanent Towers
Count the University of Florida among schools taking steps to avoid the kind of tragedy that struck Notre Dame last fall, when high winds at football practice toppled a hydraulic scissor lift, killing 20-year-old videographer Declan Sullivan.
Florida, too, had become reliant on scissor lifts to record practice, employing as many as four lifts at a time. Only one permanent observation tower remained after various construction projects eliminated two others, according to Scott Carter, senior writer at GatorZone.com.
In the wake of Sullivan’s death, however, Florida officials reevaluated their practice-recording protocols and decided to install six permanent steel towers on the Gators’ practice fields. Each 35-foot structure will sit atop a three-foot-thick concrete slab measuring 20 square feet. Amenities will include electrical outlets, permanent roofs and lightning rods.
Scissor lifts, which offer videographers and their equipment no protection from the elements, will still be employed at Florida, but likely only in two locations — on one football practice field and at the university’s lacrosse complex.
In March, Notre Dame announced that it was banning the use of scissor lifts when recording football practices. Last month, the Indiana Department of Labor announced that it had reached a settlement agreement with the university related to Sullivan’s death. According to the South Bend Tribune, Notre Dame must make a substantial contribution to the Declan Drumm Sullivan Memorial Fund, as well as launch a nationwide education program directed at other universities and educational organizations about the hazards of the outdoor use of scissor lifts, and the importance of training employees who operate such lifts.
No such education was necessary at Florida, where the knot in video director Dave Houts’ stomach last fall was motivation enough to champion the use of towers over lifts. “It became apparent to us that this was the best thing to do,” Houts told GatorZone.com. “What happened at Notre Dame is horrible. You just hope that never happens again.”
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Posted At
7:41 AM
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Blog: Sixteen Years of Growth, Freedom and Laughter
We enjoy writing for Athletic Business because we can share the unvarnished truth about our lives as owners of for-profit health clubs. What we think of as “unvarnished” has been interpreted by some AB readers as negativity; they think that we don’t care at all for our members, our staff or the fitness business in general.
Nothing could be further from the truth! While we certainly don’t enjoy every minute of every day — who does? — we love this industry. We’ve always felt that if we could make a living while improving the lives of people in our community, then we’d have a real win-win business. As we approach our 16th anniversary as owners, we still feel that way, even though we often wonder where the profit part has gone.
So, here are our Top 10 Reasons We Like Owning a Gym:
1. The members who have transformed themselves, lost weight, cured ailments and, in general, improved their quality of life because our gym exists.
2. Being able to work out alone when the gym is closed, music blaring.
3. Developing young staff people who go on to bigger and better things. One of our great moments was meeting the boss of one of our former employees on a trade show floor. He could not have been more impressed with how prepared this young lady was for her new job. The credit was all hers, but we were proud to have helped.
4. Taking drinks out of the cooler when nobody is watching. The staff has to pay. We don’t. We already paid for them.
5. Growing the business and solving problems. We especially enjoy learning about other people’s ideas, applying those ideas to our business and developing something uniquely ours.
6. The freedom to come and go without always feeling like we have jobs. Sometimes, that’s a problem in a small business like ours, because our staff might assume that they can behave like us — they weren’t up working until 2 a.m. — but it’s a perk we enjoy.
7. Trade shows! We learn, we meet people, we see equipment and, at the Athletic Business Conference, we have the honor of presenting some talks. They also represent a week away from the grind.
8. The characters we meet. We really think we should be featured in a reality show. No Hollywood writer could create the cast of characters that have come and gone through our business over the years.
9. Running the business the right way. We’re not perfect, but we try to do the right thing when dealing with members, vendors, corporate customers and staff members. Not everyone in our industry does that. We try.
10. Sixteen years of laughter. We don’t think we’ll be as close with our staff in future years as we have been in the past. We’re getting older. Some of them are young enough to be our children. But up until now, there have been a lot of late nights out, Christmas parties and the occasional adult beverage. Let’s just not discuss the Barry-in-thong-heading-to-the-hot-tub incident from Christmas 1999, okay?
Sure, there might be a negative counterpoint to each of these, but it’s our anniversary. Here’s to the good stuff!
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Posted At
6:43 AM
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Thursday, August 04, 2011
Probe into KSU Stadium Worker's Fatal Fall Under Way
Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials arrived at Kansas State University in Manhattan on Tuesday, one day after a 26-year-old masonry worker fell to his death from scaffolding at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
As part of an ongoing stadium renovation project, Zachery John Wilson was working on new restroom facilities when a wooden plank on the scaffolding shifted, creating a hole through which Wilson fell 100 feet to the ground. He died on the scene, according to WIBW, the CBS affiliate in Topeka. Wilson was employed by Five Star Masonry, a subcontractor of Konrath Construction Managers, the firm in charge of the restroom project.
As of Tuesday, no official determination had been made as to whether Wilson was wearing a safety harness Monday, though family members in Council Grove told WIBW that he was not. Crews continued their stadium renovation work this week, though the platform from which Wilson fell remained cordoned off for OSHA inspection. An administration spokesperson told WIBW that it “will do all we can to determine what caused the incident.”
The university will assist in the OSHA investigation, which officials say could take up to six months.
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Posted At
9:39 AM
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Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Blog: A Weirdly Addictive Fall Fitness Program
Within the next few weeks, a lot of college freshmen will report to campuses across the country. If you're an AD or the manager of the university fitness center, you're looking at a new group of potential users. Ideally, you'd like to catch them before the dreaded "freshman ten" does.
So, how do you reach out to them? You can put up flyers, post information on the college's website and start a Facebook page for users of the facility. But if you really want to get them in the door and then get them to stay, you have to make it fun for them.
Over at my gym, there's a fall-themed participation program called the Trail to Sleepy Hollow. On one wall is a not-to-scale map of the East Coast. On that map are marked various 'haunted' locations — Amityville, Cape Fear, Salem…you get the idea — with dotted lines connecting each location. The dotted line is the "trail," the overall route from Cape Fear to Sleepy Hollow with all the haunted stops in between.
Each member who wants to participate gets a little numbered sticker that looks like a pumpkin. Every minute you spend exercising is a mile on the trail. Thirty minutes of cardio or strength workouts moves your little pumpkin 30 miles. Thirty minutes of combined strength and cardio workouts gets you a 60-mile burst. Trying something new is worth extra miles. Each time you work out, you record your mileage on a little card. A staff member tabulates each member's mileage at the end of each week and moves the pumpkins around on the map.
Even for adults, it's weirdly addictive and weirdly competitive, with people sneaking peeks at the map to see where their pumpkins have moved each week. There's even some good-natured pumpkin-dissing that goes on throughout the program, which runs for somewhere between two and three months. If you complete the trail, you get a free T-shirt. I don't know what it's like at your facility, but at mine, people will do just about anything for a shirt. They wear that shirt all year long, too. It's great free advertising for the club.
For adults, the program comes at the right time of year — between the end of bathing suit season and the holiday season, when many might drop out of going to the gym for lack of motivation. For college fitness facilities, it's a great opportunity to get students into a healthy lifestyle before bad habits have a chance to take hold. But the bottom line is that it's fun. And isn't that what fitness should always be?
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Posted At
8:44 PM
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What Caused Metal Panel to Fall from Busch Stadium?
A section of sidewalk outside Busch Stadium in St. Louis remains cordoned off as officials try to determine what caused a 2-by-4-foot metal panel to break loose from the underside of the ballpark’s upper level Monday afternoon and fall between 80 and 100 feet to the ground.
No one was injured, but Mike Bertani, the Cardinals’ director of stadium operations, estimated that roughly 150 panels like the one that fell are in place around the building. Bertani speculated that heat-related expansion of concrete may have caused the failure, but was far from conclusive, telling KSDK-TV, “We don’t know how it happened or if it was weather related.”
City inspectors have visited the site, and the Cardinals have contacted the architect (Populous) and contractor who worked on Busch Stadium, which opened in 2006. The team’s next home game is Tuesday.
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Posted At
11:19 AM
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Coach's Death a Reminder that Heat Risk Extends to All
The first days of the high school football practice season have again provided grim reminders of the dangers posed by heat — and not just for student-athletes.
On Tuesday, the medical examiner in Collin County, Texas, determined that Plano Prestonwood assistant coach Wade McLain died from a combination of heat exposure and heart disease after he collapsed during a practice break Monday. CPR and an automated external defibrillator failed to revive the 55-year-old McLain on a day temperatures approached 100 degrees.
“I was out there on the field with the coaches and team for a while yesterday and Coach McLain was very active and being himself, having a good time coaching,” Prestonwood Baptist Church pastor Jack Graham told KDAF-TV in a prepared statement. “They had been stopping regularly for water and air-conditioning breaks, and during one break he became ill and collapsed. He was rushed to the hospital, where he passed away. We all realize life is a gift and this is one of those times when someone left unexpectedly.”
A high temperature of 108 is forecast today in parts of Texas. Many schools in the state have begun the first of two-a-day workouts as early as 7 a.m., with the second starting at 6 p.m., to avoid the worst of the heat.
“At 11 a.m. it starts getting ridiculously hot,” Kerens High School coach Russell Anderson told the Corsicana Daily Sun. “The biggest part as a coach is you’re busy coaching, and then when you get a drink, you’re thinking about making sure the kids are getting hydrated and you don’t think about yourself.”
Anderson added that the Bobcats used 100 gallons of water and ice for the coaching staff and 47 players for Tuesday’s two-a-day practices alone. He told the Daily Sun that his own heat-acclimation efforts included doing yard work in the runup to football practice season.
For tips on acclimating to high temperatures in the sports practice setting, click here.
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Posted At
10:47 AM
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Ribbon Board Lighting Advantage Alleged at Miller Park
We’ve heard of a ribbon board causing unsightly (though unintentional) glare on a basketball court, but using the technology to create a home field advantage in baseball? That’s the complaint filed Monday by St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who alleged the upper-level ribbon board at Miller Park shed more light on the home plate area while Milwaukee batted in a game the Brewers won, 6-2.
The league contacted the Brewers on Tuesday, but general manager Doug Melvin pleaded ignorance on the issue, according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel beat writer Tom Haudricourt. “I don’t know what the specific complaint was,” Melvin said. “It has been looked at. Nothing’s been changed.”
Umpire crew chief Gary Darling, who was the first to hear La Russa’s complaint during the game, said he personally didn’t notice a difference in lighting levels. “Like I told him last night, we just don’t pay that much attention to it. Nothing really jumped out about it. I told him I would report it to the league, and that’s what I did.”
St. Louis, which trails division-leading Milwaukee in the National League Central, isn’t the first team looking for some reason — nefarious or not — to explain the Brewers’ success at home. The team is 40-15 at Miller Park, the best home record in baseball.
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Posted At
9:31 AM
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Tuesday, August 02, 2011
Big 12 ADs Call for High School Broadcast Moratorium
Big 12 Conference athletic directors unanimously agreed Monday to establish a minimum one-year moratorium on the broadcast of any high school content or any content involving prospective student-athletes via any medium branded as a platform of the Big 12 or any of its member institutions. The ADs further recommended that the conference board of directors, which must approve the moratorium, strongly request that the NCAA board of directors establish a nationwide moratorium for the entire NCAA membership.
The Big 12 ban is to be extended unless and until the NCAA deems such content permissible. According to a conference media release, “The ADs recognize that this issue is complex and involves a detailed analysis of the recruiting model in many areas, including existing NCAA legislation related to the publicity of prospective student-athletes and the rapidly evolving world of technology. This process will take an extended period of analysis. The Conference will continue to monitor the broadcasting of youth athletics content.”
Controversy followed soon after it became known that the University of Texas intended to broadcast high school football games on its own Longhorn Network, which debuts later this month.
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Posted At
10:37 AM
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New York Voters Reject $400M Arena Plan for Islanders
A proposal to spend $400 million on an overhaul of New York's 39-year-old Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum was defeated by referendum voters Monday, 57 percent to 43 percent. In addition to revitalizing the home of the NHL's New York Islanders, the plan called for construction of a minor-league ballpark and convention space.
"I'm heartbroken that this was not passed," Islanders owner Charles E. Wang, who had fought for a new or refurbished arena for almost a decade, said in a statement, refusing to specifically address his next move. "We're committed to the Nassau Coliseum until the year 2015 and like we've said all along, we will honor our lease."
Nassau County voters, who pay among the highest local taxes in the nation, were divided on the issue. “I’m a homeowner, and I’m a laid-off union plumber,” Uniondale resident Marc Gundel, told The New York Times on Monday night after voting for the referendum. “And if the Islanders go, a lot of businesses right behind them go.” But Mike Colecchia, a 47-year-old printer from Farmingdale, told reporters he voted against the plan because he thinks taxes shouldn't help fund an arena when the county is struggling to provide basic services — including repairing the road in front of his house.
The county faces a severe budget deficit; wages have been frozen and nearly 130 employees have been let go.
According to the Times, Wang could sell or move the Islanders — a Long Island staple since 1972, the year the coliseum opened. The referendum generated much controversy, including its timing on the first Monday in August. The special vote cost Nassau County $2 million, the paper reports, and turnout was light. Wang had offered to cover the cost of the election if the measure passed.
Had that happened, voters would have paid 4 percent more in property taxes. Supporters of the measure argued that a new arena would generate far more money in new tax revenue over the long term, and that taxes for single-family homeowners would have increased between $14 and $58 a year. Last year, residents paid an average property tax bill of $11,500.
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Posted At
9:47 AM
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Drugs, Alcohol Factors in Coors Field Fatality
The 27-year-old man who fell to his death from a Coors Field stairway railing in May had marijuana in his system, as well as a blood-alcohol percentage of 0.19 — more than twice the legal limit for driving. A Denver medical examiner’s report indicates these factors played a “significant” role in Robert Seamans’ death.
Seamans was attempting to slide down the railing during the seventh inning of a Colorado Rockies game May 24. He fell more than 20 feet, striking his head on concrete. He was declared brain dead 12 hours later.
Railings at Coors Field comply with Denver’s building code, according to Rockies spokesperson Jay Alves, who told Associated Press writer P. Solomon Banda, “We’re always observing and reviewing what we do at Coors Field to make it safe for our fans.” In 2003, an escalator malfunction at Coors injured dozens of fans, prompting the Rockies to review the equipment’s operation and maintenance.
Major League Baseball encouraged safety reviews at all of its stadiums following the fatal fall of Shannon Stone at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas, last month. Rangers officials announced July 19 that the team would raise railings in front of seating sections to a height of 42 inches.
It was not clear whether the alcohol consumed by Seamans was purchased at Coors Field, which terminates alcohol sales to the general public after the seventh inning. Alves told the AP that the Rockies have a program in place to deal with intoxicated fans. MLB has long been at the forefront of implementing alcohol management strategies in its parks.
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Posted At
9:45 AM
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