Article Directory :: Legal Articles

Top 5 Things Parents Can Do To Ensure The Safety Of Their High School Athlete

By Jason G Epstein

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 12Oct2009 Word count: 656 Viewed: 305 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Recently a high school football coach was acquitted in the death of one of his young players who died from heat stroke while the team was forced to run sprints in the summer heat. The boy collapsed at practice and then died from heat stroke, sepsis, and organ failure. At one point, the boy's temperature rose as high as 107.

The coach was charged criminally and the case went to trial. The prosecution alleged that the coach made the kids run grueling sprints as a form of punishment for their lack of effort in an earlier practice when the heat index was 94. More than one of the boys fell ill from the exercises. However, some players testified that they only ran a few more sprints than was normal. Three classmates and the boy's stepmother testified that the young man told them he was feeling sick on the day of his death. Defense medical experts opined that a combination of the dietary supplement creatine, the medication Adderall, and illness were the main contributors to his death.

The exact cause of his death may never truly be known. Was his coach to blame? The jury didn't think so after hearing both sides. The boy's family will have a better chance of success in a wrongful death civil lawsuit where the elements of the cause of action are different and the burden of proof is a "preponderance of the evidence" rather than "by a reasonable doubt."

Despite the technicalities of the evidence and trial, I read this story with a heavy heart as a father, not as a lawyer. Soon my children will want to participate in sports at their school and it got me thinking: How safe are high school athletics? Is this young man's death an anomaly in the big picture? The reality is that while high school athletics are generally safe, the students who participate are at an increased risk for personal injury.

According to the High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study which was funded by the Center for Disease Control, in 2005-06, the overall injury rate in all sports was 2.44 injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures. Football had the highest injury rate (4.36 injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures) followed by wrestling (2.50), boys' (2.43) and girls' (2.36) soccer, and girls' basketball (2.01). Boys' basketball, volleyball, baseball, and softball each had injury rates of less than 2.0 injuries per 1,000 athlete exposures. In each of the nine sports monitored, approximately 80% of the reported injuries were new injuries as opposed to recurrences or complications from previous injuries. Severity of injury, as measured by days lost from play, varied by sport. Overall, approximately half of the injuries reported resulted in

EasyPublish™ this article - publishers click here

More articles by Jason G Epstein

Free Report!
Ten Essential Secrets Of Article Marketing ... Grab Your Free
Copy Now:

Need Content?
Regular Top Quality Content for your Blog, Ezine or Website ...
Delivered Direct,
For Free!
Click For Details