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JULY/AUGUST NEWS
BASEBALL MEDICAL CONFERENCE SET FOR OCTOBER. See Baseball 2017 Youth to the Big Leagues: Managing The Developing Player, October 11 - 13, Rosemont, Il.
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MAYO CLINIC SPORTS MEDICINE ICE HOCKEY SUMMIT ON CONCUSSION SET FOR SEPTEMBER 28 and 29 In Rochester, MN.
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August 16, 2017 - Davis, CA - Remember when sports was billed as the way to go from ghetto to glory? Well, now the socio-economics of sports is a whole lot more complex. Indeed, these days the rich folks do a lot more winning than the poor folks, and almost nobody goes from the playgrounds to the pros as almost nobody plays playground sports. Even inner city basketball is hyper organized these days. What do all the changes in how we play mean? Jeffrey Sacha, a post-doc fellow at U.C. Davis, has studied the new socioeconomics of youth sports. You can read about his work in the Davis Enterprises article, Can High School Sports Transcend Socioeconomic Status, reported by Ben Hinshaw. Sacha concludes, “Privilege and marginalization are more often than not reflected in high school sports ... which raises important doubts about the ability for sports participation to undermine structural educational inequality.”
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August 16, 2017 - Kingsport, TN - Why do we need to run background checks on coaches? See 11 Men Including Middle School Coach Charged in Human Trafficking Sting in Kingsport, reported by Lauren Hoar, WBIR TV. In case you're curious, the sting consisted of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation posting web ads for sex with underage girls. The coach was one of four people facing felony charges for a sting operation that lasted only four days. That's a lot of bad actors caught in a limited amount of time.
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August 15, 2017 - Boston MA - The Concussion Legacy Institute Rolls Out its Team Up Speak Up program: the program has coaches "speak up" with a brief concussion awareness speech, and teammates pledge to speak up if they see a teammate take a hit to the head. Another step toward changing the concussion culture. For a report on the program see Tell Coach If Your Teammate Takes A Hit, Concussion Program Urges, reported by Rob Ferguson, Toronto Star.
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August 14, 2017 - San Gabriel, CA - Strange but true. A former high school baseball is suing his former school because the coach benched him. These cases are generally dismissed on the ground that sports participation is not a right but a mere privilege. But, this one has a twist. The student is alleging that the benching and the coach's demeanor are tantamount to bullying. This still sounds like it's on shaky legal ground, but it's not far from bullying to charges of racial or some other type of discrimination; so Robbie Lopez, the student bringing the suit, may fool us all and get past a motion to dismiss if he can just slip some charges of discrimination into his case. We will see. See Former Los Altos Baseball Player Sues Coach After Being Benched, Claims Bullying, reported by Hayley Munguia, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
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August 11, 2017 - Is the bell tolling for football? It's too early to tell, but anecdotal data shows the potential for a severe drop in participation in 2017-18 and statistical data showed a drop in 2016-17. See More Ominous Signs For Football, reported by Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, August 11, 2017 page B-1; Study on CTE Has Many Football Coaches, Players Reassessing Their Sport, reported by John Altavilla, Hartford Courant, August 3, 2017; and Hail Mary? Senator Seeks Legislation to Save Football Program, reported by Joe Zedalis, NJ.com, August 2, 2017 (reporting on a New Jersey State Senator's attempt to override State athletic rules to allow two schools to combine their failing football programs). Also, see High School Sports Participation Increases For 28th Straight Year, Nears 8 Million Mark, NFHS News, August 7, 2017 (while high school sports participation increased, the media focus was on a decline of 25,503 players participating in high school football nationally).
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August 10, 2017 - Indianapolis, IN - NCAA To Require Education In Sex-Abuse Awareness, reported by Ralph D. Russo, Associated Press Wire Service Story in San Francisco Chronicle.
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August 10, 2017 - New York, NY - Long Island High School Football Player, 16, Dies After Log Being Used In Practice Drill Fell On His Head, reported by Aaron Showalter and Graham Rayman, New York Daily News.
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August 8, 2017 - Does anecdotal information about pro football players with CTE get in the way of statistical reality? MomsTeam's Brooke de Lench argues that it does. See CTE: Is The Media Scaring Young Athletes to Death?, Huffington Post.
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July 26, 2017 - Crawfordsville, IN - Are We Nearing Crisis Mode With the Number of Athletic Officials?, reported by Jim Johnson, Crawfordsville Journal Review.
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July 25, 2017 - Dr. Ann McKee studied 111 brains of deceased former N.F.L. players. 110 had CTE. You can read about McKee's research on the 111 N.F.L. brains and 91 other brains of deceased non-N.F.L. players. See 110 N.F.L. Brains, reported by Joe Ward, Josh Williams and Sam Manchester, New York Times. See also Ann McKee, MD; Jesse Mez, MD, MS1,2; Daniel H. Daneshvar, MD, PhD1,3; Patrick T. Kiernan, BA, Clinicopathological Evaluation of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Players of American Football, Journal of American Medical Association, July 25, 2017.
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July 21, 2017 - Miami, FL - Miami Dolphins To Fund Concussion Testing for Miami-Dade Public Schools, reported by Armando Salguero, Miami Herald, July 21, 2017
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July 20, 2017 - San Mateo, CA - What Does An AD Do? Plenty, reported by Nathan Mollat, San Mateo Daily Journal.
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July 18, 2017 - Louisville, KY - Kentucky Becomes First State To Require Face Protection For Softball, USA Today report published in Louisville Courier-Journal.
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July 16, 2017 - New York, NY - Lawyers Make Their Pitch After NFL Concussion Suit. See After NFL Concussion Settlement, Feeding Frenzy of Lawyers and Lenders, reported by Ken Belson, New York Times.
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July 14, 2017 - Southern Utah - Click here for The Spectrum's special report on Is Specializing In Sports Worth It?, reported by Justin Giles.
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July 13 and 14, 2017 - Nashville, TN - Click here for information on the 2017 Youth Sports Safety Conference and Celebration Gala at Vanderbilt University.
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July 12, 2017 - Cambridge, MA - Harvard Takes Stand on Hazing, Sexual Abuse and Alcohol Abuse. Fraternities Cry Foul. See Harvard Proposal Would Ban Fraternities and Sororities, Associated Press Report in New York Times. This proposal comes from the Faculty Committee. The big question is whether Harvard's President accepts the Faculty Committee's recommendation. The AP reports that the Harvard ban is based on similar bans at Williams College and Bowdoin College.
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July 11, 2017 - Ft. Myers, FL - Riverdale Player Dies After Suffering Heat Stroke At Football Practice, reported by Adam Regan, News-Press.com (Naples, FL).
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July 5, 2017 - South Carolina - The South Carolina Youth Soccer Association institutes a month-long "Silent September" to control unruly and verbally abusive crowds. Silent September is part sportsmanship measure and part officials' retention tool as the SCYSA officials' data shows that poor sportsmanship by spectators is making it hard to retain new officials. See Poor Behavior Leads Officials To Silence Youth Fans, reported by Bob Castello, Greensville On-Line, July 5, 2017.
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July 3, 2017 - Wisconsin - Study of 3,904 former Wisconsin high school football players from 1957 finds that the football players were no worse off neurologically than their non-football playing counterparts. See Late in Life, Former High School Football Players No Worse Off Mentally, reported by Andrew Seaman, Reuters News Service. This study mirrors the findings of a Minnesota study that found that high school football players from one school that was studied from 1956-1970 did not have an increased risk of degenerative brain diseases compared with their non-football playing counterparts. See High School Football Players, 1956-1970, Did Not Have Increase Of Neurodegenerative Diseases, reported by Susan Barber Lindquist, Mayo Clinic Press Release.
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July 2, 2017 - NWCA Assembles Blue Ribbon Task Force To Tackle High School Wrestling's Participation Slide., reported on Trackwrestling.com
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July 1, 2017 - New York, NY - The factors that lead to cheating and poor sportsmanship in athletes also affect schools. New York is but the latest example. See This NYC High School Has a Big Grade Fixing Problem, reported by Susan Edelman, New York Post, July 1, 2017, and when New York City principals and teachers don't fix grades, the schools sometime rig the game by lowering the standards. See Regents Math Test Is Easier To Pass Thanks To Low Standards, reported by Susan Edelman, New York Post, June 25, 2017.
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LATEST COLLINS ARTICLES/INFORMATION
‘Just The Facts’ When Report Writing, It’s Official: Monthly Newsletter of the National Association of Sports Officials, December 2016, page N6.
All Pre-participation Evaluation Forms Are Not Created Equal, momsteam.com, May 2008 (updated July 25, 2017).
FROM THE ARCHIVES
January 6, 2017 - See Forbes.com's Bob Cook's insightful piece on how poorer kids - especially girls - simply have fewer sports participation opportunities. This article illustrates Title IX issues at poorer schools and it touches upon the root causes of many of the public/private issues that plaque youth sports. There is a reason that the richer schools win. Cook nails it. See It's Tough For Low Income Kids, Especiallly Girls, To Participate In Sports.
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August, 2015 - Title IX has done a lot for girls, but the benefits of Title IX are slower to trickle down to schools with high concentrations of minority and low-income students. See Finishing Last: Girls of Color and School Sports Opportunities, National Women's Law Center Report.
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