A Hot Topic
July 10, 2012
It is a terrible irony that Georgia saw two of its high school football players die late last summer when it’s the Georgia High School Association that was providing us with the best information we’ve ever had about the risks of heat illness and death.
The deaths occurred in the third year of a thorough three-year study in Georgia that is reinforcing common sense. The study is confirming who is most at risk and when they’re most at risk.
-
Who is most at risk? Linemen more than other players; underclassmen more than older players; those who have had the flu or similar sickness more than others.
-
When are they most at risk? During the season’s first week more than the second. During the second practice of a double session day more than the first. During the second half of the second practice more than the first half, and, early in the morning when humidity is often highest.
It all makes perfect sense: the chubby 9th or 10th grader during the second half of the second practice during the first week of the season. And because it’s statistically predictable, heat illness is almost entirely preventable.
There is some danger here in over-generalizing and over-simplifying, but awareness of these tendencies will help coaches to schedule and administrators to legislate around high-risk scenarios. We expect both will be happening in Michigan.
Sportsmanship To Citizenship
March 18, 2016
Given the current presidential campaign, what does it really mean to be “politically correct” these days?
Earlier this winter, almost everybody badly overreacted when a neighboring high school athletic association dared to describe cheers that should be avoided in school sports. Their efforts to maintain a positive and educational environment in school sports in that state were praiseworthy, no matter how unfairly persecuted that association was.
More recently, from another neighboring state, word has reached us of spectator cheers that are routinely hostile and sometimes racially charged. Combining this news with the daily barrage of uncivil campaign rhetoric reminded me that efforts to guide spectators toward greater civility are not only praiseworthy; they have never been more necessary.
I have often maintained that good sportsmanship is a precursor to good citizenship; and that we can predict the quality of citizenship in our nation by the standards of sportsmanship in our schools. One of the many ways we can return civility to politics is to insist upon improved sportsmanship in athletics ... even if it seems old fashioned, out of date or politically incorrect.