The news last year that a Kentucky high school football coach was charged with reckless homicide in the heat-related death of 15-year-old Max Gilpin was not a shock to me.*
Hewas not the first youth sports coach to be charged with reckless homicide of a young athlete and, until we can get the word out to all sports parents and coaches about why football players are especially vulnerable to heat illness, the steps that can be taken to reduce those risks, including following a strict fluid replacement strategy, I am afraid he won't be the last. Sadly, even though heat-related illness is one of the most preventable of all youth sports injuries, players continue to die. In 2008, six players at the high school and college level died from heat-related illness, matching the average for the last several years.
The day after Max died, I received an e mail from a Kentucky dad in the same school league as Max to tell me what had happened and what had almost happened to his son practicing with full pads during some brutally hot days. He was asking permission to download a number of YouthSportsParents articles from the MomsTeam Hydration Safety Center to hand out to all of the coaches and parents, permission which, of course, I gladly granted.
Each summer for the past nine years MomsTeam has received hundreds of emails from parents complaining about coaches putting their children at risk of heat stroke by running practices when the NOAA heat index says that there is an elevated risk of heat illness, or worse, and by failing to take the frequent fluid breaks and other steps that are needed to protect them. Parents are at a loss of what to do or what to say, especially during summer try-outs.
Perhaps, it will take a football coach going to jail to bring increased awareness and finally get coaches to think twice about pushing their players too hard during pre-season practices in the sweltering heat of summer, some out of ignorance but many out of a misguided, macho belief that it toughens them up and that they need to learn to "take it like a man."
At some point, though, I am afraid the only way to really protect our kids from heat stroke is to pass legislation that mandates the steps that every coach must take to eliminate the risk and makes them criminally liable if they don't.
I have been researching and writing about youth sports for over fifteen years. Central to my work is to keep kids safe while participating in sports. Whenever I am interviewed by the media or while giving community talks I remind parents to remember that the three "H"s( Head, Heart and Hydration )are the key to preventing catastrophic injury or death in sports. To that end, MomsTeam has comprehensive safety information about concussions (head), cardiac safety (heart) and hydration.
I encourage you to visit the Health & Safety Channel on MomsTeam, to link to our site and to download our articles to give to your child's coach and to hand out to other parents on your child's team.
Together we can make sure that Max did not die in vain.
* The coach was later acquitted
Concerned
I was at a coaches show a few weeks ago and a company called Hothead Sports was there and they have an in helmet heat monitoring device that will alert a coach or trainer if a player becomes in danger of overheating. We need to be proactive and not reactive. I coach youth football and we have had kids become ill from the heat even with multiple breaks. God Bless this kid's parents and his coaches.
This is a very sad, sad
This is a very sad, sad story. But is legislation really the answer? In the article, you state that in 2008, 6 high school/ college players died from heat related illnesses, the average over the last several years. I'm sure your stance and many others that follow this site is that one death is too many. But we can't protect kids from every concievable harm that is out there. Honestly, if you take into account the thousands of kids that play high school and college football, that's not bad. I would imagine percentage wise and in numbers, many, many more high school and college age kids died in car accidents in 2008.
I'm going to say that most likely, coaches these days are very knowledgable about hydration, especially football coaches who deal with it during their seasons. The other think to consider is the fine line of conditioning athletes for their games and going over that line. Coaches have to get their athletes ready for competition, it's what they do. If you back off of every kid was was tired or not feeling well when you are conditioning, you'd end up with an out of shape, flabby team. Then on game night they'd be dropping like flies because they aren't conditioned to perform.
Our society today unfortately involves the courts too much. We wonder why coaches and volunteers stray away from the profession when every thing they do is scruntinized.
Mr. Rick Paul, do you see what you are saying. You are asking for a heat monitoring device for all football players? Do we not already have an enormous expense equipping football players? Many kids become ill at the youth football level because they are out of shape, sit inside all summer playing video games or sitting in the pool. They never get acclaimated to the heat.