Trainers call for end to two-a-day summer football team practices

This is becoming a HOT story especially as we head toward August. From www.si.com

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The nation’s athletic trainers are calling on high school football teams to eliminate two-a-day practices in August.

The new report from the National Association of Athletic Trainers was released Thursday in San Antonio. In some states, the grueling two-a-days are an annual rite of passage for thousands of high school teams.

Authors of the report say their policies largely follow what’s being done at the college level. They also point to a 15-year-old in Kentucky who collapsed last August and later died. Prosecutors charged his coach with reckless homicide.

The National Center for Catastrophic Injury Research says at least 39 football players across all levels have died from heat-related causes since 1995. Most cases occurred in August.

full details available at The Site.

6 thoughts on “Trainers call for end to two-a-day summer football team practices

  1. Maybe if they didnt make us play so quickly now a day we wouldnt need two a days. We start official practice on Saturday August 1st and are expected to have kids ready to play by August 21st with a first scrimmage date of August 12th. Teams will have 9 practices in by the first scrimmage date with a lot of teams waiting till August 14th to have their first scrimmage. 20 years ago or maybe a little longer, when I played, we started practice August 1st but wouldnt have our first game until September or at the earliest the last Friday in August. If they want to take away two a days from everyone across the country then the only way to make things equal would be for our state to catch up to everyone else and have a true spring practice. Kids arent dieing because coaches dont know what they are doing, kids are dieing because we are pressured to get kids ready in to short a period of time. One more thing, these trainers want to do away with two a days but they want to keep having mass physicals to help raise money to buy tape and pre-rap, when at these mass physicals they run kids through in such a hurry there is no way they can in good conscious say that each kid gets a clean bill of health.

  2. I have to wonder what kind of responsibility an AT would take in a child’s death. At any moment, they could step in, throw water on a kid, and that be that.

    This simply sounds like a passing of the buck. I’m disappointed.

  3. no one in the adminstration cares about high school sports, so they dont care if you are ready to play, dont care who wins, as long as they dont do anything to jeopardize there jobs. It would be so awesome if in this tough economic times if they cut all high school sports, then maybe the club sports could take over, those are people that care about kids that play sports. Eliminate all the overpaid worthless AD’s (Newman, etc), and the paid science teachers trying to make an extra 1500 to coach a sport, field maintenance, think of how much money is spent that would be saved. Each High school in Guil County has at least 100k athletic budget plus AD’s salaries and benefits, each school would save 200k plus per year. Club teams in all sports would take over and then athletic people would make the athletic decisions and the coaches would be qualified and they would not be doing it for money! Some might be parents, but being a parent does not mean you cant coach. Many would not be parents – at least you could play on any team that you were good enough to make. Not just bitch to school ad’s and then magically you kid gets playing time.

  4. One would think that a guy like a Ralph Kitley now at Northwest, was at Southeast Guilford, does care.

    He, unlike many of the other adminstrators, has a background in sports and has developed an appreciation for what the athletes have to go through.

    Kitley was outstanding as a basketball player in high school at Salisbury, I believe and then went on to be pretty well-known as the center for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

    Now the principal at NWG, you would think Kitley has a clue and hopefully others do too……..

    Intramurals and club sports are what many readers of the News and Record on-line are calling for and to me most of those people don’t have a clue…….

  5. I tend to agree with “coach in gso”, if we here in guilford county would have a true spring practice season we could get a great deal things sorted out for the fall. (1) depth charts (2)continuous weight room work,(3) skill and development ,etc.Then these ” whinny”parents could take their vacations and have the kids back by August 1st; but that’s too much like doing the right thing. Back when I played in the late 60’s we couldn’t wait for August 1 to roll around,after the East/West * All-star game;we started our own workouts among ourselves,we were motivated and that to me is the difference in our kids today.They go to all these combines and camps, but is it that much more than pure “old hard work and self dedication” ? In esscense, the old way worked for us,I’m not so sure about our players today,they want the “high life”, are they really getting it? It’s like the gatorade advertisement . . . .”is it in you? Sometimes looking out on the field . . . . . I wonder !

  6. This is in response to who cares,

    I am hoping that you were just kidding with what you said? If you were not, I dont know how much money you think we make for coaching but the fact that you think we do it for the money is rediculous. You havnt got a clue as to what you are talking about. For those of us that coach football, I would guess we make the great amount of 1 to 2 cents per hour. I want to know what club sports coaches you think are doing it for the kids? How many of them take there kids to colleges for camps and combines and dont ask for a thing in return? How many of them spend countless hours with their players during the off season trying to help them with school or personal issues. High school coaches are not just coaches. We are coaches, parents, councelors, doctors and sometimes in bad cases courtroom representatives(for our kids who make bad decisions). If you took athletics out of high schools you would be asking for more trouble than its worth. For you to say we do it for the money is totaly rediculous and you havnt a clue what your talking about.

Comments are closed.