November 2011 Archives

UPDATED

Nine high school football players from Wayne Hills (N.J.) High School are suing their district over suspensions stemming from their alleged involvement in an off-campus fight.

The players filed a civil suit on Tuesday alleging that the Wayne school district infringed on their constitutional rights by suspending them from sports for off-campus activities. The suit suggests that the suspensions could have detrimental effects on the players' chances of obtaining college scholarships.

This all started back on Oct. 29, when nine Wayne Hills players allegedly assaulted two players from one of their district rivals—Wayne Valley High School—after an off-campus party. One player was left unconscious and lying in a roadway, while the other was kicked by his assailants, according to The Record, which spoke to local police.

The police informed the district on Nov. 9 that the nine Wayne Hills students were each being charged with two counts of aggravated assault, according to a statement from interim Superintendent Michael Roth. The school allowed the players to play with the football team that weekend while they gathered further information.

The board of education met twice the next week, on Monday and Wednesday, to further assess the charges and the proper course of action. After determining that case law permits the superintendent to suspend players for off-campus actions that had "substantial and material impact on the operation of the school," Roth decided on Nov. 16 to suspend the students from further participation in extracurricular activities. (Neither of the Wayne Valley players were punished or charged with any crimes.)

What's strange about the superintendent's Nov. 16 decision: The principals of both Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley initially said that the incident wasn't having any noticeable impact on their schools, according to a statement from the district website.

A day later, after a four-hour closed-door meeting, the school board temporarily held the superintendent's decision, allowing the students to participate in a playoff game on Nov. 18. Wayne Hills won that game and advanced to the state championship game, which will be held this Saturday, Dec. 3.

The players were tentatively scheduled to have more hearings in front of the district's board of education on Nov. 29. Then, this past Wednesday, the local prosecutor's office informed school officials that any extra evidence they gathered in the hearing could potentially interfere with the police investigation.

That caused the school board to drop all further hearings, and, in turn, reinstate the suspensions this past Friday. The two principals, who initially said the incident wasn't having an impact on their schools, told the board that "the issue is disrupting the daily operations in the buildings," which was "a significant basis" for why the suspensions were upheld.

In response, the Wayne Hills players filed a civil suit in state Superior Court against the district. One of the players' lawyers has also formally asked the state commissioner of education, Christopher Cerf, to temporarily lift the suspensions until the case can play out in a court of law.

"[The school board has] done nothing but divide this community with their flip-flop decisions," said Darren Del Sardo, a lawyer for one of the players, to the Associated Press. "If you're not going to offer someone due process, you don't take action and you let it play out in the juvenile-justice system."

Eight of the nine players charged are minors, and they say in the suit that their absence on the field this weekend will make them easily identifiable. In the suit, they also challenge the assertion that their off-campus fight has significantly affected the day-to-day operations of their school.

UPDATE, 2:00 p.m.: A bit earlier today, a judge declined to lift the students' suspensions, deferring the decision to Cerf, the state education commissioner, according to The Record.

The judge told the players' attorneys that the commissioner's Bureau of Controversies and Disputes should review the suspensions on Thursday—two days before the state championship. If the commissioner's office doesn't address the case this week, the judge said that he would rule himself.

He said that "primary jurisdiction" rested with the commissioner, but he does have authority to decide the case on his own.

Assuming the commissioner's office does take up the case tomorrow, we'll have another update for you then.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Last Monday, NBA superstars LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony announced their intention to host a four-game "Homecoming Tour" in each of their four hometowns in early December, to give NBA fans a taste of professional basketball in the midst of a contentious lockout.

Proceeds from the tour were supposed to benefit a charity of each superstar's choosing. Along with the exhibition games, the superstars were planning on hosting at least one charitable or educational event in each city.

But now that NBA players and owners have reached a tentative agreement to end the lockout early Saturday morning, the Homecoming Tour has been cancelled.

"We are thrilled that a tentative agreement has been reached and are looking forward to getting back to work and playing basketball," said Wade in a statement. "We all want to reconnect with our teams to make sure we hit the ground running when training camps are expected to open on December 9. Our commitment to helping children and the communities doesn't stop, and the daily work of our foundations to do just this will continue, as always."

To prove Wade's point: Despite the cancellation of the tour, all four superstars are expected to be in Brooklyn today to supply 800 meals to families as part of an event held by Feed the Children and The Boys and Girls Club of America, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

James will still hold an event on Wednesday for his charity, Wheels for Education, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. His three fellow superstars, however, will not be making the trip. (All four were originally scheduled to appear in Akron on Wednesday.)

The first game of the tour was supposed to be played at the University of Akron on Thursday.

Penny Hardaway getting charitable in Memphis: LeBron, D-Wade, and the crew aren't the only NBA players to be getting into the charitable spirit this holiday season, as former Orlando Magic star Penny Hardaway announced a plan earlier this month to open a seven-court, 100,000-square foot basketball facility for youths in Memphis.

"I grew up on a dirt basketball court, just trying to play the best way I could," Hardaway said, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. "Then I was with the Boys Club, which was really my savior, because it allowed me to go and play away from my neighborhood, to have the peace of mind to be able to do the things I wanted to do."

The facility is expected to cost roughly $20 million. Hardaway said that there wasn't currently a timetable to complete the project, and organizers would not reveal how much of the expected $20 million cost had already been raised.

Photo: LeBron James reads "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" to a group of 3rd grade students as part of his Wheels on Education program on Nov. 30 in Akron, Ohio. (Ed Suba Jr./Akron Beacon Journal/AP)

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Add soccer to the growing list of youth sports that put student-athletes on the front lines for potential brain injuries.

Athletes who often "head" soccer balls were found to have brain abnormalities similar to those found in patients with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), according to a study being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

"Heading a soccer ball is not an impact of a magnitude that will lacerate nerve fibers in the brain," Dr. Michael L. Lipton, a co-author of the study and associate director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said in a statement. "But repetitive heading could set off a cascade of responses that can lead to degeneration of brain cells."

The study examined 32 amateur soccer players (average age: 30.8), all of whom had played soccer since childhood, using a technique called diffusion tensor imaging. (Apologies in advance for getting a little technical here.)

DTI allows doctors to examine the water levels in a brain's white matter. If the water in the white matter moves in a consistent direction, that area of the brain is said to have high fractional anisotropy (FA), whereas a brain with water moving randomly in the white matter has low FA.

"Abnormally low FA within white matter has been associated with cognitive impairment in patients with TBI," Dr. Lipton said.

He and his colleagues asked their subjects to estimate how many times they headed the ball annually. Based on their responses, the researchers compared the brain scans of players who headed the ball frequently and those who did so less often, to determine what differed.

They discovered that soccer players who often headed the ball had "significantly lower" FA in five brain regions, which controlled attention, executive function, and memory.

"What we've shown here is compelling evidence that there are brain changes that look like traumatic brain injury as a result of heading a soccer ball with high frequency," Dr. Lipton said. "Given that soccer is the most popular sport worldwide and is played extensively by children, these are findings that should be taken into consideration in order to protect soccer players."

The researchers determined that if a player headed the ball more than roughly 1,000 to 1,500 times a year, he or she would have low FA in the five regions of the brain they identified.

Schooled in Sports' take: This study is sure to incite outrage from soccer purists, who would decry any attempt to limit the number of heading attempts per game.

But, as National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell said about his own league last month at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, "People have criticized us as changing the game. I don't believe that. I think we have taken techniques out of the game and improved the game and made it safer—and the game's more popular than ever."

Since football's concussion crisis started drawing serious national attention in 2009, the NFL has become one of the strongest advocates for athlete head safety, specifically with youths.

The league made a noted push to crack down on helmet-to-helmet hits back in October 2010, and started threatening suspensions for egregious hits this season.

Perhaps, given the findings of this study, Major League Soccer could take a stance on the number of headers appropriate for players, especially for youths? Or, better yet, FIFA?

Looks like football may not be the only sport forced to undergo radical rule changes in the coming years to better protect student-athletes' brains.

Photo: Mainz' Elkin Soto, right, goes for a header with Munich's David Alaba, left, during a German Bundesliga soccer match between FSV Mainz 05 and Bayern Munich in Mainz, Germany, on Nov. 27. (Torsten Silz/AP)

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The Maryland state board of education is currently considering whether all high school student-athletes should be expected to hold a minimum GPA of 2.0, in response to a state law passed earlier this year.

The law, passed in May, requires the state board to report back to the General Assembly before the end of the year with specific recommendations about minimum academic requirements for high school student-athletes.

Those recommendations were not required to include a minimum GPA, however.

Currently, Maryland school systems must only "establish standards of participation which assure that students involved in interscholastic athletics are making satisfactory progress toward graduation."

In response to the new law, the state school board formed a Committee on Minimum Standards for Participation in Interscholastic Athletics, which reported back to the board last month with three main recommendations. The first of those recommendations was the suggested minimum GPA.

"I think maybe it is time to rethink" the academic standards, said school board member Donna Hill Staton, according to The Baltimore Sun. "Why is athletics a privilege rather than part of their personal growth?"

If this particular GPA suggestion were to be adopted, student-athletes would need to maintain a GPA of 2.0 in the grading period before and during when they play on the team.

Sixteen of Maryland's 24 school systems already require high school student-athletes to hold a minimum GPA of 2.0, said Ned Sparks, executive director of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, at the meeting.

Along with the recommended minimum GPA of 2.0, the committee suggested that local school systems ensure that their student-athletes' grade progress "reflects satisfactory credits earned" towards state graduation requirements. The committee also recommended that student-athletes be held to curricular standards that fall in line with the state's graduation requirements.

The state board is expected to take action on these recommendations in December.

Local Control Issue?

One very important distinction to note here: Local school systems would ultimately maintain control over whether or not to implement these standards. These will only come as recommendations from the state board, not mandates.

An earlier version of the legislation would have required local school systems to adopt the state board's recommendations.

Still, not all board members were supportive of the minimum GPA recommendation. David Cox, superintendent of Allegany County Schools, said that there hadn't been a problem with local districts setting their own standards.

"The superintendents feel very strongly this is a local control issue," said Cox, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Just imagine how he'd feel if the board were mandating these standards for student-athletes.

In all fairness, Cox may be entirely accurate. Maryland may not have previously had a problem with certain schools setting egregiously low academic standards for student-athletes. But, considering that the NCAA recently boosted its academic expectations of student-athletes, the state board may be wise to adopt the suggested minimum GPA after all.

The NCAA already requires incoming student-athletes to have a minimum GPA of 2.0 to be eligible for competition. Starting in August 2015, that minimum expected GPA will rise to 2.3.

Given that, is requiring a minimum 2.0 GPA from high school student-athletes unreasonable?

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Think physical education isn't that important?

In the public schools in Lincoln, Neb., students who passed the district's physical-fitness test were significantly more likely to pass state reading and math tests, according to a recent article from the Lincoln Journal Star.

Dr. Bob Rauner, who collected data from the district for the past two years, told the paper that 80.4 percent of the students who passed the fitness test either met or exceeded state standards in math, compared with only 65.8 percent of students who didn't pass the fitness test.

A similar divide was apparent in the reading scores. According to Rauner, 84.3 percent of the students who passed the fitness test met or exceeded state standards in reading, while only 71.3 percent of students who failed the fitness test hit those benchmarks.

"It's the fitness that makes the difference," Rauner said. "If you have to choose between being a little overweight and being fit, it's better to be fit. It's better than being normal weight and not fit."

The Lincoln district hired a full-time wellness facilitator back in August and started requiring elementary schools this year to provide at least one recess period per day, along with "activity breaks."

"I think people are starting to realize recess time is associated with achievement," Rauner told the paper.

What's happening in the Lincoln school system only adds to the evidence that exercise and physical fitness are linked to greater mental capacities.

An elementary school in Charleston, S.C., found a similar link when educators there discovered that in-class physical activity led their students to score higher on standardized tests.

In 2008, Dr. John Ratey wrote a book, Spark, that explored the connection between physical activity and the brain's performance. Without getting too scientific here, Ratey discovered that exercise essentially releases a chemical, which he calls "Miracle-Gro for the brain," that enhances the process of learning.

Ratey leads his book by describing a high school in Naperville, Ill., where a number of students participate in a before-school session of phys. ed. known as "Zero Hour." Not-so-coincidentally, those same students often see a huge jump in their test scores, report being more awake during the school day, and help the school rank in the top 10 in the state most years.

The mixture of No Child Left Behind and budget cuts often has left recess and physical education programs on the chopping block in schools nationwide, as core subjects became higher priorities.

With more and more evidence emerging that physical fitness and exercise can actually boost learning, school officials have something to keep in mind the next time they're looking to slash phys. ed. programs.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hasn't exactly been known as a friend of teachers' unions during his time as governor.

Christie drew the rancor of his state's NEA affiliate once again this week, when he said that math and science teachers deserve to be paid more than gym teachers, in an online interview with Facebook.

"You have to pay [math and science teachers] more than we pay the gym teacher," he said. "I'm sorry, in today's society, they're more valuable than the gym teacher. They just are."

Christie was responding to a Facebook software-engineer's question about what the GOP's policy should be toward STEM education. The engineer said that "one of the problems that we face here at Facebook is recruiting enough talent on our engineering team."

In response, Christie said that the No. 1 priority needed to be fixing urban schools, which he said are currently doing "awful." (That's in contrast to suburban and rural schools, which are doing "OK" by the governor's books.)

Then, Christie set his sights on teachers. Gym teachers, in particular.

"We have to adapt our education system to the kids, not the education system for the comfort of the adults, and that's what we're doing right now. Teachers are comfortable working 8:30 to 3, from September to June, and, you know, this is the way it's always been. But that's when we were on the agrarian calendar, and people got out in June because they had to work out in the farm. No one's doing that anymore, at least very few people are. ... So, we have to have a longer school year; we have to have a longer school day."

In direct response to the STEM question, Christie followed up by saying: "We have to incentivize people to become science and math teachers. We gotta pay them more."

And then, he dropped the "in today's society, they're more valuable than the gym teacher" quote.

Union Responds

Not surprisingly, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association didn't see eye-to-eye with that last comment.

"What's he got against gym teachers?" NJEA spokesman Steve Wollmer asked in an email to The Star-Ledger. "The role a teacher plays at all levels is equally important, equally challenging, and contributes equally to the outcome."

"Sound body, sound mind," he said.

To Christie's credit, he didn't shy away from the comments later in the week, telling a reporter that the NJEA should "cut the crap" when asked about Wollmer's question on Wednesday.

"You know I don't hate gym teachers," Christie said, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

This post isn't meant to jump on a sound bite of Christie's and attack blindly. In fact, his underlying point about teacher tenure needing reform (rewarding teachers based on their "value," instead of how many years they've served) has many supporters.

But the question then becomes: How do you identify an individual teacher's "value?" How can you put a dollar value on a certain subject? (For instance, what makes a math teacher worth $75,000/year and a phys. ed. teacher only worth $50,000?)

The subjectivity in that decisionmaking, on the surface, would appear to open a Pandora's box of potential legal issues and gray areas for school administrators.

And besides, who's to say phys. ed. teachers, who may be the main figure pushing many kids to be physically active, aren't as valuable as teachers of other subjects? What data can back that up?

Here's the full interview between Gov. Christie and Facebook Chief Operating Office Sheryl Sandberg. Between the 16-20 minute mark, Gov. Christie talks about his education agenda; jump to roughly the 30-minute mark to hear his comment about gym teachers:

Photo: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie answers a question at Liberty State Park, in Jersey City, N.J., on Nov. 2. Christie caused a stir with his state's teachers' union after he said math and science teachers were more valuable than gym teachers. (Mel Evans/AP)

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Last week, I took a look at whether youth football was playing a role in the fact that a far greater number of females matriculate to college than males each year.

At the end of the post, I promised what you're about to read: a follow-up post with five suggested changes to high school football in the name of safety.

These suggestions stem from nearly a year's worth of writing about youth football, student-athlete safety, and a whole boatload about concussions.

Without further adieu...

1. Stronger penalties for helmet-to-helmet hits: We'll lead off with a pretty easy, self-explanatory one.

Last year, the NFL announced a league-wide crackdown on enforcing penalties (including suspensions) for illegal helmet-to-helmet hits. It's started issuing fines in the tens of thousands of dollars, but hasn't suspended a player under this policy to date.

Unless a helmet-to-helmet hit gets deemed a flagrant foul, the worst a youth-football player has to worry about is a 15-yard penalty. (If the helmet-to-helmet hit gets called a flagrant foul, the player is suspended from that game.)

Many would argue that needs to change.

The National Federation of State High School Associations issued a Point of Emphasis this year about concussions, where it noted that referees would be paying extra attention to illegal helmet-to-helmet hits this year. That's a great start.

But why not put multi-game suspensions on the table for the most egregious helmet-to-helmet hits, too? Or require that coaches bench any player who leads with his helmet while making a tackle for a quarter (or more)?

2. Ban the wedge formation: The wedge formation is exactly what it sounds like—often three players, with arms or hands linked, setting up a wall for opposing players during kickoffs.

In 2009, the NFL banned players from utilizing the wedge for safety reasons. NFL head of officiating Mike Pereira said that injuries occurred on seven of every 100 kick plays compared with five of every 100 regular plays.

The NCAA also bans players from utilizing the wedge formation during kickoffs, except when the kick is from "obvious onside kick formation."

And yet, the NFSHSA rulebook still allows players to form wedges on kickoffs.

Yes, wedge formations only get more dangers as the players get older, stronger, and faster. But Matt Bowen, former NFL player, told the New York Times back in 2009 that breaking up a wedge felt like taking a 50-yard head start and running into a garage door.

That's really something high school athletics should be encouraging?

3. Mandatory baseline-concussion tests: For those unfamiliar with baseline-concussion tests, these are typically 20-minute online tests that measure a player's healthy brain.

When a player may have a concussion, he or she retakes the test, and a doctor compares the results. The greater the difference in the two tests, the higher the likelihood that the player has a concussion.

While this may seem expensive for some schools, the baseline-concussion test company ImPACT offers schools a package of 600 baseline tests and 240 post-injury tests for a total of $750 per year.

Granted, there are concerns about baseline tests, in regards to athletes trying to "game" the tests by deliberately doing poorly on the preseason version.

But when a school's faced with the choice of baseline tests or nothing in the fight against concussions, is that something better than nothing?

4. Reduction of practices: In just one week this past August, at least three high school student-athletes died during a brutal heat wave where temperatures soared over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

This isn't the first summer where that's happened.

And it's largely preventable, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which issued new heat guidelines for student-athletes in mid-August. The AAP recommends giving student-athletes a 14-day graduated return to physical activity when coming back in August, to help young players acclimate their bodies to the heat.

This is a simple change that could literally mean the difference between life and death for some student-athletes.

Turning to full-contact practices: The Ivy League decided in July to only allow their football teams two full-contact practices per week, three less than the NCAA allows. The league cited the desire to reduce the number of potential concussive impacts that its football players would endure.

On a related note, the NFL's new collective bargaining agreement bans two-a-day practices. It only allows teams 14 full-contact padded practices during the 17-week regular season, too.

All of these changes have been made for the sake of player safety. Is there any reason why high school football can't catch up with the trend?

5. A return to leather helmets?: Logic would dictate that given the technological advancements over the past 100 years, modern football helmets should be much more protective than the old-time leather football helmets, right?

As it turns out, a new study found that leather helmets often protect as well, if not better, than modern-day helmets against a wide range of head impacts.

Modern helmets do protect against splitting players' heads open much better than leather helmets, and there's no underselling that point. (Modern helmets are tested against impacts that would crack a skull, but aren't tested against forces that may cause concussions—a subject currently causing controversy in Congress.)

The new study, published online this month by the Journal of Neurological Spine, measured helmets' responses to collisions of up to 75 g-forces—"on par with 95 percent of on-field collisions" in collegiate and high school games, according to the researchers. Researchers examined two early-20th-century leather helmets against 11 "top-of-the-line" 21st-century polycarbonate helmets.

Ultimately, the modern helmets were found to protect best against head-splitting impacts, but largely performed no better than leather helmets against low-impact, potentially concussion-causing forces. (Check out this graph for proof.)

"The point of this study is not to advocate for a return to leather helmets but, rather, to test the notion that modern helmets must be more protective than older helmets simply because 'newer must be better,' " said lead researcher Adam Bartsch, director of the Spine Research Lab in Cleveland Clinic's Center for Spine Health.

The researchers advocate testing helmets for both low-impact (concussion) and high-impact (skull-fracturing) collisions, especially those for youth football.

"The lack of adequate knowledge surrounding adult-helmet protectivity at low-energy impacts, as well as the current absence of any youth-specific helmet-testing standards, may have serious brain-health implications for the 3 million youths participating in tackle football in the United States each year," the researchers said.

Should youth-football helmets be tested against not just high-impact, skull-cracking forces, but the lower-impact, potentially concussion-causing impacts, too? There's little question anymore.

Photos: (Top) Members of the Hays High School football team begin their workout as they take to the field shortly before sunrise in Hays, Kan., in August. (Steven Hausler/Hays Daily News/AP)

(Right) A high school football game in Greensboro, Ga., in 1941. (Jack Delano/Library of Congress)

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The possibility that minor, routine impacts to the head could cause long-term brain injuries in student-athletes has been one of the hottest theories in the field of concussion research over the past few years.

A study released this week by the University of Rochester (with an admittedly small sample size) lends credence to that theory.

Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center found that brain scans of high school hockey and football players sometimes showed subtle hints of injury, even if the players didn't suffer concussions.

Only nine athletes took part in the research (along with six people in a control group) during the 2006-07 sports season. Of the nine athletes who participanted, only one was diagnosed with a sports-related concussion over the course of the season.

The cause for concern: Six other athletes showed abnormalities on their brain scans that placed their brains closer to the concussed brains than to the brains in the control group.

All six had sustained a number of subconcussive (routine) hits to the head while playing their respective sports.

"Although this was a very small study, if confirmed it could have broad implications for youth sports," said Dr. Jeffrey Bazarian, lead author and associate professor of emergency medicine at the medical center, in a statement. "The challenge is to determine whether a critical number of head hits exists above which this type of brain injury appears, and then to get players and coaches to agree to limit play when an athlete approached that number."

In other words: There's a lot more research needed before scientists can comfortably confirm a link between routine hits in sports and long-lasting brain injuries.

But, by taking brain scans of the same players pre- and postseason, the URMC study sets itself apart from most other research on the subject, which often compares the brains of injured players to brains in a control group.

The URMC study, on the other hand, doesn't have to account for subtle differences between individuals' brains. By having preseason brain scans of each player, the doctors in the study could isolate the changes to the players' brains that occurred in the 2006-07 season.

Needless to say, if scientists eventually can determine a link between routine head impacts and long-term brain injury, it'll have a chilling effect on youth contact sports.

If that link is ever confirmed, expect a swath of rule changes for a number of sports to move forward much quicker than usual.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Pa. Gov. Tom Corbett signed a statewide youth-concussion law on Monday, making Pennsylvania the 35th state (along with the District of Columbia) to have one.

"We all know that athletes just want to get back into the game, but this bill says: 'Hold on. Take your time,' " Gov. Corbett said during a news conference at Lower Dauphin High School in Harrisburg, according to The Morning Call. "Let's play hard, but let's play smart."

Pennsylvania's law requires coaches to undergo free, online, annual concussion training before being allowed to coach school sports. Roughly half the states that currently have youth-concussion laws require some form of concussion training for coaches, although some states only mandate bi- or triannual training.

The new law also contains the three main provisions of Washington state's Zackery Lystedt law, which the NFL considers model youth-concussion legislation.

Those provisions are: A student-athlete's parent or guardian must sign a concussion-awareness information form before the student-athlete is eligible to participate in school athletics; any student-athlete suspected of a concussion must immediately be removed from play; and any student-athlete who has a concussion must obtain medical clearance before being allowed to return to practice or competition.

Any coach found in violation of the removal-from-play and return-to-play policies would be suspended from coaching for the rest of the season, just for the first offense. If any coach gets caught violating the policy three times, he/she would be banned from coaching any youth athletic activity permanently.

The new law takes effect on July 1, 2012, in time for the 2012-13 school year.

Check out our updated interactive map for the status of each state's youth-concussion law.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Before the New England Patriots took on the New York Jets this past Sunday night, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell hosted roughly 200 youth-football players, parents, and coaches at a forum devoted to player safety.

"All of you are football players and all of you love the game of football, but it is also important no matter what sport you play that you play it safely," said the commissioner to the players. "That means understanding the rules; that means understanding your equipment; and that means understanding your body to make sure when you are not feeling well that you get the proper medical care."

Goodell was joined by a slew of NFL personnel, including the owner of the Jets, Woody Johnson; NFL Vice President of Player Engagement and former Philadelphia Eagle Troy Vincent; and NFL Head Neck and Spine Committee Member Dr. Margot Putukian.

The panel focused on a number of NFL player safety initiatives, with a heavy focus on concussions. In his opening address, Goodell said that he "didn't want to bore" the players with details of the NFL's recent bargaining negotiations, but highlighted the fact that the NFL would be spending $100 million over the next 10 years on concussion research.

The commissioner also encouraged the young athletes to report injuries when they occur, saying that it is "stupidity" for players to try and brush off injuries. "You guys want to make sure that you are out there and that you understand when there is a serious injury that you raise your hand and you tell people," he said.

Goodell appeared very pleased by the day's events after the panel wrapped up.

"It was great," he said. "The kids had questions. They were interested. People are starting to understand these concussions when they happen. They're also into prevention."

In recent years, the NFL has become one of the leaders in the promotion of youth-concussion awareness (despite a checkered past with concussions before 2009).

"Concussions are a big topic, I think, in large part because we have made it a large topic," Goodell said after the event Sunday. "We have increased the awareness of concussions, and I think that's good for everyone who plays not just football but anyone that plays any sport. It happens in other sports."

Last month, Goodell emphasized his desire that every U.S. state adopt a youth-concussion law "sooner rather than later."

"We recognize that we have an opportunity to make a difference by taking the lead in encouraging health and safety awareness at all levels of football and in all youth sports," Goodell said at the 2011 Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

Photo: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addresses a group of youth-football players, parents, and coaches about player safety before Sunday's game between the New England Patriots and the New York Jets. (Al Pereira/New York Jets)

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Fewer than 6 percent of doctors follow national sudden cardiac-death screening guidelines to their fullest extent when examining high school athletes, according to a Washington state survey released this week at the American Heart Association's scientific sessions.

Even more frightening: Not a single athletic director said that his or her school required doctors to comply with all state guidelines. Only 6 percent of athletic directors and less than half the doctors who responded to the survey indicated that they knew about the guidelines.

The survey was sent by mail and email to 2,190 pediatricians, family doctors, and athletic directors across the state over two months. A total of 1,113 pediatricians and family doctors and 317 high school athletic directors responded to the researchers.

The American Heart Association recommended a 12-step screening process back in 2007 to help prevent sudden cardiac arrest in youth athletes. When a student-athlete goes through cardiac arrest, his/her heart suddenly stops due to an irregular heart rhythm, which can be deadly within minutes if not immediately treated.

"A young person at the peak of physical prowess, dying without any warning—it's a shocking, tragic and potentially preventable death," said Dr. Nicolas Madsen, the study's lead researcher and a pediatric cardiology fellow at the University of Washington School of Medicine, in a statement.

According to statistics from the American Heart Association, one in every 30,000 to 50,000 high school student-athletes dies of sudden cardiac arrest on an annual basis.

Guidelines Ignored

The 2007 guidelines called for doctors to ask student-athletes eight medical questions (five about personal-health history, three about family-health history) and to go through a four-step physical examination of the students.

For instance, the doctors were advised to ask student-athletes about whether they felt chest pain/discomfort upon exercising, unexplained fainting, or had one or more relatives who died from heart disease.

The only problem: A sizable percentage of doctors aren't following the recommendations.

According to the survey's findings, 28 percent of doctors didn't always ask about chest pain during exercise, 22 percent didn't ask about unexplained fainting, and 26 percent didn't always ask about a family history of early heart-related death.

"We need new directions to educate providers and improve policy requirements so patients can actually benefit from these national recommendations," Madsen said.

Earlier this year, the National Athletic Trainers' Association released a statement encouraging states to pass youth-athlete safety laws in spite of budgetary concerns, and specifically highlighted sudden cardiac arrest as an area that needed immediate attention.

"It is disappointing that so much legislation has been introduced, yet so little has been passed," said NATA President Marjorie J. Albohm, a certified athletic trainer. "What makes this even more concerning is that state budgets are in crisis, so legislators are cutting programs that keep kids safe. ... And, we know that many of the current bills are specific to concussion and that there are other health conditions including sudden cardiac arrest and heat illness that require legislative attention."

One only needs to think back to the story of Wes Leonard, the 16-year-old basketball player who died this year of sudden cardiac arrest after hitting a game-winning shot, to realize why sudden cardiac arrest may be one of the next major youth-athlete safety frontiers.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

All children ages 9 to 11 should have their cholesterol levels screened at least once, according to guidelines published online in the journal Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The guidelines, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, were designed to help pediatricians promote cardiovascular health in youths. Risk factors in childhood can greatly boost the chance that a person will eventually develop heart disease as an adult.

"If we screen at age 20, it may be already too late," said one of the guideline panel members, Dr. Elaine Urbina, director of preventive cardiology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, to the Associated Press. "To me, it's not controversial at all. We should have been doing this for years."

Members of the expert panel who released the guidelines on Friday noted that their recommendations had to serve two purposes: to prevent risk-factor development and to prevent the future development of cardiovascular disease by managing those risk factors.

Not surprisingly, obesity was identified as the biggest risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In one recent study, 84 percent of people who had a BMI in the 95th to 99th percentile as children were also obese as adults, and all the children with a BMI above the 99th percentile were obese as adults.

High cholesterol and blood-pressure levels were also correlated as risk factors, as was a lack of physical activity, although none was as strongly linked to cardiovascular disease as obesity.

In response, the panel recommended that doctors start monitoring children at high risk of obesity because of parental obesity or sudden BMI increases starting at the age of 2.

The panel also suggested using tougher language for children with the highest BMIs. The guidelines recommend terming children with a BMI between the 85th and 95th percentile as "overweight," and a child with a BMI above the 95th percentile as "obese."

"Some may feel that 'obese' is an unacceptable term for children and parents, so as with all health conditions, the practitioner is encouraged to use descriptive terminology that is appropriate for each child and family, with a thorough explanation and discussion," the guidelines say.

On the exercise front, the panel recommends at least one hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity every day of the week for children older than 5, with three days of vigorous activity per week.

Meanwhile, the panel suggested that parents limit their child's screen time (TV and computers, specifically) to two hours a day, at most.

The panel found "reasonably good evidence that physical-activity patterns established in childhood are carried forward into adulthood," and thus recommended that schools promote physical activity as a way to stay healthy.

At What Age Can Obesity Be Predicted?

It's possible to predict which children will become obese by the age of 3 1/2, according to a new study from the University of Montreal.

The study, published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, focused on roughly 2,000 children whose height and weight measurements had been taken from the age of 5 months to 8 years old. The researchers identified three groups of children, based on their body mass index scores: children with low but stable BMI, children with moderate BMI, and children with BMI that was elevated and rising.

"We discovered the trajectories of all three groups were similar until the children were about two and a half," said Laura Pryor, the lead author of the study and a Ph.D candidate at the University of Montreal's Department of Social and Preventative Medicine, in a statement. "Around that point, the BMIs of the high-rising group of children began to take off. By the time these children moved into middle childhood, more than 50 percent of them were obese."

Pryor and her team identified two major risk factors for childhood obesity: the mothers' weight around the time they gave birth and whether the mothers smoked. Children whose mothers were overweight or smoked during pregnancy were much more likely to be in the high-rising BMI group.

Does that mean that mothers who don't smoke and who aren't obese are guaranteed to have skinny children? Not necessarily.

But if Pryor's team accurately identified and isolated two major risk factors for childhood obesity, these findings add yet another piece to the obesity-prevention puzzle.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 6:11 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

When the Oregon Ducks line up against Andrew Luck and the rest of his Stanford teammates on Saturday, they should be advised that the Cardinal players' mouths may be lighting up.

That's because a number of Stanford football players are wearing mouthpieces this season equipped with sensors meant to measure the force of hits to the head, to contribute to a long-term concussion study. (Accelerometers and gyrometers, to be specific, for the science folks out there.)

Two dozen players are wearing the mouthpieces, which transmit real-time data to the sideline about the hits to the head they sustain. This information can help coaches know when a player may need to come out of the game to be examined for a potential concussion.

The researchers are aiming to determine if any positions are more susceptible to concussions, along with what types of collisions between players cause concussions.

"If you go back and look at the four-year career of a collegiate football player, how many hits are they actually receiving? That's what we want to find out," said Dr. Dan Garza, the leader of the investigation and an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Stanford, to the Associated Press. "And, secondly, is there a threshold for concussions? Or is there at least a zone where we say this is highly likely going to be a concussion? Maybe we can alert players to that ahead of time."

As luck would have it, the players were more than receptive to wearing the mouthpieces.

"At first, I just wanted to wear it because it lights up and glows in your mouth," said safety Michael Thomas, one of the players wearing the mouthpieces, to the AP. "I was like, 'Wow, that looks cool.' But it's definitely contributing to something great."

This study is a first-of-its-kind, as Stanford is the only place in the country where active college football players are wearing these mouthpieces.

Kevin Guskiewicz, recent winner of a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, has run studies with accelerometers in players' helmets, but Dr. Garza notes that a player's head will shift in a helmet after being hit. The mouthpiece, in theory, will give a more accurate picture of exactly what forces contribute to concussions.

The players were equipped with the mouthpieces at the beginning of this year, so the researchers expect to publish initial findings by the middle of 2012. Next year, the goal is to equip the entire team with the mouthpieces, manufactured by the Seattle-based X2 Impact.

Next year, Stanford will also start equipping their women's field hockey and lacrosse teams with the mouthpieces as well.

Programming note: Earlier this week, I promised that I'd have a post summarizing five potential changes to youth football in the sake of safety. Well, unfortunately, the Penn State scandal took precedence this week. Check back on Monday for that post, instead.

Photo: In a first-of-its-kind study, about two dozen Stanford players are wearing mouthpieces in games and practices this season equipped with tiny sensors to measure the number and force of head impacts. (Paul Sakuma/AP)

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The sexual abuse allegations that came out Saturday about a former Penn State defensive football coach are inspiring Pennsylvania legislators to reexamine the state's abuse reporting law.

State Rep. Kevin Boyle, D-Philadelphia, announced his plan Wednesday to introduce legislation that would toughen Pennsylvania's child-abuse-reporting law, requiring that school officials take the information to police.

Currently, state law only requires that anyone who knows about child abuse report it to the person in charge of the school.

More than 40 states require witnesses of child abuse to report what they saw to police immediately, without going through third parties, according to an an Associated Press review of all 50 states' abuse-reporting laws.

"In light of the alleged child sex abuse scandal at Pennsylvania State University, it is clear that a loophole exists in our law," Rep. Boyle said in a statement. "My legislation would close that loophole by requiring those who are aware of the abuse to report it to law enforcement authorities, rather than simply following an in-house chain of command."

In the Penn State case, a graduate assistant named Mike McQueary reportedly witnessed former linebackers coach Jerry Sandusky assaulting a 10-year-old boy in the Penn State showers back in 2002. McQueary reported what he saw to head football coach Joe Paterno, Paterno notified athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz, and they notified university president Graham Spanier.

None of them went to the police about Sandusky's alleged abuse.

Sandusky was allowed around the program as recently as last week, according to a Yahoo! Sports report.

"The current system, coupled with the inaction of various individuals has failed the alleged victims in the Jerry Sandusky case," Rep. Boyle said. "What's even worse is that those who stood by and said nothing about the allegations have been cleared of any wrongdoing. My bill will hold people accountable for reporting such future instances to the proper authorities."

Both Paterno and Spanier were fired late Wednesday by the school's board of trustees.

There's no word yet as to how seriously Rep. Boyle's legislation will be considered, as he just announced his intention to introduce the bill two days ago.

However, given what's unfolded at Penn State over the past week, it's difficult to imagine much resistance from Pa. lawmakers on toughening the state's abuse-reporting law. (Especially considering that a majority of other states have tougher laws already.)

Rep. Boyle has a master's in education policy from Harvard University, and introduced a "Reach Scholarship" bill two years ago that would give all academically high-performing Pa. students the opportunity to attend college for free.

UPDATE (1:30 P.M.): Potential changes to Pennsylvania's abuse-reporting law aren't the only silver lining to come out of this tragic Penn State scandal.

A grassroots group of Penn State alumni banded together to form "Proud PSU for RAINN", devoted to supporting the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. The group had already raised more than $100,000 for RAINN, as of 12 p.m. ET Friday.

The organizers hope to raise $557,000 for RAINN—one dollar for every Penn State alumnus.

The campaign was trending on Twitter in the Philadelphia area at 1 p.m. on Friday.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Homeschooled student-athletes in New Jersey can now participate in public high school sports, under rule changes approved Wednesday by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.

Any homeschooled students interested in playing public school sports will need to prove to their local board of education that they meet the same eligibility standards as a typical public school student-athlete—age, residency, and academics.

"These ground-breaking polices related to home schooling and school choice will help ensure that there's no uncertainty about what is and isn't permissible," said Steve Timko, executive director of the NJSIAA, in a statement. "The fact that there had previously existed a kind of 'gray' area on both of these subjects led to quite a bit of uncertainty and confusion. Now, we've remedied that situation."

New Jersey isn't the first state to allow homeschooled students access to public school sports. More than 20 other states have laws governing what public school activities homeschooled students have access to, according to a brief from the Home School Legal Defense Association.

Timko said that the decision was "in the best interests of all our student athletes."

The state Department of Education already allowed homeschooled students to participate in extracurricular activities at public high schools, according to The Press of Atlantic City, so the move by NJSIAA aligns themselves with that policy.

"We need to comply with state law," Timko said to the paper, "and at the same time provide some guidance to the membership."

He also said that when he's attending meetings for high school sports associations on a national level, people say allowing homeschooled athletes to participate in public school sports "is not as big a deal as you might think it would be."

The new policy begins to take effect for the upcoming winter sports season.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is none too pleased with the accusations of sexual misconduct that emerged against a former Penn State University defensive assistant coach this past weekend.

Jerry Sandusky, longtime linebackers coach and assistant to legendary head football coach Joe Paterno, was charged Saturday for sexually abusing eight boys. The school's athletic director and vice president reportedly knew about the assaults, and were charged with failing to report what they knew to the police.

Now, the Education Department announced Wednesday that they are launching an investigation into whether Penn State violated federal law by failing to report the allegations of sex offenses against Sandusky, as my colleague Michele McNeil reported yesterday on the Politics K-12 blog. (UPDATE [11/11, 1:57 p.m.]: McNeil procured the letter, which includes a list of documents investigators want to see, and other demands. Read it here.)

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, or Clery Act for short, requires postsecondary institutions to disclose the number of criminal offenses reported on campus each year, according to the department.

The Office of Federal Student Aid will conduct the investigation into whether officials at Penn State violated the Clery Act by not reporting Sandusky's alleged sex offenses to officials.

Penn State got one more stomach punch yesterday.

First, news broke in the morning that Paterno, the winningest coach in college football history, would retire at the end of the season.

Then, hours later, the school's board of trustees voted to fire Paterno immediately, bringing an abrupt and heartbreaking end to a legendary career.

Duncan Speaks Out

Before the news about the Education Department's investigation and Paterno's resignation broke today, Duncan spoke with reporters about the Penn State allegations, where he expressed his extreme disappointment.

Duncan said it was "devastating that it was allowed to go on for so long," and singled out anyone who knew about the allegations and didn't act upon them, saying that they "were perpetuating the problem."

Both Paterno and school president Graham Spanier, who was also fired by the board of trustees Wednesday, denied that they knew the details of the allegations that were spelled out in the grand jury report released Saturday.

To Paterno's credit, he released the following statement yesterday morning after the reports of his retirement began leaking: "I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief."

But, as evidenced by the widespread resignations amongst top officials at the school, being retroactively apologetic doesn't begin to make up for the fact that those same officials knew about a purported sexual offender on their campus and continued to allow him around their football program.

What lessons can high school coaches and school officials learn from the Penn State scandal? First and foremost: If you notice someone around your program doing something they shouldn't be doing, don't try and hide it.

In this day and age, it's likely only a matter of time until that information comes out. And once it does, the longer you've let it fester, the worse it becomes. (Especially if you're letting a potential child molester stay out from behind bars, free to claim more victims.)

Secondly, the ignominious end to Paterno's otherwise legendary career should serve a harsh reminder. No matter how many wins a coach racks up over the course of his career, one moral lapse could be the undoing of all his or her success.

Paterno won 409 games, more than any other coach in the history of college football, yet, his legacy will always be tainted by this scandal.

Combined with Jim Tressel, the uber-famous Ohio State University coach who resigned earlier this year after news broke that he covered up some of his players receiving improper benefits, it hasn't been the best year to be a college football coach.

Unlike Ohio State, which only has the NCAA to worry about, Penn State's got a lot more on its plate, with the Dept. of Ed. investigation.

Other writers have referred to the Sandusky scandal as the worst in the history of college sports, given the stakes of the sexual accusations.

At this point, that's becoming more and more of a reality.

Check out Duncan's interview with the Associated Press, via the Washington Post:

Photo: Penn State football coach Joe Paterno arrives home on Nov. 9 in State College, Pa. Paterno said in a statement Wednesday he is "absolutely devastated" by the developments in the case of Jerry Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator accused of molesting eight boys over 15 years. (Matt Rourke/AP)

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

More boys than ever are playing youth football, and more girls than ever are attending college. Are the two somehow interrelated?

That's the question that ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook led his Tuesday Morning Quarterback column with a few weeks ago.

Here are the facts:

• More than 1.1 million high school boys participated in organized football during the 2010-11 school year, according to the most recent data from the National Federation of State High School Associations.

• More females than ever are attending college, with 9.9 million-plus undergraduates enrolling in the fall of 2009, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Does that mean the two are causally correlated? Not necessarily.

Easterbrook quickly (and rightly) notes that "the main force must be that girls as a group are doing very well in high school, making them attractive candidates for college."

It's not as though the college gender gap is a new phenomenon. Female undergraduate enrollment surpassed male undergraduate enrollment in 1978, according to NCES data, and males haven't been able to catch up since.

But Easterbrook points out that females, by and large, don't participate in organized football at the high school level (barring a few exceptions), whereas males do.

He surmises:

"Having ever-more boys being bashed on the head in football, while more play full-pads tackle at young ages, may be causing brain trauma that makes boys as a group somewhat less likely to succeed as students. In the highly competitive race for college admissions, even a small overall medical disadvantage for boys could matter. More important, the increasing amount of time high school boys devote to football may be preventing them from having the GPA and extracurriculars that will earn them regular admission to college when recruiters don't come calling."

A study published in the online journal Pediatrics in October gives Easterbrook's claims merit. It found children who suffered moderate or severe traumatic brain injuries (including concussions) suffered substantial side effects that reduced their quality of life, even 24 months after their injuries.

But Easterbrook wasn't just concerned about possible brain damage to youth-football players.

He rightfully cited the concern of youth-football players spending too much time on their sport and not enough time on academics, too.

With year-round football becoming more popular at the prep level, Easterbrook worries:

"The boy who wants to be on the team may have trouble with grades throughout his high school years, while giving up on anything but sports. College-admission officers consider extracurriculars quite important. Many boys who spend most of their time and energy during high school on year-round football, then do not get recruited, send to colleges applications listing a low GPA and no extracurriculars. They're up against girls listing a higher GPA and extracurriculars. Who do you think will be admitted?"

Again, this isn't to suggest that youth football is the one and only reason that more females have been matriculating to college than males over the past two decades. At most, youth football would be one of many contributing factors.

Still, if youth football is playing any role in making males less likely to go to college, Easterbrook believes it would be a "troubling indictment of the sport."

He's not the only one to be asking these types of questions lately.

Carol Lloyd, executive editor of the Great Schools Blog, recently asked in a post, "Are we putting brawn above brain" in high school football?

Given what we've learned about concussions in football these past few years, especially with young brains, these are entirely valid questions.

So, check back here later this week early next week for five suggestions for changes to youth football that could better protect youth athletes.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Nearly 100 high schools in Idaho have been cleared of potential Title IX violations by the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights, after a complaint was filed earlier this summer.

The Meridian school district still remains under investigation for Title IX violations by the OCR, however.

Dept. of Ed. spokesman Jim Bradshaw confirmed in an email to the Times-News last week that all cases besides the one against Meridian had been dropped.

"OCR has dismissed all but one of these complaints because the information provided in support of the allegations did not indicate a potential violation of the Title IX requirement to equally effectively accommodate the interests and abilities of both sexes," Bradshaw wrote.

The original complaint alleged that 100 Idaho high schools in 78 school districts did not provide equal athletic opportunities to female student-athletes, as required by Title IX.

The complaint also accused certain schools of having a disproportionately small number of female athletes compared with their total female population, which would be a clear violation of Title IX, if true.

Based on the information presented in the complaint, however, the OCR did not find enough evidence to continue an investigation into anywhere besides Meridian, the state's largest district.

Idaho High School Activities Association Executive Director John Billetz told the Times-News that a number of schools in the state participated in Title IX training after the complaint was filed.

"I don't want to say the complaints were frivolous, because that would tick some people off. But we took it seriously. We called the office of (sic) civil rights and found out what we needed to do here and we got a hold of a lady out of Oregon, Linda Mangle, and the Idaho state department of education," Billetz said. "We were optimistic that we were going to be OK, but you never know how it is (going to turn out)."

It's unclear what separated Meridian from the rest of the accused districts, although Billetz suggested last fall that Meridian was "in effect taking the bullet for the rest of the state," according to the paper.

Last month, a similar Title IX case against 60 Oregon school districts was dropped by the OCR.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

How is LeBron James keeping busy during the ongoing NBA lockout?

He's encouraging voters in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, to pass a $5.5 million property tax that would go toward the Akron public schools.

James recorded a robocall that went out to 30,000 voters this past Tuesday, according to the Akron Beacon-Journal.

The call went a little something like this, according to the paper:

"Hello, this is LeBron James asking you to support Issue 14 for Akron's public schools. The strength of our community and the Akron public schools were a blessing in my life.

"Without Issue 14, our schools are facing massive cuts and a future seriously threatened. Our kids are the foundation of Akron. They deserve the best schools, the best educational opportunities.

"Please remember to vote for Issue 14 next Tuesday, November 8th. Education matters to me and Akron's future."

While James' popularity plummeted after "The Decision" in the summer of 2010, his ongoing charitable work should make him plenty popular among local youths.

For instance: Proceeds from "The Decision"—more than $3 million in total—went toward helping more than 50 Boys & Girls Clubs across the country. James donated $240,000 to open a new Boys & Girls Club in Akron back in August 2010, and almost another quarter-million dollars to B&G clubs in Cleveland and Elyria, Ohio, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

James recently received the "Champion of Youth" award from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, in honor of the work he's done with children over the past five years.

The moral of the story: James may have nuked his popularity with "The Decision," but his charitable contributions to children around the country deserve equal recognition.

Let's just hope Akron voters still aren't as furious with James as some residents of nearby Cleveland likely are.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The St. Philip's School & Community Center in Dallas received a $5,000 "Victory Grant" on Thursday for equipment to bolster its athletic programs.

This was the first major Victory Grant awarded by BSN Sports, a sporting-goods distributor. BSN Sports announced the $1 million Victory Grant initiative back in September, in which schools apply for a share of the $1 million pool to be spent on athletic equipment and uniforms.

BSN Sports will donate $5,000 worth of athletic equipment to St. Philip's, and will work with the school to determine exactly what equipment and uniforms it will spend the money on.

"St. Philip's provides a college-preparatory education fueled by a confluence of spirituality, self-determination, and service to others," said Terry Flowers, executive director and headmaster for St. Philip's, in a statement. "Athletic and after-school activities provide real-world 'rehearsal' space where our kids can test and refine these qualities before they graduate. We are grateful to BSN SPORTS—and all of our generous benefactors—for their ongoing commitment to this mission."

The St. Philip's Community Center athletic department serves more than 250 children a year with the sports programs it provides, according to the school's website.

While this is the first major Victory Grant awarded by BSN Sports, its CEO makes it sound like there's more to come in the near future.

"In this difficult time for our nation's education system, we are aware that athletic departments and after-school programs have been particularly impacted," said Adam Blumenfeld, the chairman and CEO of BSN SPORTS, in a statement. "This is just the beginning, and we look forward to awarding more grants this year."

Back when I spoke with Mr. Blumenfeld via email in September, he said that BSN Sports "will try to help as many programs" as possible, meaning that it was unlikely that the company will award "an exceptionally large amount to a single applicant."

Victory Grants are open to all K-12 sports organizations. Anyone interested in applying can do so online.

Elementary school programs can also apply for Fit Funds Grants, which are awarded through the US Games division of BSN Sports' umbrella corporation, Sport Supply Group Inc.

Photo: Jason Stolly, head of BSN Sports' Victory Grant Program, stands with Coach Eddie Fletcher from St. Philip's School and BSN Sports sales representative Mike Wilson. BSN Sports awarded St. Philip's School a $5,000 Victory Grant in a ceremony on Nov. 3. (Credit: BSN Sports)

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Is it fair to have one underachieving student's physical-fitness scores bring down his entire school's average?

The cartoon South Park took a satirical stab at answering that question on Wednesday night, in a jab at No Child Left Behind and its response to a single subgroup failure in a school.

This week's episode started with a school assembly, where the students at South Park Elementary were informed that their school scored the lowest in the U.S. on the presidential fitness test.

In actuality, the overwhelming majority of the students scored at a normal level. But one overweight student (who had a "terrifying body-fat score, high blood pressure, and the cholesterol level of a 70-year-old man") scored so low that he dropped the entire school's average down to the lowest in the country.

In response, the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition recommended that each South Park Elementary class would take turns giving up recess for an extra session of physical education every week.

It didn't take long for the students to single out their overweight peer, Eric Cartman. While in gym class, one of Cartman's friends blames him for being so unhealthy that the entire school got punished.

"We're paying for your being fat," another student said.

Cartman responds by accusing the rest of the students of being "the 99 percent ganging up on the 1 percent," as a nod to the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests.

He also manages to blame President Obama for the whole mess, as he "didn't make that stupid presidential fitness test, Obama did."

The episode only escalates from there, as anyone who's seen an episode of South Park can well imagine.

Of course, this blog does not consider childhood obesity to be a laughing matter. A number of studies published this week underscore the severity of the ongoing obesity crisis in U.S. youths.

But in true South Park tradition, this week's episode tiptoed between the line of "offensive yet funny" and making a salient point.

Judge for yourself with a clip from the episode:

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The NFL provided yet another example yesterday of how the organization has transformed itself into a leader in the concussion-awareness field over the past few years, as the league will start instructing referees to be on the lookout for obvious signs of concussions in players.

If history is any indication, it'll only be a matter of time before these changes seep down to youth football.

The NFL's new effort comes as a result of a concussion sustained by Kris Dielman, an offensive lineman for the San Diego Chargers, back on Oct. 23. Dielman was concussed in the fourth quarter of the Chargers' game against the New York Jets and stumbled around on the field in plain sight.

Despite that, Dielman finished the game.

He then had a seizure on the team's flight home.

When asked about the handling of Dielman's injury, Chargers head coach Norv Turner said, "Guys get bounced around pretty good. It's tough to see everybody from the sideline, or even from upstairs or a TV screen what a guy's condition is. Our guys understand that if they aren't able to go, they need to get out. I think it was handled the way we'd try to understand any injury situation."

Needless to say, given how seriously the NFL has been taking concussions since 2009, the league didn't quite see eye-to-eye with Coach Turner here.

The NFL and NFL Players Association's Joint Committee on Player Safety and Welfare met in New York on Tuesday, where they decided that referees needed to play more of a role in concussion awareness.

Starting this week, the training tapes that referees receive on a weekly basis will include information about concussion signs and symptoms.

"We're not trying to train the officials to be doctors, but we're asking them to treat it like other injuries that may make it necessary to stop the game and get them medical attention, either on the field or by getting them off the field," said Greg Aiello, NFL vice president of public relations, to Chris Mortensen of ESPN.

One person in favor of the NFL's change? Recent MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" winner, Kevin Guskiewicz.

"I'm not suggesting a game official should be diagnosing injuries," Guskiewicz said to the Washington Post. "But they can say that if they see something, it warrants removal of that player for at least one play. . . . In [Dielman's] case, you didn't need to be an expert to say he needed to be pulled out and be evaluated."

Guskiewicz also told the Post that he'd support making an official stay in the replay booth to monitor for any potential concussions. Pro Football Talk head writer Mike Florio echoed that point yesterday, arguing that the NFL's changes don't go far enough because of the lack of a safety official in the replay booth.

Impact on Youth Sports

Pushing Booth-gate off to the side for now, it's pretty inarguable that the more people who are tasked with watching out for athletes' head injuries, the better.

The NFL's decision to coach referees up on the symptoms of concussions gives the league that much more of a chance to avoid situations like what happened with Dielman, another inarguable positive.

And, given how quick states were to adopt youth-concussion laws at the urging of the NFL, one can only imagine that states will follow the NFL's lead here for youth football, too.

By my count, only three states' concussion laws currently require officials to undergo any sort of formal concussion training. Louisiana requires annual concussion training for coaches & officials; North Dakota requires officials (along with athletic trainers and coaches) to take a biennial concussion-training course; and Minnesota requires coaches and officials to take a concussion training course every three years.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts' concussion law requires just about everyone besides officials to take an annual concussion-training course. From what I've seen, officials aren't even mentioned in the other roughly 30 state concussion laws on the books.

Suffice it to say, there's room for growth here in states' youth-concussion laws.

Here's guessing that the NFL just accelerated that growth process.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Students with disabilities are 38 percent more likely to be overweight or obese than their peers, according to a report from AbilityPath.org released today.

My colleague Nirvi Shah has the full story over on the On Special Education blog.

I'll highlight some of the frightening statistics from Nirvi's post:

"Analyzing data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey, the report's authors found that almost 51 percent of children receiving special education services were overweight or obese. While about 81 percent of children with limitations on their physical activity were overweight, so were 44 percent of children with attention deficit disorder, 67 percent of the teens with autism spectrum disorder, and 86 percent of the teens with Down syndrome.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that health-care costs of obesity related to disability is about $44 billion each year."

Between this report and the study from yesterday that found obese youths going about losing weight the wrong way, this week has been a harsh reminder of just how wide-reaching the youth obesity crisis has become in the U.S.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Although a large number of obese children have the desire to lose weight, they often end up engaging in behaviors counterproductive to that goal, according to a new study being presented today at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association.

The study, led by Temple University public-health doctoral candidate Clare Lenhart, examines data from nearly 44,000 adolescents who took the Philadelphia Youth Risk Behavioral Survey. Of those students, 13.6 percent, or 5,944 of them, were considered obese.

Lenhart and her colleagues discovered that roughly 75 percent of the obese youths surveyed reported trying to lose weight—undoubtedly a good sign.

The not-so-good sign: Those same youths were often more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors, such as cigarette smoking, daily soda consumption, and physical inactivity.

For instance, females trying to lose weight were more likely to report that they participated in 60 or more minutes of physical activity on a daily basis. At the same time, those females were more likely to drink soda on a daily basis—and not the diet variety, either.

Males trying to lose weight often reported days of no physical activity, and were more likely to play more than three hours of video games per day. Unless those video games include the Dance Dance Revolution series or Wii Fit, it's relatively safe to guess that they required a minimal amount of physical activity.

"From a health education standpoint, finding out that three-quarters of students who are obese want to lose weight is exactly what we want," said Lenhart. "But the behavior they're engaging in is puzzling; it's counterproductive to what they're trying to do."

Lenhart and her colleagues believe that some of the youths may just not realize how these behaviors are ultimately affecting them.

"For example, among the girls who are exercising, they may not realize that one soda could undo that 30-minute walk they just took," she said.

Lenhart recommended that doctors not just ask if a youth is losing weight; instead, they should ask how the youth is going about losing weight as well. "It could help guide those teens to more productive weight loss activities," she said.

Physical Activity and the "Obesity Gene"

Physical activity can drastically reduce the effect of the "fat mass and obesity associated" (FTO) gene, according to a study out of England published this week.

The study, published in this week's PLoS Medicine, found that the effect of the FTO gene was nearly 30 percent weaker in physically active adults compared with physically inactive adults.

In layman's terms: Even those who are genetically predisposed to obesity can fight the effects by exercising.

The researchers studied data from more than 218,000 adults and demonstrated that typically, those who carried the FTO gene had a higher risk of becoming obese.

However, the FTO gene had 27 percent less of an effect on the obesity risk of the carriers who were physically active compared with those who remained physically dormant.

"Our findings are highly relevant to public health," the authors said in a statement. "They emphasize that physical activity is an effective way of controlling body weight, particularly in individuals with a genetic predisposition towards obesity. Thus, they contrast with the determinist view held by many that genetic influences are unmodifiable."

The authors did not find an interaction between physical activity and the effect of the FTO gene on children and adolescents, however. They partially attributed their nonfinding to a much smaller sample size, although they also noted that a limitation of the body mass index measurement could skew their results.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend