MitchMash: Early highlight reels trumped by tragedy

We're only about a month in but we've experienced a season's worth of national football news and highlights.

And - like never before - we've experienced all in rapid speed fire in high definition color.

We've seen on live national television the herculean performance of top-ranked Trinity (Euless, Texas) rolling up 80 points with the greatest of ease against a nationally ranked opponent, and the momentous snow job Dwyer (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) received at the goal line in a loss to Glenville (Cleveland).

We've read about fantastic individual performances like Jared May of Canton South (Ohio), who completed 26 of 38 for 451 yards and nine touchdowns in a 62-14 win over East Palestine (Ohio) or Dawson Myers of Cushing (Okla.), who rushed 40 times for 385 yards and four touchdowns in a 35-12 win over Okmulgee (Okla.) or Easton Garcia of Durango (Colo.), who caught 14 passes for 325 yards and three scores in a 35-28 loss to Aztec (N.M.).



We've stopped the presses and jammed up Twitter lines when the nation’s No. 1 recruit James Wilder picked Florida State and Malcolm Brown, probably the nation’s best pure running back, chose Texas on the very same day.

But all of it is back-page news compared to 2010's large but unattractive cover piece: safety.

Yes, it's not pretty or sexy or the least bit colorful.

But this black and white issue is the largest and ugliest elephant in every football stadium, and it has squashed our collective soul every time a young athlete is carted away by ambulance without consciousness, movement or worse yet, a pulse.

Despite the best efforts from the very top, the NFL and the National Federation State High School Associations (NFHS), and every state association in between, kids are winding up severely injured and yes, even dead.

Last week, two young promising lads lost their life on the football field – one in Texas and the other in Oklahoma – each apparently the victims of the sport's fiercest foe, the heat and a blow to the head.



Kody Turner, 16, a junior lineman at Chickasha (Okla.) died two days after collapsing at practice due to heat stroke. His core body temperature at practice was reported to be 108 degrees. He was eventually airlifted to OU Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City, where he died two days later. He was laid to rest on Tuesday.

The night Kody perished, in Orange, Texas, West Orange-Stark senior quarterback Reggie Garrett collapsed after throwing his second touchdown in the second quarter of a game against Jasper. Reports say Garrett might have taken a blow to the head. He reached the sideline but then had a seizure and was rushed by medics already at the game to the hospital, where he died an hour later.

The cause of death is still unknown and doctors have not ruled out cardiac Arrhythmia – a sudden acceleration of the heart followed by a sudden stop. They have ruled out heart attack, enlarged heart and a brain aneurysm.

The two deaths have left both communities torn apart and grieving. Teens – especially fit athletic ones playing on a football field – aren't supposed to pass away so young.

"He was just super," West-Orange coach Dan Hooks said that night. "A good student. It will be hard for them (the students and his family). It will take a long time for them to get over that. Me too."

Regardless of cause, Reggie and Kody aren't aberrations.



MORE HEARTACHE, MORE EDUCATION
On Sept. 7, Spruce Creek (Port Orange, Fla.) senior Jordan Petersen sustained a heart attack on the practice field and was under a medically induced coma for a week. He returned to cheer on his team on Sept. 15 but will likely never play again. 

Also in Florida, the same day Petersen first collapsed, Wekiva (Apopka) freshman Oliver Louis collapsed and died during practice, apparently related to the heat.

Last month, Lewisville (Richburg, S.C.) running back Brian Colvin collapsed on the field during a Chester County jamboree and died later that evening. Heart disease is what killed Brian, tests revealed later.

All the tragedies are heightening safety awareness from coast to coast. Concussions and the heat, and how football players deal with each, are at the forefront of virtually every governing agency this season.

The NFL and Gatorade are promoting its "Beat the Heat" campaign to raise awareness about heat-related illness and death among teens. The most famous case came last year when a Louisville, Ky., coach was charged with reckless homicide in the 2008 death of 15-year-old Max Gilpin, who collapsed while running gassers.

Pleasure Ridge Park coach David Jason Stinson was found not guilty of all charges, but it still put a charge into coaches to pay attention to the heat - if they hadn't already.



"Water, water and more water," said Mike Machado, the coach of one of California's top ranked teams, Valley Christian (San Jose). "Our coaches are all aware. You can't get enough."

Josh McDaniels takes the same approach with his Denver Broncos. The second-year head coach, who leads the "Beat The Heat" program, said the NFL has been very aware of the heat issues, especially since the tragic death of Vikings All-Pro lineman Korey Stringer in 2001.

"It's all about education and hydrating the athlete," McDaniels said. "This isn't only a football deal but this is a good cause for everyone associated with sports."

McDaniels, 34, has been around the game his entire life. His dad Thom McDaniels is an Ohio high school coaching legend and after his prep days, Josh played at John Carroll University. He coached at Michigan State and the New England Patriots before taking over in Denver. He said he never witnessed a heat-related tragedy, but remembers even himself being dehydrated and feeling woozy as a player.

"You just can never be too careful," he said. "We're utterly adamant about hydration at (the Broncos' camp). We have water and Gatorade all over the building. At the hotel, cafeteria, locker rooms, it's never far away and we encourage it before, during and after practice."

To promote heat safety the NFL and Gatorade have collaborated to create and distribute the Gatorade Heat Safety Kit, an educational resource which can be downloaded at no cost from the NFL’s website. For every unique download, Gatorade will donate $1, up to $20,000, to "Beat the Heat" charities.



"Heat-related illnesses need to be taken seriously at all levels," Green Bay Packers head trainer Pepper Burress said. "Dangers from overexposure to high temperature and humidity are preventable if coaches and players know the early warning signs and athletes stay cool and hydrated."

RECOGNIZING CONCUSSIONS
Concussions and how to deal with them is a hot topic everywhere and it led NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to send letters to 44 governors to push the Lystedt Law, a Washington statute that changes how the state handles concussions among young athletes. The NFHS, the national governing body, has adopted a similar policy requiring referees to not only remove players they suspect have sustained head trauma, but also to keep them out for the rest of the game.

Dr. Richard G. Ellenbogen helped push the Lystedt Law through and was recently named a co-chair of the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Medical Committee. He applauds the aggressive stands taken by Goodell and the NFHS because there is so many misconceptions about concussions, the most common being that a player has to be knocked out to sustain one.

"That's not even close to true," he said.

Almost all experts agree, Ellonbogen included, the key in treating a concussion is making sure the injured player sits out and recovers before re-entering.

"If you sit it out and recover fully, there is much greater chance to have a full athletic career," Ellonbogen said.



Studies show that about 1.2 million youth play football with the chance of a catastrophic neurological disability such as paralysis at 1.65 and death at 0.7 per 100,000. A large portion of the catastrophic head injuries occur following an unsafe amount of recovery time from a previous head injury.

High school and youth athletes, whose skulls and brains aren't fully developed, risk serious injury by coming back too soon. The American Journal of Sports Medicine published a study stating that high school players are three times more likely than college players to suffer a catastrophic head injury.

Those facts are scary enough, but doubly so considering the invincible attitudes of teen boys and seemingly quick recovery rates.

"High school players just want to play," said Ty Afflect, a team physician for Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College in California. "They don't want to tell you 'Hey, coach, I'm feeling a little weird. I might be suffering a little memory loss.' I think older players have a little more perspective and take their health a little more seriously."

Last fall, the NFL took its strongest stand on managing concussions, requiring that any player who shows signs of head injury be removed from the practice or game and be banned from returning the same day. This comes after years of studies showing that former NFL players who sustained three or more concussions were three times more likely to experience clinical depression and five times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

Ellonbogen hopes the NFL's stance has a strong trickle-down effect on high school kids – and younger – in all sports. He thinks the league or players are taking stands because of pressure from higher places.



"I think pro athletes these days want to leave a legacy far greater than rushing for 1,000 yards," Ellonbogen said. "I think the players and coaches and officials truly want to make the game safer for younger generations."

TEAM FIRST, HEALTH SECOND
Despite all the warnings and even measures by their sport's grandest league, high school players still aren't fully convinced they'll do the smart thing.

A pair of Tustin (Calif.) players told the New York Times that they wouldn't tell coaches if they sustained concussion-like symptoms during its Southern Section playoff game.

"It's our mentality toward football – you put team first," defensive end Kuresa Moaliitele said. "I'd keep playing. It's the dedication I have to the team."

Their coach Myron Miller wasn't surprised by Moaliitele's reaction.

"They shouldn't do it, I've told them not to do it, but it takes a lot of maturity to put your health ahead of the team," he told the Times. "If I was playing in a game tomorrow night and got a concussion, I don't think I'd tell anyone either. I'm not a hypocrite."



Such honesty is appreciated but is frightening to educators and certainly parents. National expert Tony Strickland,of the Sports Concussion Institute of Los Angeles is part of the California Interscholastic Federation "Play it Safer" campaign.

He is trying to introduce mandatory baseline neurological testing for all high school athletes before they ever participate. That way after a head injury, a second test can be performed to see how the neurons have shifted.

"It makes all the difference in the world," Strickland said. "It's the difference between making an informed decision on returning to action or an uninformed one."

Strickland and the CIF have passed out 12-step pamphlets to recognize and treat symptoms related to head trauma. He says athletes who experience any of these symptoms should report to the nearest emergency room or call 911:

• Headache
• Nausea
• Balance problems and dizziness
• Double or fuzzy vision
• Sensitivity to light or noise
• Feeling sluggish
• Feeling “foggy”
• Change in sleep pattern
• Difficulty remembering recent events
• Change in personality or increased irritability
• Difficulty concentrating
• May experience initial improvement followed by worsening symptoms
• Symptoms may worsen with exertion.

The NFHS also offers a course on-line written by another national expert, Mick Koester, the Director of the Slocum Sports Concussion in Eugene, Ore. As of earlier this month, more than 55,000 had taken the course, according to NFHS Executive Director Bob Gardner.



"We've received nothing but good, strong responses with the course," Gardner said.

Unfortunately, accidents and tragedies continue to occur.

Gardner hopes coaches and referees simply take the same attitude as Lincoln (San Francisco) football coach Phil Ferrigno, whose team has won four of the last five Turkey Day Game championships.

"We don't mess around anymore," Ferrigno said. "When we sense a concussion, you not only come out, but stay out a couple weeks. We err on the side of caution."

Mitch Stephens is a senior writer and national columnist for MaxPreps.com. E-mail him at mstephens@maxpreps.com.