Sorry but I have to rant a little bit

Go post, Coach2709. 

Sounds like the parents arent doing their job.

Good job coach.

 

I am surprised but in many states you can not play on a team in your sport during it's HS season. In California it is very strict and HS teams lose their eligibility if a player participates in any external sport related activities. Cheer is a bit different since it spans all seasons. BTW you probably already know this but the "sport" with the highest injury rate is Cheer. 

Boy that was a real twister.  I get that it stinks as a parent to watch your kid have to sit out due to an injury but a diagnosed concusion.  That is crazy.

bcb3 got it right.  This is mostly about bad parenting.  This poor girl is somebody's child.

Coach I really respect your opinion and agree 100% with this. That showcase coach is an idiot. I hope and pray that young lady doesn't get reinjured. That coach is actually looking to be sued but I hope it never happens becasue I hope no one is hurt bad enough to sue her.

 

The blend of HS sports and non HS (showcase for lack of better words) has went off the deep end IMO. This includes sports being expected to compete in the sports normal offseason. Even between HS sports. Even between same sport HS and showcase (as above) and showcase to showcase of 2 sports, one in season and one out. Everyone wants that kid for everything all the time. Kids want to play, Parents want that scholarship, or glory or whatever. 

 

I don't know where or how to stop it but kids don't just get to be kids. They have to be very organized, threr day filled with event to event.

 

I had 5 kids, boys 25,23,18 and girls 15 &12. when my 25 and 23 played when they were younger. They played pee wee football, very local travel basketball and baseball. The season was the season  no crossover or very little (maybe a week or 2 at a start and finish of season) and those were ALWAYS in season team first. By HS, they were both basketball and baseball only. Baseball local travel and HS. But again they never crossed over. From August to November they worked on both but it wasn't crazy. They threw some starting late January

 

my 18 year old never stops. HS Basketball is from mid august "Open gyms and conditioning" until end of season in late February early March. They have a summer league / practices the entire month of June. It is basically expected unless playing baseball at same time, not same day, just same time. HS Baseball has fall conditioning / practice 3 times a week. Take off November and then start back in December (he is expected to be there on Sunday nights for conditioning even in basketball season). This goes thru sometime in May. Summer baseball started right after HS season and for him ends in late October.

 

On a normal week he is doing basketball, HS baseball and summer baseball all 3 and for most part it is 7 days a week, always 6.

 

I know there will be people here that say he needs to prioritize and just play a sport (in his case that would be baseball, if he had to choose). But I ask why? He loves playing basketball. He plays with his HS friends. 

 

How do we get all these sports to allow the kids to be "inseason" when they are in season and not have other coaches expect them to participate in offseason without repercussions?

 

This is HS to HS sports, HS to showcase and showcase to showcase.

 

I guess the real answer is parents have to step up and put limits of the kids time by priority of the kid and then be willing to help all the coaches know where that priority is. I just wish that it didn't have to be each parent that had to do that but that coaches would have to understand for all thier kids.

 

thanks for letting me rant as well    

In Ohio a player cannot play for another team during the HS season. And if you have 4 or more players from one school on a travel team, the team cannot schedule practices or games until the varsity team is out of the state tourney. This applies to all players in a HS program whether they are on Varsity, JV, or Freshmen.

Great post coach, and I agree, you should be ticked off.  bcb3 hit it right on the head, but I think the travel coach is skirting their responsibility to protect the kids.

I place a little blame on the student for being a little selfish, knowing that an injury that happens while participating for wither team is going to dramatically effect the other.

I have always told my kids that if they are playing a school sport, that will be their dedicated focus, everything else is secondary.

 

On the concussion side, this girls parents need a serious talking to.  My middle son received a mild concussion during his first year of tackle football during his last game.  No questions about it, I ended his football right then and there and told him he would not play again until he got to HS, and then the choice would be his.  Can't play games with injuries like that.

Bishop, agreed, ChefJr does nothing with  summer team from time HS try outs unitl end of year. He did have 1 on 1 with his summer pitching coach once every 2 week during season. We timed it as bullpens since his HS team doesn't do them.

Showcase team for cheerleading? 

 

I was thinking the same thing!

Where r the parents?  If dr told her she had concussion then why did they allow her to practice?

In my day a cheerleaders job was to cheer for school teams not win trophies at competitions. Wow how times have changed. Ive had parents tell me having their daughter in cheerleading  cost sev thous a yr

Parents can be massively stupid. BTW if you think travel bb is all about the $$ you really should check out travel cheer leading. In the past 2 weeks we had a young man die after returning to football practice after a concussion. He apparently had been cleared for the prior Friday's game but the coach & parent's kept him out. On the following Tuesday he died after being taking from practice to the hospital. It was a running drill when he collapsed. They have not said whether the 2 were related but the autopsy results have not been released.

My heart goes out to this family. What a tragedy. I cannot imagine what they are going through.

Wow, I wish you were the AD at our school....lol.  The fact that you would even talk to someone other than a football or basketball player is amazing...let alone the fact that you seem to actually care about them! 

 

I guess my thought has 2 parts....first....I can't fault the girl for missing out on HS due to an injury received outside of HS. My thinking is, she could have got hurt in any number of ways...it just happened to be "showcase" cheerleading.  Kids do 100's of things during the course of the school year that could allow them to get hurt...my son and his friends go snow-skiing...even after HS indoor baseball workouts have started. He also plays CYO (church league) basketball...which ends in mid-Feb.   Some of his friends ride 4-wheelers or dirt bikes during their HS sports seasons.   They could get hurt...and some of them have.  Our starting catcher broke his hand playing basketball a week before practice started and missed the first moth of the regular season.   I caution my son to take it easy when he's playing other sports...especially when he's close to the start of the season....knowing how he would feel if he gets hurt and misses playing time.  Yes, it would hurt his team...and he personally would be crushed...BUT...he's a kid...and kids don't always think of that kind of stuff.  He's thinking about going snow skiing...winning a basketball game or going to ride a 4-wheeler.  He's not thinking "man, if I get hurt, I'm missing baseball".  That's not how kids think.  It's not what I did when I was a kid and it's not what most of you probably did either.  Yes, it stinks that the girl got hurt...and will miss state...but it also would stink if she (or any other kid) felt like they had to sit home, on a couch, playing X-box because they didn't feel they could enjoy being a kid...because they might get hurt.   

 

Now the second part about her going to compete with her showcase team while she has a concussion. I think that's pretty easy to see that either her, her parents, the showcase team coach...or any combination of all of them maybe just aren't all that bright

 

Elite cheerleading is huge. The national championships are broadcast on ESPN. It's dance and gymnastics with cheerleading mixed in. The girls are very athletic. Its as elite as any travel sport.

Any parent who would allow their kid to compete without being cleared from a concussion is an idiot. 

 

My son's high school baseball coach didn't allow any participation in any other sport once tryouts started. Due to a two day snow storm delaying the town basketball rec league championship my son had to sit on the bench and watch his team lose a championship game they would have won had he played. The coach stated the rule every year in the September baseball meeting. The rule didn't apply to fall ball. He was ticked he lost a starter to a broken ankle in a rec basketball game when my son was in 8th grade.

 

Our state laws do not allow participation in the next season's sport until the previous season is finished. Tyrelle Pryor (Raiders) once scored 27 points with 16 rebounds four games into the season because he had to finish the state football playoffs before playing basketball.

 

We had two athletes who had waivers from the state to compete on the Junior US Teams and US Teams simultaneously with the same and other high school sports.

 

My son's soccer coach cringed at the idea he was playing fall baseball. There was a big talent dropoff to the backup goalie. The high school basketball coach allowed his jv players to play in the town rec league. I once asked him about his players get hacked by aggressive, less agile football players.

 

My son was a very talented skateboarder and snowboarder. He gave up competitive skateboarding for safety reasons in high school.

I actually hear about these "showcase" "high school" conflicts a lot.  The biggest most often gripe I hear is the high school coach that will not allow his players to compete with travel teams during the summer and/or fall.  

 

I just don't know of many travel teams that get in the way of high school baseball season. In fact, most of the travel coaches I know are big fans and supporters of high school baseball.  There are some that cause issues, just not many. 

 

I believe kids and their parents should be able to do what they want if it does not conflict with their school team. Nothing can stop 6 kids getting together and playing "hard ball" on the play ground.  If they get hurt who do we blame?  When something like a concussion happens, everyone's main concern should be about that injury.  Not whether it hurts the HS team or hurts the travel team.  We simply listen to what the medical people say!  They don't care about either team, they only care about the person injured.

 

I don't know about other activities.  I do know my grand daughter is involved in cheer leading at her HS.  She also takes dance classes with a dance club and competes in dance contests.  Her HS coach actually promotes it. Guess her thought is it will make her a better cheer leader. The two activities keep her very busy, but she is also a straight A student. Granted she hasn't suffered any serious type injury. She is very good at all that stuff.  I actually enjoy watching the dance competitions though I don't go to many.  I'm too old to watch the cheer leaders when a game is being played, though I know a lot of work goes into it. She also competes in cheer leading competition, but I haven't gone to one of those yet. I know if she suffered a concussion, the doctor will dictate when she returns to either dancing or cheer leading. She could get injured at either one.

 

Anyway, in the case that "coach2709" posted about, I agree with him about the coaches and also those that are blaming the girls parents.  If your kid was not allowed to participate in HS activities due to injury... How can you possibly allow her to participate in the same activity outside of high school.  Especially when we are talking about a concussion. If the coach is allowing this, knowing she is injured and not allowed to participate in HS... He is an idiot!  Worse than that... He is a dangerous idiot!  But for sure her parents know!  Maybe they just don't understand. That is the only excuse I can think of.

Huge down here and they start very early. My daughters bf's daughter is 7, practice is 2 times a week and competition every other week.

+1 on TPM's post.....it is serious cut throat at the high school I was assigned to last year....cheer and dance!  Dance team even over through a coach and got her booted

Is there scholarships available for cheerleading?

Yes

Yes there are. Quite a bit of them too! Both male and female.

 

This continues to go back to the long-held thought that concussions only occurred in football. Obviously that isn't true and if anybody still believes that, then they need to wake up. Concussions are a serious matter in all sports. Cheerleading is also pretty high on the list for concussions in female sports. This is likely due to the increased nature of tumbling and stunting that leads to falls. Cheerleading today is unlike the cheerleading of old. It is now much more like gymnastics with team spirit mixed in. The injury rates overall remain relatively low in cheerleading compared to other sports, however the sport is the leader in high school female sports for catastrophic injury accounting for an estimated 65% of all catastrophic injuries in that population. I think the likely main reason that the overall injury rate is rather low in cheer is because it remains on the "outside" with regards to athletics and the injury reporting systems remain poor.

 

The parents and kid are obviously making a poor decision. The coach is also making a poor decision from both a personal standpoint (think about the kid's safety!) but also from a liability standpoint. If she has not been cleared by a doctor and the coaches allows her to participate, then she is likely violating a doctor's order. If something really unfortunate were to happen, the coach's name would be the first listed on the lawsuit.

 

I believe something like 47 of the 50 states have some sort of "athlete concussion law" however each state's law has flaws in them. As Coach mentioned, most often things like "showcase cheerleading" do not have to abide by the law. They only apply to certain high school sports most often. Senator Durbin from Illinois has introduced a bill that would create a federal law mandating states meet certain requirements with their laws. We'll see how that goes.

 

I don't send all concussed athletes to the doctor, but I have gotten to where I send a large majority of them. Most often, they are cleared by the doctor to "begin return to play protocol under supervision of the athletic trainer" and then are allowed to be cleared when I am ready. I utilize ImPACT testing and kids must complete a progressive return to play process before full competition.

When I think of cheerleading I think of the following:

Tonight at our JV football game I was able to get with our cheer coach and asked if her mom knows what's going on - she said yes and she talked to her about the potential problems that could occur.  I just don't get it.  What makes it worse is part of the Gfeller / Waller Act is I have to hold a mandatory meeting at the start of each season for every single athlete and parent / guardian.  We go over all of this stuff and what happens once a kid is just suspected of having a concussion.  Then I hand out a paper with information on it and another paper where the parent and kid both sign saying they attended the meeting to get the information.  

 

As for doing other things while in season I totally understand what Buckeye and PG are talking about and agree with them.  I just think there are two different things going on here.  I feel what they are talking about is a kid being a kid.  If they get hurt being a kid then so be it because that's part of life.  But the part I'm talking about is the structured / having someone put pressure on you to do something while something else is going on.  That just takes away from both things you're trying to do.  

 

I do believe there can be exceptions to this but it has to be a special reason.  One year I had a second baseman who loved basketball and wanted to attend a showcase during our season.  I allowed him to miss a game to attend this because he had a chance to be seen by a college.  I'm not going to take a chance like this away from a kid.  

 

I don't know - it just ticked me off when this girl was telling me this stuff today.  

Great Post Coach2709, I really enjoyed reading it. It did make me late for a meeting this morning though .

 

Your post and PGs post really hit home for me.  My son is a Freshman who's HS coach is outstanding, but also very demanding of his time. We are still playing fall ball!

 

For Freshman year we agreed to commit completely to HS summer/fall program.   The HS coach basically said he needed to see where the incoming baby/freshman fit in with his team.  That made sense to us so we agreed and he has not missed a HS game or practice. Next summer he will play the travel team schedule with the big PG events etc....  I think we made a good choice.  He has solidified a starting 9 spot for Varsity (could change in spring I know, but looking solid)

 

As for the concussion aspect.  I place much of the blame on the parents and some on the coaches.  Last summer or two summers ago we played a team in the USSSA states and one of our players sliding properly at home plate kneed the catcher in the head. (Catcher had his face real low to the ground).  The other team flipped out, parents came on to the field screaming at our player.  Coach started screaming and yelling.  The boy needed to be carted off to the hospital. 

 

Why were they flipping out you ask?  When asked that question here was the response:

 

"He just recently had a concussion and we are concerned about the impact of a second one so soon"

 

I can not make this stuff up, are you kidding me????  You mean the fact that the kid could have been permanantly brain damaged was less important than winning states!!! 

 

Unfortunately this is the competitive environment we live in.  I am glad we have Coach2709 spreading the word about how stupid this really is.

 

It may not be the competitive environment we live in. It could be the old school "shake it off so no one thinks you're a pussy."

Thats how many grew up, but there is no room for that with concussions:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb6Bm5skuBA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlQcKuzzLDw

 

http://www.cdc.gov/TraumaticBrainInjury/severe.html

 

I don't need to learn about concussions. My son has had three. While catching he got nailed in the head by the backswing of an off balance hitter. His coach didn't take him out of the game. I found out later he wasn't removed even after throwing up in the dugout. He was kicked in the head making a head first save in soccer. He was thrown off a wall playing basketball as he was about to lay in a buzzer beater winning shot.

Not suggesting you needed a lesson.  Just supporting my statement, my apologies if you were offended.

 

Maybe someone uninformed will find the info valuable.  I was uninformed about this before someone shared it with me.

 

SUAWTG,

 

Appreciate you posting those links.  I'm glad that concussions are getting so much publicity these days. People are getting more educated and can make wiser decisions.

 

I've had several concussions in my life.  Maybe even more than I actually know.  I'm one of the lucky ones that got by without any serious damage. Damage that I know about anyway! Others might say I didn't escape that brain damage.

 

We that are involved in activities, especially sports activities, need to understand the danger of concussions.  Football has taught us a lot lately.  We need to be educated.

 

 

I completely agree with your view of this, 2709. And I appreciate the frustration.

coach you have some great points on this web site - but I just read a thread about cheerleading on a baseball forum (ok kinda not about cheer but way to much of it). You sir are going to need to duck the large beer can falling out of the sky!!

All good points, but it is the parents' responsibility.   My son was a 3 sport athelete thru his freshman year in HS.   Soccer, basketball and baseball.. all at the travel / club / aau level.   I have always believed that a kid should experience all sports, not just concentrate on one (if (s)he chooses).  I also believe that this reduces the risk of overuse injuries and builds well rounded muscle coordination.  We were always up front with the coaches... he will commit to your team as priority in season.   Out of season, he has other teams and commitments.  Family first, then school, then sports.  If this doesn't work for you, then we can find a new team. There are coaches and teams that have the same morals and beliefs.  Sure they may not be state champs, or travel the country playing tournaments, but that is a life lesson.. winning isn't everything.

I have a couple of male employees that were college cheereleaders and were scholarship.

 

At some point, parents need to take ownership and be exactly that, a parent.  Rules/laws can help but parents have to take ownership and do what's right for their child.   

It's actually evolved into a badass sport at that.  Best thing that ever happened to cheerleading.  Prior to, the whole concept was flawed.

Not to mention that most schools have classified it as a varsity sport.

Classifying cheerleading as a sport helps address Title IX issues.

No it doesn't. Not at the college level at least.

http://www.adn.com/2013/04/26/...t-that-prompted.html

 

And actually only 29 state associations categorize cheerleading as a sport. The NCAA does not.