THE GAZETTE
Page B-4
Wednesday, September 4, 2013 s
Concussion awareness starts at top Area high schools adopt new safety procedures and rules in an effort to minimize brain injuries
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Middle schooler takes on college recruits Clarksburg girl wins Junior Olympic field hockey gold
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BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN STAFF WRITER
BY
TRAVIS MEWHIRTER STAFF WRITER
GEORGE P. SMITH/FOR THE GAZETTE
Avalon School quarterback Wyatt Karem gets sacked and fumbles the ball against Potomac on Friday. ciations announced it partnered with USA Football, the sport’s national governing body, and will endorse the organization’s Heads Up Football program. Heads up Football promotes tackling’s mechanics that aim to reduce helmet contact. Maryland is one of eight states with schools that will pilot the program this fall. All schools nationwide will be eligible in 2014. In addition, football teams in Maryland are allowed to have full contact only three days a week, one of them being game days. “It was ‘Run low, run behind the pads.’ That terminology is out the window,” Kadi said. “I think the attitude will change, coaches have no choice but to adapt.” The recent ruling has been met with some resistance from current and former NFL players who say it will eliminate the “tough guy” and hurt the sport they grew up with. Football will certainly change in the coming years, Kadi said, but that won’t detract from his love for the game. It will take time but play-
youth level to ensure athletes’ safety. Hakopian said some youth leagues are experimenting with certifying certain players — making sure they use proper technique — at the 10and 12-under levels and allowing only those identified players to head the ball in a game. Hakopian added that he wouldn’t be surprised to see something like that was eventually implemented nationwide and that he expects at that all soccer players will eventually be required to wear certain equipment on their heads. Society constantly changes to keep up with the times and so does sport. Eventually these fought-against changes become tradition. “Some of the coaches might say, ‘That’s ridiculous,’ but you have to get over that,” Whitman football coach Jim Kuhn said. “There are changes in the world. I think it is hard but if you’re a person that is committed to the game, you embrace [the changes].” jbeekman@gazette.net
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ers and coaches will eventually adjust in the way society has embraced the constant evolution of all sports. “There didn’t used to be a 3-point line in basketball,” Kadi said. “Rules change and the game will adapt.” Though football might be one of the more inherently violent sports, concussions are on the rise in many sports. Athletes these days are bigger, faster and stronger, Winston Churchill girls soccer coach Haroot Hakopian said, leading to more physicality and impact upon contact. In recent years, there has been more emphasis on developing upper body strength to try and limit neck movement in those collisions, first-year Holy Cross soccer coach Tony Pykosh said, who led Walt Whitman to its only state championship in 2004, said. The act of heading a soccer ball itself has not been proven to cause brain injuries and Montgomery County coaches agreed taking that aspect out of the game would be illogical, but steps are being taken at the
The Bertrand family saw much of the United State this summer. They hopped on some roller coasters in Disney World, explored American University and the surrounding area in Washington D.C., felt the sand of Virginia Beach, saw some familyinMichigananddroveup and down just about the entire East Coast. “There was a lot of vacations,” said Brenda Bertrand, the mother of two collegiate athletes and another who will more than likely be one in a few years, “But not a lot of vacationing.” All the traveling was not done just to take the kids to see Epcot or splash in the ocean, rather for a seemingly neverending summer field hockey circuit for 11-year old Anna, the youngest of the Bertrands and one of the most talented preteen field hockey players in the country. The first stop, American University, was the expected one. Site of the regional tournament for the U.S. Field Hockey Futures program — “their Olympic pipeline,” as Brenda described it — the event was essentially an open tryout. Here, players were evaluated and graded, the top 25 percent qualifying for the national tournament in Virginia Beach. Anna, who has had a field hockey stick in her hand since about age 3, easily made the cut and off to the beach they went. In Virginia, Anna was “popped onto a team with girls from all over the country,” Brenda says, and her group played in front of evaluators once again. And, once again, the top 25 percent moved onto the next level: the Junior Olympic team. “I found out from a friend,” Anna said. “I didn’t know what they were talking about. When I saw my name, I freaked out and called my parents.” At just 11 years old, Anna
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“Shake it off, you just had your bell rung,” is something many football players have probably been told by a coach at some point. America’s most popular sport can be brutal, but its players have historically been expected to brush off the physicality and be “tough.” Now, changes are abound in football — not necessarily to everyone’s liking — and they’re coming from the top. Concussion awareness has reached new heights in recent years and as studies continue to reveal the possible serious and long-term effects of brain injuries, the National Football League made a major move this year in an effort to promote players’ safety. Effective this NFL season, runners and tacklers are prohibited from initiating contact with the crown of their helmet outside the tackle box. Illegal tackles include lining up opponents, a player lowering his head and delivering a forceful hit with the crown of his helmet to any part of the opposing player’s body. The NFL agreed on Thursday to pay $765 million to settle a lawsuit brought by more than 4,500 players and their families. The lawsuit accused the NFL concealed what it knew about the dangers of repeated concussions. Montgomery County football has adopted these rules this fall as well. Offensively, Walter Johnson High School football coach Jon Kadi said players are not allowed to brace and strike defenders with their helmets. Defenders will also be penalized for digging their facemasks into opponents’ chest pads. It should be helmet on the ball, Kadi said. Concussions cannot be prevented or eliminated from sport but proper tackling technique is extremely important the attempt to limit brain injury cases. In August, the National Federation of State High School Asso-
had qualified for the 14-and-under Junior Olympic team, which featured players from Kentucky to New Jersey and five other states lining the East Coast. At the Junior Olympics, her East Coast team was combined with the 16-U team from that same area and played against teams from across the country selected from various regions. Being 11 and typically one of the smallest players on the field, even when playing against girls relatively close to her own age, is something she said she is used to. She said she has played up in age groups her whole life and currently competes with both the 12U and 14U for her local club team, the Jackals. Because of that Brenda “wasn’t expecting [Anna to get] a whole lot of playing time,” she said. “But she played a lot, even started a few games.” In several games, Anna, a sixth grader, found herself matching up against girls who had already committed to play in college. So how does a middle schooler respond to playing against somebody twice her size and who had been recruited by Division I universities? “At first I was really scared,” Anna said. “Because when you play girls in indoor and they’re really, really tall, they can do these lifts, but after a while you realize you’re just as good as them, so why be scared?” “She has no fear,” said Jenna Ries, her coach with the Jackals. “She’ll get on the field with 17-year olds. The most fun part about watching Anna is seeing her forget she’s half their size.” That precocious talent and mindset led Anna to return home from Michigan, site of the Junior Olympics, with a gold medal in hand, an accomplishment Ries believes never to have been done before by anybody in Montgomery County, even those competing within their proper age group. “My favorite part was when I got on the field, the other girls would say. ‘Oh, she’s so cute!’” Anna said, on the cusp of dissolving into a fit of giggles. “And then I would get out there and they would say, ‘Oh my God! This is crazy.’”
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