All Articles by Brooke de Lench

Keeping Our Children Safe On the Playing Fields

As our sons and daughters begin a new school year and the fall sports season, I wonder whether we are truly doing everything we can to reduce the risk that they will be seriously injured or, even die, playing sports. Are those that run the nation's youth sports programs, town recreation directors, and school athletic directors doing every thing they can to make sure that children don't become a statistic in the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research Center.

Suddenly And Silently: Second Impact Syndrome Is Killing Our Children

Each day between 70 and 100 e-mails are sent, redirected or forwarded to me. I try to read, file, redirect or forward each one by the end of the day. The majority of these are directly related to producing our New Media site. Many are press releases, from non-profit organizations to pharmaceutical companies, asking us to plug "the first-over the counter dye-free liquid pain reliever, to publishers with a new book release, and so on.

Team Cuts, Just As Painful For Elite And Youth Athletes

On Monday, December 17th, USA Hockey National Women's Team coach Ben Smith will have to tell 2 women that, after twenty-one games, after months of living out of a suitcase with 25 of their teammates, they won't be going to Salt Lake City in February to play for their country in the Olympics.

Father Dies After Hockey Dad's Fight

This week marks the 1-year anniversary of the senseless beating death of youth ice hockey coach and father, Michael Costin. Thomas Junta allegedly beat Costin to death after a pickup hockey in front of Costin's three sons. The beating was so brutal that it has become a national symbol of youth sports parent rage.

Not To Win But To Take Part

The founder of the modern Olympic games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, first stated the Olympic creed in 1896, and it is as much a cherished ideal today as it was more than a century ago: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part."

A Mothers Day Gift For Each Of Us

There are many compassionate and courageous mothers who have taken the above quote by eminent child and family psychologist, Dr. Lee Salk, and given it dual meaning. Two of these mothers, Karen Acompora and Rachel Moyer, have taken their darkest moments and turned the tiny points of light in their "darkened sky" into super novas for all of us to experience.

Kids Just Wanna Have Fun

My sons were just five when they played on their first youth sports team. I can still vividly recall that night in April when the head coach called to tell me that they were on the T-ball "Red Sox" and that the first practice would be held at the high school softball field in two days.

How to Balance Youth Sports with Family Life

Raising sports active kids is difficult, perhaps never more so than today. Parents feel pressure to help their kids succeed and to keep up with other parents in an increasingly winner-take-all society. Too often, parents feel that if they don't do everything for their child, they are bad parents. Some parents seem to take pride in how busy and stressed are their lives and those of their kids, as if it is a measure of how successful they are and how successful they must be as parents.

Officials and Rules: The Washington, D.C. Uniform Incident

It seems that every season a story comes to my attention about a high school track & field athlete being disqualified from a meet for a seemingly minor rules violation. The most recent case to garner attention was that of Juashaunna Kelly, the best distance runner in Washington, D.C., who was disqualified last month because the body suit she races in to comply with the requirements of her Muslim religion did not comply with the rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) regarding uniform color.

All-Star Team Selection Process: A Better, Fairer Way?

Ever wonder how it was that all the coaches' sons or daughters are so much more "talented" than the other kids that they get to continue playing all summer, sharpening their skills, getting the advantage of playing three, four, even five times a week under the lights or in the hot summer sun, while other kids, eager to play, stand on the outside looking in, already stigmatized by having been deemed "not good enough" to play.