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March is a busy time of year as winter sports wind down and spring/summer sports wind up. This is a time of year where the demands on parents to get kids to their in-season activities and the early sessions of the next season is daunting. Being a parent is hard with all of the pressures that your kids place on you and the pressure to participate non-stop all year-round in almost every sport. 

If you are an athletic director, football coach, game official or parent concerned about reducing the number of concussions and catastrophic head, neck and spinal injuries in the sport and have 25 minutes to spare, my non-profit, Train 'Em Up Academy, has produced an enlightening, empowering and powerful video, called "Wide-Eye'd Blind."

Why do I call it that? Because as a nation, we are literally standing by, with our eyes wide open but blind to the fact that our greatest resource, our young people, are suffering needless injury in the name of sport.  

When my sisters and I were growing up, my father loved to spend time with us in the back yard (and later at the local school diamond) playing baseball. We never used a softballs, always baseballs. My dad had been a stand-out baseball pitcher and catcher for his high school during the World War II. He had hoped to play professional baseball but his dreams and elbow were shattered by a bullet while serving on the aircraft carrier Bon Homme Richard in the Pacific. Frankly, I also think the wear and tear of pitching also left him some serious rotator cuff issues, as he had a difficult time throwing very far as he got older.

"Be patient, Barbara. The games will come." Such was the advice of Ed, the camp director of the first basketball officiating camp I attended in 2006.  Ed took a personal interest in my career and helped me improve by observing my games and encouraging me to focus on the big picture.  He advised that my goal should be on step-by-step improvement and a conviction that I will improve if I put my mind to it. AND, to give it time, and the games will come.

CROWN first impact while in the act of making a tackle is the PRIMARY cause of all catastrophic injuries on every level of football competition.  Remove the CROWN from the collision and eliminate avoidable injuries.

In 1997, my 12-year-old son Steven (my only son) told me that he was ready to play tackle football.  In that moment, I experienced several emotions.  The first was one of pride: my little man finally wanted to be like his Dad and play football.  I had shown him and his older sister, Ranae, my old tapes on the VCR since they were babies. 

The other emotion was one of fear.  A fear of seeing my little man not getting off of the ground due to a catastrophic injury to his head, neck or spine.