Celebrate Dr. King By Teaching Youth Athletes About Character

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Mon, 01/16/2012 - 14:20. | comments

Twenty-five years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s life was first honored with a national holiday and nearly 50 years after the civil rights leader's "I Have a Dream" speech, black and white sports fans alike view the sports world as far more racially progressive and unifying than the rest of society, according to a recent online survey conducted for ESPN. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hal Tearse

Stiffening Penalties For Violent Hits By Minnesota Hockey League Important Step In Improving Player Safety

Submitted by Hal Tearse on Mon, 01/16/2012 - 05:09. | comments

This past weekend, the MInnesota State High School League took an unprecedented step of changing the rules mid-season, by stiffening the penalties on three of the most violent and dangerous infractions in hockey: checking from behind, boarding and contact to the head will now result in an automatic five-minute "major" against the offending player resulting in ejection and forcing his team to play short-handed for five minutes, regardless of how many times it is scored upon during the ensuing power play.

By stiffening the rules against dangerous play in ice hockey and giving referees less discretion in calling penalties, the Minnesota State High School League has taken an important first step to reduce the number of catastrophic injuries in the sport.

Brooke de Lench

First Winter Youth Olympics Opens in Innsbruck

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Sat, 01/14/2012 - 14:42. | comments

The inaugural Winter Youth Olympics began a ten-day run last night in Innsbruck, Austria. The opening ceremony featured classic and modern dance, and video flashbacks to 1964 and 1976, when Innsbruck hosted the Winter Olympics. Innsbruck 2012 Youth Olympic Games logo

The inaugural Winter Youth Olympics began last night in Innsbruck, Austria, bringing together 1,059 elite youth athletes aged 15 to 18 from 70 nations to compete in 63 medal events in seven sports.

Hal Tearse

Jabs #13: Making Youth Hockey Safer In Wake of Jablonski Tragedy

Submitted by Hal Tearse on Fri, 01/13/2012 - 01:27. | comments

While Jablonski's injury was, of course, his parent's worst nightmare, and will change his life forever, such injuries are fortunately quite rare in ice hockey but the publicity, in this instance, has prompted calls for the leaders of youth and high school hockey in Minnesota to demand stricter rule enforcement, better coaching, and more severe penalties for dangerous and illegal "hits" that lead to hockey being a sport with one of the highest rates of concussion.

Longtime Minnesota ice hockey coach Hal Tearse talks about how the catastrophic injury suffered by high school hockey player Jack "Jabs" Jablonski and suggests ways to make the sport safer.

Barbara Bleiweis

Flagrant Fouls in Basketball: Difficult Call To Make

Submitted by Barbara Bleiweis on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 00:13. | comments

A video recently posted on YouTube (see below) featured footage of a high school basketball team committing six fouls in which the videographer accuses the officials of miscalling the fouls. Like many, he considered any hard foul resulting in the player falling to the court a flagrant foul. Problem is that such contact is not automatically a flagrant foul; it could be an intentional foul, or it could be just a hard, but ordinary, personal foul.

A YouTube video accuses high school basketball officials of failing to call flagrant fouls, but begs more questions than it answers, says one official.

Brooke de Lench

High School Coaches of the Year: A Flawed Selection Process?

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 16:41. | comments

As it has for the past thirty years, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Coaches Association yesterday announced its 2011 National Coaches of the Year, honoring high school coaches in the top 10 girls and boys sports by participation numbers, along with one coach in another high school sport.

According to the NFHS, the awards are presented to individuals who have gone above and beyond and who exemplify the highest standards of sportsmanship, ethical conduct and moral character, and who carry the endorsement of his or her respective state high school association.

The 20 high school coaches recognized by the National Federation of State High School Association Coach's Association are no doubt great coaches deserving of the awards, but perhaps it is time for the NFHS to put in place a process for identifying the coaches on the other end of the spectrum, not by surveying other coaches, but by asking all the other stakeholders - players, athletic trainers, and parents - who see them every day what they think.

Brooke de Lench

Parents Who Interfere: Was Quitting The Only Way Out For Coach?

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Mon, 01/09/2012 - 16:17. | comments

This weekend a father from Michigan sent me an article in the Detroit News about a highly successful high school basketball coach in his daughter's league who had just quit as a result of what the newspaper described as "extreme parental interference."

He wanted to know what I would suggest to the coach, who happened to be a personal friend.

Coaches who don't have problems with pushy parents tend to be the great communicators; they let them know where they stand early, before the season even starts, at a preseason meeting.

Brooke de Lench

Athletic Success: An Accident of Birth?

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Sat, 01/07/2012 - 20:36. | comments

If your child plays hockey or softball and is celebrating a birthday this month, congratulations, your kid is very lucky!

Why is that, you may ask?

Numerous studies have shown give kids in sports where teams are grouped by age born early in the age-group year (January for hockey and softball, May for baseball, and August for soccer) a number of advantages over their younger teammates. Should success in sports really depend on the month of an athlete's birthday?

Brooke de Lench

Bug Off! Why 'Skeeter Skidaddler May Be An Ideal Team Fundraiser

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Fri, 01/06/2012 - 14:13. | comments

How many times have you watched a game or tournament and the only thing you recall years later were the flies and mosquitoes?

I can remember coaching many a Memorial Day soccer tournament, and mostly what I recall were the black flies that always seemed to hatch at the same time (Is it just me or does it seem that many athletic fields are built close to swamps?) Not to mention the bites I got from those nasty green heads when I was trying to sunbathe on the sandy beach where I grew up in Massachusetts. 'Skeeter Skedaddler

Brooke de Lench

Prayers for Jack Jablonski

Submitted by Brooke de Lench on Thu, 01/05/2012 - 15:05. | comments

Everything I do today will be overshadowed by concern for a young raising star hockey player, Jack Jablonski, and the struggle he is going through days after suffering partial paralysis from a severed spinal cord when he slammed head first into the boards when he was illegally checked from behind by two opposing players during a holiday tournament in Minnesota.