All Articles by Brooke de Lench

I remember one time, when my kids were six, going ice skating at a new rink with my sister Drew, her daughter Courtney, and my triplet sons. The excitement of a new rink and lots of kids zipping around provided for a lot of great fun and laughs, but ended, unfortunately, in an accident and a terrifying trip to the hospital, the memory of which is still vivid.

This is a success story virtually without equal in women's sports in the post-Title IX era. A story not only about the success of one remarkable young woman, but about her parents and those, like me, who were privileged to watch her grow from a starry-eyed and talented teenager to the mature, self-assured woman she is today; a story which should serve, not only as an inspiration to any youth athlete who wants to reach the elite level in their sport, but for their parents as well.

Two days ago, Angela Ruggiero held a press conference to announce her retirement from women's ice hockey, two weeks after she told me of her decision.

The other day I received an email from a neuropsychologist at a well-known New England medical center (I'll call him "Dr. A" for short) wondering whether there was any evidence to support the recommendation made in a number of articles in our concussion center, as well as videos, that, as part of the cognitive rest a concussed student-athlete needs during concussion recovery, he or she should not play video games:

The Capital, Washington, D. C.

MomsTeam's continuing mission from the day I launched the site in August 2000 has been to improve the safety of our young athletes and prevent catastrophic injury and death. 

Today, I am excited to be in Washington, D.C. for a one-day Youth Sports Safety Summit hosted by the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA). 

The alleged sexual abuse of boys by a longtime coach at Penn State* has focused media attention once again on the issue.  For the parents of the alleged victims, of course, their worst nightmares have come true. But what could have been done to prevent it? And is the culture of male sports itself at least partially to blame?

The sad fact, as noted in an article by Michael Hartill, a lecturer in the Department of Sport and Physical Activity at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire, England who has studied sexual abuse of boys in sports extensively, is that "the largely unregulated world of children's sport has typically been slow to address the issue of sexual abuse of youth athletes."