Wrestling

It's no secret that disordered eating practices are common among weight-conscious athletes. A top sports dietitian has some helpful tips for making weight healthfully.

Four years after the American Academy of Pediatrics adopted the recommended return-to-play (RTP) guidelines proposed by the Third International Conference on Concussion in Sport, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (CHA) has proposed sport-specific guidelines for ten sports known to put young athletes at the highest risk for concussion.

When your son plays contact or collision sports, there is always the risk of testicular injury.  To protect against such injury, boys need to wear a cup.

Varsity wrestler Reid Paswall had an idea. In November 2009, with the team's opening match only days away, he approached the Somers (NY) High School athletic director to suggest that the captains for the opener be two classmates who were not even team members. The two -- Adam Stein and Matthew Moriarty -- were special-needs students with Down syndrome. "I thought," Paswall  (in red singlet in photo) told the athletic director, "that we can have our special-needs kids go out and shake the other team's captain's hands, and . . . represent Somers."

Concussion rates in thirteen high school sports from 1998 to 2008, as reported in three separate studies, vary widely by sport and, in some cases, by gender.

Skin infections in athletes, including community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA), are extremely common.  The nature of athletics, which expose the skin to a wide variety of stresses, trauma, environmental factors, and infectious agents, all combine to continually attack the integrity of the skin and lead to considerable disruption to individual and team activities.  A new position statement by the National Athletic Trainers' Association, says that recognition of skin diseases is absolutely essential, particularly by certified athletic trainers, who "represent the first line of defense against spread of infections to other team members."

The National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) has issued a position statement on preventing MRSA and other skin diseases among athletes at all levels, from youth to professionals. The statement includes comprehensive recommendations for avoiding, identifying and treating fungal, viral and bacterial skin infections, some of which are life threatening.

A rule requiring immediate removal of any contestant who shows signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion and prohibiting his or her return to competition until cleared by an appropriate health-care professional was among the four rule changes approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Wrestling Rules Committee and  subsequently approved by the NFHS Board of Directors for the 2010-11 season.