Dangers_of_High_School_Football

English – Composition 1302 SW2 November 7, 2011 Football Factories For most high schools, football season is the most anticipated time of year. Devoted fans from across the city crowd the stadiums on Friday nights cheering for the win. Football Fridays give high school students something to look forward to at the end of the week; they are also a big distraction. Losing a football game, and especially a rivalry game which a community has worked hard in preparing for, hurts a school’s pride. So much effort is put into hyping the football team that sometimes football players are overwhelmed with pressure. Aside from the stress of school, football players are pressured by the community, the student body, and their coaches into over working themselves with practice on a daily basis, and trying their hardest to win that sometimes, they’re lives are put at stake. Football is a sport which takes speed, agility, endurance, and power. Every day after school for hours at a time, football players are to run, and tackle for hours at a time in the 100 degree weather. Coaches push, and push the players to their maximum ability in order to have the best football team in the district. Without discipline, a football team would not be structured and therefore most coaches’ form of discipline is more and more intense workout. Some football players are over worked under the parching sun that the result of that has been fatal. Football players been seriously injured from heat stroke, concussions, spinal cord, and multiple injuries to the body as a result of football. Spinal cord injuries resulting from high school football have left high school students paralyzed, and have left families with an immense financial and emotional burden. Concussions are also serious injuries the result from hard hits in high school football. Concussions are the most common injuries that result from contact football. An article in People Magazine states that “concussions will sideline at least 67,000 of the 1.1 million high school football players this fall, including hundreds who will suffer dizziness, slurred speech and confusion” (Meadows 107). Concussions are injuries caused when the skull comes in full contact with somebody else and the brain crashes into the skull. The article continues describing the serious effects that concussions have on young high school students, “In the long term concussionscan cause extended memory loss, depression and other symptoms of brain dysfunction. Even more alarming, while other serious injuries have declined in the past 10 years, the percentage of injuries that are concussions has nearly doubled,” (Meadows 108). A concussion is almost a guaranteed at least once to every football player who decides to play all four years of high school. As serious as concussions may be, some football players continue playing the rest of the game for the sake of their team, and that is when their lives begin to be put at stake. This makes a person wonder….is having the best football team really worth the pain and suffering resulting from the death of an innocent high school student who was simply following the rules' Football players tend to push themselves to the maximum of their ability to grow faster, and stronger and become a more menacing football player, In football, one goal for each individual football player is to become the ideal star of the team which is usually the most masculine, and fastest male and to become faster, and stronger takes a lot of hard work and practice under the sun. Coaches want their players to be the best and therefore push them farther than their own bodies can handle. Vomiting, and light headedness are only minor symptoms of a tough football practice. Although football has multiple negative effects and consequences on football players, it also motivates students to go to school, and pass their classes. By law, in order to play sports you are obligated to be passing all of your high school classes and in some schools, it is required that you pass in order to attend any of the pep-rallies or football related events that high schools may host. Attendance is also a major issue in high school. In some high schools, in order to have pep-rallies or “spirit days” to hype up the football team, each grade level must have a certain attendance percentage with a low amount of tardies and absences. This could give students enrolled in a high school motivation. If high school students are rewarded with these kinds of events, they may be more motivated to attend and pass their classes, ultimately helping out the alarming dropout rates. High school football causes motivation throughout high schools, and only sometimes results in physical injuries. Although injuries are expected to occur, they can result in extremely serious and permanent damage. The results of high schoolFootball can be an extremely dangerous, yet it serves as a very motivational sport and although it can cause major injury, it also keeps students interested in doing well in school. WORKS CITED Meadows, Bob. "Concussions." People 68.15 (2007): 107-110. Academic Search Complete.Web. 13 Nov. 2011. “Footall High” Video.