Skipping practice a dangerous move

The Illinois High School Association is ringing alarm bells over a legislative proposal that could allow some prep athletes to compete without having had any practice.

State Sen. Shane Cultra, an Onarga Republican, has filed a plan, Senate Bill 2550, that would give school boards the power to grant a waiver to a student who wants to play without having met the mandated practice requirement if the student missed practice because he was involved in military training. The issue came up involving a student in Cultra’s district who was denied a waiver this year, and the IHSA says it surfaces periodically at school districts around the state.

The only sport in Illinois schools that has a minimum number of practices required is football. Players must participate in 12 practices before they can compete in a game.

Now, on its face, it would seem to make sense that we should accommodate students pursuing serving our country in the military. And those of us who are not experts might presume that a teen who passed basic training would be in fine shape to play football, but the experts say otherwise.

A release from IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman notes that the IHSA is joined in opposing the legislation by the Illinois Athletic Trainers Association, the Illinois Athletic Directors Association and the IHSA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee.

As it currently stands, students who wish to waive the 12-practice requirement must make their case to the IHSA, which relies on the recommendations of its sports medicine committee. In a handful of similar cases, that group, which is composed of doctors and certified trainers, always has recommended that student athletes complete the dozen practices before playing.

The Daily Herald’s experts, the prep sports editors who have covered scores of players, coaches practices and football games over decades, see the wisdom of the IHSA’s view.

Students need football practice before they play in order to learn how to properly tackle and block. And how to properly protect themselves when they’re tackled. They need practice to ensure they are properly conditioned and acclimated to heat and humidity. Practice is where student athletes learn how to tackle with their heads up, how to avoid blocks to their legs and how to avoid tackles that can cause injury, our sports editors note.

Hickman noted, “While students who receive military training will have some level of conditioning, they are not in football-playing condition as defined by medical professionals ... Allowing a school board to completely disregard the advice of trained medical professionals who are immersed in this field really just defies logic.”

At a time when progress also is being made in understanding the long-term damage concussions can cause, this proposal seems ill-advised.

When it comes to protecting our student athletes and our military members, the wise course clearly is erring on the side of safety.