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Local Student Athlete Dies
Here's an update from today (Thursday), including some information about the signs of dehydration, a possible cause of death.
Really sad story out of Chapel Hill Wednesday. Atlas Fraley, a defensive lineman on the Chapel Hill High School football team, died Tuesday during an asthma attack at home. He had played a scrimmage game earlier in the day and had complained of a headache, but it wasn't anything unusual, says one mom of a teammate. He was a senior and was being scouted by several universities.
Earlier today, I was talking with a co-worker about high school sports. Her child is at a soccer camp where the coach said they would be crying for their moms by the end of the day. I remembered my days at field hockey camp, where they'd run us so hard we were all too tired to get into any trouble at night (perhaps a wise strategy when you're running a camp full of teens).
It's hard to predict and prevent absolutely everything from happening. And we don't know what happened in this situation. My thoughts are with his family and friends.
But with fall sports season starting up, what kinds of advice do you give your kids as they head out for practice?
Comments
I've taught my kids to listen to their bodies, and respect what their bodies are trying to tell them. At the high school level, teens have to learn their limits (in many ways) and their athletic limit is another one to pay attention to, not ignore. Especially when kids play with nationally competitive teams or clubs, kids have to listen to their own bodies. And even use their own judgement over the coach's. The litany of surgeries that competitive athletes recite today is not something to strive for. Medical statistics of kid's overuse athletic injuries are skyrocketing, as the Times Magazine article this year highlighted. (sorry, I'm too lazy at the moment to look up a link for you, but it's an eye opener for those parents with athletic kids.)