Latest / Let's Talk with Carl Lee / Balancing Youth Athletics: Navigating the Risks of Year-Round Sports

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Balancing Youth Athletics: Navigating the Risks of Year-Round Sports · Let's Talk with Carl Lee

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Yeah, you gotta work. You gotta work. By sign it's mine gotta
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show everybody is my time here. You gotta work, cry sign another mind
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whom tag to die this day line, don't tell you gotta work. Let
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the conversation begin. This is let's Talk with your host Carl Lee. Hello,
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ladies and gentlemen, This is Carl Lee. And uh I'm here with
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let's talk. And I got I got a great I got a great guest
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here today and it's just me and him. One of the one of the
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interesting components that that this week talking about the show has been injuries. And
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there's a there's a there's a there's a story on on Facebook about a young
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lady who's playing school basketball and had an injury. I think it was a
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knee, yes, and she ended up leaving to go practice for a travel
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basketball team. She ends up she was already injured, but she ended up
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going and then ended up ending her career with a career ending injury in practice.
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And one of the and I start to show off with that because sometimes
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I think what we where we miss the concept of sports is more is better,
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you know. And so Jay, go ahead, introduce yourself real quick
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because what I want to say after this I need. I want people to
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know who I'm talking to and why I can because I can get I can
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get my knowledge from you today. My name is Jay Canterbury. I teach
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a full time at Western State University in the Health and Uniformist Department, and
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I'm a practicing athletic trainer and have been practicing for about thirty years. I've
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been at all kinds of levels. I've been in middle school, been in
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youth, been in high school, been in D one, D two NAIA,
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so I have the full gamut from the young ones to the old one.
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I'm also the athletic trainer for the West Virginia Grind professional basketball team,
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so here i am. I'm also working professional basketball. So I spent most
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of my time over as an assistant athletic trainer at Western State University. That's
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where I predominantly I've been over there between athletic training and teaching. This is
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finishing up my nineteenth year at westernon State University. My second job is I'm
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the athletic trainer at South Charleston High School. I've been on the content track
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for the Athletic Training Services through Kenall County and I won the bid, so
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I have the contract that I go and cover the football and the home boys
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and girls basketball. But I've covered every sport for the most part, lacrosse,
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soccer's basketballs. I've never had the privilege of doing hockey, so that's
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what sport I haven't done. But I've done pretty much all of the sports,
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some sort of coverage for all of the sports. Well, help me
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with this. What does it require? What is the work that is required
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to become to become a trainer? The first step if that's something that you're
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interested in, obviously it's a school. You've got to go to school obviously
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for that. But once you're out of school, you have your degree,
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and now you want to all of a sudden, you want to decide you
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want to get into athletic training. What is the process that that requires.
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Well, the first thing that they have to do is they have to obtain
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a bachelor's degree in something related to healthcare. That used to be This is
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where I'm getting old. I went through the four year program at University of
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Charleston. I only had to have a bachelor's degree to sit for what's called
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the NATA BOC exam to become a certified athletic trainer. That stands for National
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Athletic Trainer's Association Board of Certification. So to be a certified athletic trainer,
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I had to graduate from a nationally accredited four year program and then I had
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to successfully pass the NATA BOC test. Well, they changed this the accreditation.
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Now you have to have obtained a master's in athletic training to sit for
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the exam to be a certified athletic trainer. That just started, I believe,
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if memory serves me right, That started in the fall of twenty twenty
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two. So everybody that had an undergraduate program, they had to be graduated
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before the fall of t twenty twenty two so they could sit for the exam.
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Anybody that was left over, they were not going to be able to
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sit for the exam. So now you have to apply for a national accredited
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master's program for athletic training, successfully obtain your master's degree in athletic training,
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and then you have to successfully pass the portions of the NATA test. NATA
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BOC tests be nationally certified. So they've up to the ANNIE to some degree
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in terms of and you know, I'm not here to plug anybody's undergraduate But
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for example, a lot of the students that come through our department, they
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are called sports studies majors. So what they can do is they can get
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their bachelor's degree in sports studies and then there's requirements to apply for the graduate
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program at Marshall or wherever, a nationally credit program, and then they could
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take those requirements into four years there. Then once they obtain their four year
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degree bachel's degree, then they can apply for the master's program at Marshall or
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Willing or w or whatever the case may be. But you have to you
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have to obtain the bachelor's degree. There is no more bachelor's degree in athletic
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training. You have to obtain the master's degree. Is there a shortage right
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now of trainers to go around? Absolutely, there is a nationwide shortage.
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I just read an article the other day. Of all places where they're seeing
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a shortage is Connecticut. I would have never dreamed that Connecticut would have a
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shortage of certified licensed athletic trainers. West Virginia is not immune from that.
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West Virginia State University, for example, they had three certified athletic trainers on
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staff. One of the athletic trainers left, so what they did was instead
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of them hiring, which my understanding is they're in the process of trying to
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hire a third one, there's nobody here to apply for those jobs. So
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no one's even applying. No, And there's several reasons why they're not applying.
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The first The first one is because now they are probably making somewhere in
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the ballpark in West Virginia twenty eight to thirty two thousand dollars. Now what
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you think about this, Carl, somebody spent four years of undergraduate up to
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two years in graduate school. That's potentially six years of student loans. Now,
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how long do you think it's going to take to pay off student loans?
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Making twenty eight to thirty two thousand dollars a year, they'll be dead.
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How it's gonna say, with all the other bills that will you will
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occur, homes and car all that kind of stuff. Yeah, that would
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that be a little bit of a challenge. So why would you stay here
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when you can go to another place that pays more, so you can pay
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your student loans off, you can pay for your house, your insurance,
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your car, and all that stuff. I mean, it's it's you know,
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athletic trainers. You know, they've taken a back burner for it so
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many years, but they just don't understand how important we are because we have
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to be there for all of the practices, We have to be there for
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all of the games, conditioning the weights. People don't understand. The only
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time they ever talk about an athletic trainer, well, it was something when
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we screw up something. That's the only time they ever talk about an athletic
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trainer. I tell people all the time when I'm covering a sport, if
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I've never seen or heard from, then I've had a good day. All
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right, Well, well let's talk about I think the biggest issue right now
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is everybody's playing so much, so much football, so much basketball, so
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much baseball, so much softball. You know, when we talked about the
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young that that that the young lady who who was injured and then went and
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went to practice softball and ended up having a career end an injured injury after
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already playing travel ball and and and school league. Why is it and where
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is it in your mind that all of a sudden sports got to be so
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big, Like because I don't hear the term student athlete anymore. That that
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term is pretty much died to me. Now you may go to school,
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but you are a you're on a travel basketball team, a school basketball team.
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And now with this, with this rule, with the passing of this,
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if this bill passes and allows you to play travel and school ball,
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what are we doing? Like are we going? How does that even exist?
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Because you got practice and you got games, conditioning, all of those
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kind of all that kind of stuff. How how do we fit how do
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we fit that in? And then to your to your conversation about the long
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term injuries you know, or the or the active injuries, like how do
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how do you how do you endure? How does your body at the younger
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level especially, how does how do those bodies those kids endure all of that
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running, hitting, falling, all of that kind of stuff. How is
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that possible? They can't their body cannot withstand. And I tell my classes
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all the time, everyone that will listen to me. For example, I'll
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relate this to someone that's doing resistance training. So most people come from the
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standpoint you're talking about it's all about quantity more and more and more. It's
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not about quantity. It's about quality and you can probably relate to UH to
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this one is n c A for example, they may give football four hours
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to practice. So my question always was, if you have a well laid
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out coaching plan, if you could accomplish everything in two hours versus stretching out
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to four hours, does that not give them two extra hours to rest.
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I would agree with that. Yeah. I never didn't understand that if you
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if you have a well laid out plan, and I think and and and
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and in the defense of a coach, I think their their idea is I
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want to get the most out of it. I want to I'm gonna play
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Devil's aftercot. So now if you add those two hours up to four hours
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per day, now all of a sudden you get someone with an overuse injury
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shin splints but tailor ten night as shoulder pingchment. They're not going to be
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able to play anyway. So you didn't gain anything if you would have gave
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them the two hours off so their body could rest, they may not have
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shoulder impingement, they may not have shin splincher peller to like people don't understand
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the body is like a car. We are just so greedy that we don't
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listen to it. We ignore it, and then we get to the point
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to where we can't function anymore. So they have to come to the athletic
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trainer. And and and and and moms and dads. Okay, And I
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I know this to be true. I know this being part of South Charleston's
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youth sports programs. I see this happen all the time. I see it
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happen all the time. And a kid gets hurt, and you know,
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we pick them up and say, oh, you're okay. We we haven't
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checked, we don't even know what really what's hurting. We just say you're
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okay. Yes, everything about that is wrong. Who is the qualified healthcare
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provider that's asking if they're okay? Exactly? And you see the hit and
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you make the assumption that the kid's okay. He's crying, he's laying there.
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I mean, I see it in I see it in basketball all the
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time. You know, all Star basketball has been going on, and you
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know, and and and the good news is I don't think any of those
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kids actually were hurt. But kids they running to each other, they lay
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down. One of the kids are laying down on the ground. He's holding
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his leg, he's holding his arm, he's going, he's holding his foot,
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he's doing anything but he and he's balling, crying. Yes, and
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we we automatically are yelling from the bleacher saying Johnny, get up, Johnny,
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get up. And we, as a team or coach, we go.
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We pick him up, send him on the bench. Two plays,
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he's right back in and whether and no one has medically checked him at all.
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And ladies and gentlemen, I bring that up only because I know that's
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the reality of it. But at some point I think we have to,
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we have to, we have to step back, you know. And again,
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we've had three weeks. We had the last three weeks of All Stars.
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We had fights all three weeks. Somewhere between the Thursday or Friday,
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Saturday Sunday, someone was in a fight. Parents with officials, parents with
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parents, coaches, coaches, you know, I mean. And and we're
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that intense about the game itself and our kids' injuries. We can shake that
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off. Yep, that makes no sense to me either. You know,
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we ought to be able to. We ought to we ought to be able
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to shake off. If you're sitting beside me and you're yelling for the other
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team. I ought to be able to shake you off before I shake my
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kid off. And I just and and I don't know where where we're going
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when we when we were freeing up the opportunity for a kid to be hurt
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and continuously play, But we can't hear someone else say something beside us.
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It's called win at all costs. That's been the mentality for hundreds and hundreds
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of years. It's win at all costs. And people don't understand the long
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term effects these overuse injuries shin splints, pateeller tendonitis, impingement. When you
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hear those types of injuries. But here's the here's the here's the interesting thing.
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Though we don't hear them at the U sports level. We don't hear
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and I don't think you hear that at in the middle schools either, because
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in most of these cases, there there isn't that There isn't that that trainer
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there to say, hmm, I think he or she may have this.
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We might want to keep them out. We're thinking, you know, we
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can get them right back in, Let them get some water, and we
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can get them right back in. I don't know it's clear that we need
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to fix it. I don't even know though at this point, how do
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we fix it. Well, one of the big problems is, and again
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I'm not picking on our state, West Virginia, but as I told you
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in the last segment on the law, the only sport that has to be
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covered in the state of West Virginia is varsity football. Why is it only
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varsity football. I understand it's a contact collisions board, but as I said
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in the last segment that women's soccer is number two behind football in sustaining concussions,
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how come that's not on the law that a certified athlete trainer has to
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cover women's soccer that's a head injury because the law says this is all they
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have to do is cover football. Well, all right, so I'm trying
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to figure around me myself, like I I've not forgot CTE. I've not
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forgotten what that does, because you know, for me to remember something,
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you know, like man, I can forget something in a second. But
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we we're acting like this like this isn't something that can happen to kids,
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Like this is something you know, if by chance, if by chance this
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this rule passes and states that you can play multiple sports the same sport and
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that becomes something that someone does. And then this is my argument with with
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travel football. And I get it that you sometimes it's the play clock keeps
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going, it's continuous. But the contact that's happening in the head area,
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yes, you you there's there's there's no justification for or or reality that that
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now is worse on a kid, on a child who's less developed. Yeah,
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they're not matured, they're not matured. That brain's moving, yes,
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much easier, yes, slashing around that school And listen, I'm talking as
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though I'm medical. I don't know. All I know is how it works.
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I know how what what what the cause is. And I'm just saying,
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gosh, I'm I'm playing in the I'm playing in the league. I
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get knocked out and and I know, looking back, I know that had
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something to do. That had something to do with me not being able to
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remember a lot of stuff. Absolutely. So now we're doing this at a
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youth level with travel football, and are we going to now say, okay,
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now you can play school football too, Like what is that? What
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are we doing? Yep, let's just add more repetitive blows to the heab,
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which increases your chances of down the road developing CTV. Football has always
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been hear me. Football has always been one game a week, not by
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accident. Everything else you could do as many times as you want during the
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week, but football has always been one game a week. They change the
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rules in practice for the same reason that you play one game. And now
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what we've done is we've created more games. We're attempting to create more games
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for what Because as we talked into the last segment, they're trying again on
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film more often, especially if they don't pass the eye test. They have
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to be seen, whether it's in travel or whether it's in their high school.
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They're trying to be seen. And the parents wants every one of their
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kids to go to the D one. They want them to go pro.
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I'm gonna I hate to say this because I because I No, I don't
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really hate to say it. I'm telling myself a lot. I'm gonna say
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this because I think there are people out there who fit this. There isn't
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anybody who's going to get you to D one. Sure, there's nobody gonna
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get you to Sunday. You have to get yourself there now, can somebody
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help you train you to get there. They can train you to get in
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shape. You have to have something else in you to get there and to
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sustain themselves there. And here's the crazy thing about it. It is and
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I'm not saying that you have to be able to have done it to be
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able to get to to get somebody else there, But if you haven't gotten
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there, you can't really say what they need to do. Like if you
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ain't if you ain't been a D one football, I don't know if you
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know how to get someone to D one football because where do you measure from?
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How do you measure that? And and the and the push that you're
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gonna make on them. That's where those risks come in that I'm not you
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know, oh, he's got a shoulder injury. But come on, we
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can go ahead and get some we can get something in. We're gonna We're
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willing to do that for the sake of the possibility of being able to say
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you got someone's kid to to the next level. Ladies and gentlemen, don't
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don't don't fall for that. You trust me, you can your kid can
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train, you can train your kid, you can you can training is,
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you know, is not as complicated as you think it may be. It
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just isn't. And I know there's all kinds of new drills, and there's
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all kinds of all of this fancy stuff is out there and it's and it's
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great. But if you got the metrics, if you fit the metrics,
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if you're sixteen and you're six foot dad six' five, you're starting to
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fit the metrics. I don't care what whoever's working with you, whether it's
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basketball or football, you got a shot. Somebody's thinking about they're looking at
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you. And here's the other thing. Let's quit. Let's quit acting as
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though kids are getting looked at at middle school and and and and and all
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of that, okay, because let's let's let's let's let's be for real.
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The kid that's gonna get looked at middle school is probably going to be somebody
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who's going to look like Robert Alexander in in old junior high. It ain't
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gonna be me. They wasn't come looking at me, and no, junior
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high wasn't even it wasn't even on nobody's radar. So don't don't get it
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twisted. There's there's there's there's nobody there. This is the most innocent time
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of sports that you could have. It's it's it's more intense than hot than
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than youth football, less intense than high school. But it's that last place
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where you can get to have fun and work hard and and and decide whether
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or not this is going to be what you want to do. Absolutely,
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And if you're if you're injured, if you have if you have a host
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of injuries through that time. As a parent, I'm asking my child does
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he want to play? Do you want to play? High school? A
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lot of burnout and they don't play it anymore. Absolutely. Let's you know,
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if you're playing in seven days a week of the same thing for years
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and years, at some point you're gonna burn out and say this is not
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funny. Why do you not? How do you not? I don't like,
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I like, I like, I really really don't understand, like how
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you can't get burnt out on especially if you if you if you're working with
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a trainer, Yeah, so you got every free moment you're with the trainer,
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every other moment that you got your with travel, ball, school,
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ball, school work. Where is your time to be a kid? There
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is none for the sake of football or for the sake of a sport that
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may just be through middle school, maybe just through high school. And again,
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student athlete, what happened to it? Well, I think a lot
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of it has to do with this new ni L Well, because you know,
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now, you know, valid point. I mean, I think that's
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a big, big when you said, you know, you're kind of why
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we call them student athletes anymore. I think that's part of the reason why
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that we're getting ready from student athlete and really aren't these now professional athletes?
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Yeah? Yeah, valid point. And and I wish I had, I
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wish i'd have hit on that one, because you're exactly right, because now
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I can make not me, but my child can make some money in college
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that's beneficial to us as a family. Yeah. Well, I saw one
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article that said that one of the football teams, a local car dealership gave
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every person on the team a brand new pickup truck to drive. You know,
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you make you many trucks. That has to be or whole football team
25:48
in d one. It's a bunch of kids and it's a bunch of trucks.
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Yes, yes, so you know I think that's where we're getting away
25:56
from now the student athlete. It's more of is this really student athlete or
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is this just you know, right below being a professional athlete. I mean
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it's right there. Yeah, it's right there. And even if you don't
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make it to the pros, you got a truck, right, You got
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a truck out of out of being on a football team. Right. And
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if you do commercials of things, it's not like somebody's gonna come back and
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take your money that they paid you to do a commercial. You still have
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the money. Now, obviously, if you're frivolous with it, you spread
26:30
it, but you know, you still have a truck, you still have
26:34
a checking account, to have a savings account because you got paid to do
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that commercial. And I'm not I'm not. I'm not hating on that idea
26:45
of college players being paid. I don't. I don't think that you are
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hating on it. No, I think I think the issue is what it?
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Where is it? What? What is it creating? The high school
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kids are dying to get the college to hopefully to get that money dollars and
27:12
cents. Yes, the more talented as a player, you know, the
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more money I'm gonna get, especially if you go to the highest ones that
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are in the one I mean, look at the same teams that are pretty
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much in the fourteen playoff every year. I'm pretty sure that's where I want
27:30
to go because that's where the money's at. Yes, yeah, you're not.
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You're not. You're not at all. You're not at all worried about
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academics. What what do they have my major? They don't care about that
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anything. They don't care about that anymore, you know. And so to
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to the to the reality of of trying to be about or to be a
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student athlete, I think I think we we I think we've lost that,
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especially into the college realm. That's that's happening. And I think on the
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on the youth level, the kids before middle school, I think we we
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we put too much on them to handle. You know, it's it's it's
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too serious for them because we don't even know where they're gonna take it.
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Well, I'll even give you a point that actually you were talking about how
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there was five fights in three days. Well, I saw on Facebook several
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days that there was a middle school they needed three coaches. I think baseball,
28:40
softball, and track and field couldn't find anybody, they're going to have
28:42
to cancel the season. And I walked up to someone, I said,
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do you know why they can't find a head coach for baseball, softball,
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and track and field? What you just subscribed over the weekend? Now,
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would you want to be a coach and dealing with parents that are want to
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fight you? Do you want do you want to be an official that were
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you? I mean, you may not even make it out of the building
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with that. There's shortage of officials at this point, So why would you
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want to do it? For the peanuts they pay and you can get hurt?
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All right? Let me I'm gonna close here. Ladies and gentlemen like
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we we we've got to do better. We have some talented, smart and
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talented kids here in the state of West Virginia. What we need to have
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happen is let's let them be kids first. They'll grow into the sport,
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they'll grow into trying to decide whether or not they want to play a specific
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sport or if they want to be a doctor. Let's let them make that
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decision, because the yelling and screaming and the fighting that we're doing now is
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a waste of time. If they don't even they don't even follow through burnout,
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you know. And again that burnout thing, I didn't. I spent
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my time training more training than playing. Yeah, if you change that path
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to training more than playing, you'll do better, You'll have a better opportunity.
30:32
I'm hoping, I'm hoping by next week we don't have any we don't
30:37
have any issues. And and and I'll be struggling for for a conversation to
30:42
talk about. We won't have we won't have this, these types of things
30:48
to continuously talk about. But right now, they're they're everywhere. You know.
30:53
And again, I know everybody saw the seven on seven thing that was
30:56
just crazy. But we're gonna get our here. I hope you enjoyed the
31:00
show. We'll be back again shows we're out. The opinions expressed on this
31:06
program do not necessarily reflect the opinions of WVRC Media, it's management, employees,
31:11
or sponsors. Follow us on Facebook at Let's Talk Carle, visit wchsnetwork
31:17
dot com slash Let's Talk for more