CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns head team doctor said he is concerned about the numbers of high school athletes experiencing serious and season-ending injuries.
"One of our concerns in sports medicine is seeing significant knee, shoulder, lower extremity injuries in athletes of an increasingly young age," Dr. James Voos said.
Voos is also the Chair of Orthopedic Surgery at University Hospitals, which cares for student-athletes from more than 75 Northeast Ohio schools.
"When we take an injury like an ACL (Anterior cruciate ligament) injury, 10 or 15 years ago, the average age was 18 to 20; now that average age is dropping down, 14, 15, 16 years old," he said.
Why injuries increased
Voos blames how "we've overprogrammed our children" for the increase in serious injuries.
"More kids are playing sports than ever and more kids are playing sports year-round than ever," he said. "What that results in is increased exposure to injury and a term we call 'sports specialization' where a lot of our young athletes are specializing in one sport, year-round, and the data has told us when you start to specialize in that sport or spend more time doing one movement, unfortunately, your risk of injury goes up significantly."
Who's most at risk - girls
The American Academy of Pediatrics studied which sports had the highest rates of severe injuries, fractures, and season-ending injuries.
For girls, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, and softball topped the list of severe and season-ending injuries as well as fractures.
Lacrosse, basketball, and softball were also the top three sports where girls experienced fractures.
"Unfortunately, our female athletes are three to five times more likely to suffer an ACL injury, for example, than their male counterparts," Voos said.
"The entire lower extremity from your hip all the way down to your foot and how your hip flexes and your knee bends when you cut and change direction, that force is increase in our female athletes."
Who's most at risk - boys
For boys, the report found football, wrestling, basketball, baseball, and soccer had the highest rates of severe injuries.
Football also topped the list for fractures, followed by ice hockey and lacrosse, and for season-ending injuries, followed by wrestling and lacrosse.
"It's definitely a contact sport, and when you're running fast and colliding, there will be injuries, despite all of the injury prevention," Voos said.
"Every year there's continued improvement to the rules, continued improvements to the equipment that's worn, so I think there, as the sport has evolved, it's certainly much safer than it was, even just a few years ago," he added.
Cody's comeback
Cody Haddad knows firsthand what it's like to lose a season to a serious injury.
The St. Ignatius High School junior broke both bones in his forearm during a scrimmage last summer.
"I thought I was done for," he said. "I was like, ‘There goes my junior season.'"
He said it was a normal game until he decided to tackle an opponent.
"I just tackled the kid and punched his shin with my forearm and my arm just broke over his leg," he said.
"I rolled on my back and I grabbed my arm and I was like, 'Ah! I think it might be a stinger," he said. "Then I kind of started feeling around and I was like, 'That's not a stinger.'"
It was a tough blow for the 17-year-old safety and wide receiver.
Football is in his DNA.
His dad, uncles, and grandfather all played in the NFL.
"Football is everything to me and my family," he said. "It's like faith, family, and football."
"I can't remember not loving it," he said. "Football has always been where my heart is."
His passion for the game made Haddad determined to get back on the field as fast as possible.
He ultimately played the last four games of his junior season after getting cleared by his doctors.
However, instead of playing basketball this winter, like he usually does, he's taking the season off - and taking stock.
"I’m not taking any play for granted," he said. "I need to play as hard as I can every single play because you never know what could happen next."
What should parents do?
Voos said all student-athletes should make time for rest.
"Their body had a great regenerative capacity, but they need ... both physical rest and, also, mental rest," he said.
"It's a lot of pressure to compete and participate in all of these sports," he said. "It does help to have a day off, here and there, or a season or a weekend off here and there, really just to reset and recharge and be home and be a kid.
"I know that's very hard to schedule in. I have three children, and I think of what the calendar looks like each week. It really helps to build in that time for your athlete to rest and recover."
Just as important, Voos said parents should avoid allowing students to engage in sports specialization at a young age.
"Our young athletes, I think, should play as many sports as possible," he said. "There are two reasons: one is their body is still developing, they're still making those connections between their brain and their body and learning to do all of those movement patterns. The other is it's fun, right? You want to have that exposure to know what you're good at."
On top of that, Voos said, "Data shows athletes that play multiple sports through the year, do different activities, have a lower risk of injury."
However, overall, he said parents should continue to encourage their children to participate in sports.
"While injuries can occur with sports, I think the benefits far outweigh any of those risks," he said.
