Peter Reuell

Sep 09, 2008

Holliston football player Joseph Larracey, who died Friday after a pre-season scrimmage, became the fourth young athlete in the region to die since January 2007, raising the question of whether high school sports are more dangerous than in the past.

On the same night Larracey died, a student at Buckingham Browne & Nichols collapsed during a football scrimmage at Wayland High School and was flown to Boston Medical Center, where he remains in intensive care.

While deaths like Larracey's are tragic, experts say young people are not putting themselves in harm's way by taking the field.

"It's safe for kids to play sports," said Mark Laursen, director of athletic training services at Boston University. "The literature is pretty clear...there are so many health benefits from being active in sports, they far outweigh the risks of safe sports participation."

Following the death of an otherwise healthy 16-year-old, though, parents can be forgiven for wondering how serious those risks are.

"The trend is down for injuries," Laursen said.

According to data compiled by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, there were 13 football-related deaths nationwide in 2007, or .02 deaths per 100,000 participants in the sport.

In Massachusetts, statistics suggest the rate of deaths overall are similarly rare.

It is estimated between 150,000 and 160,000 students play high school sports in the state, said Paul Wetzel, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.

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