STANDARDS

By Clem Richardson

April 14th, 2008

Daily News

When Frank Reali 3rd was found dead in his Staten Island real estate office a year ago this month, his parents pledged to do something in his honor to benefit the community.

What Francine (Fran) and Frank Reali came up with could transform high school sports in this town, maybe nationally.

The couple, owners of Safari Realty on Staten Island, wants to provide free magnetic resonance imaging scans for all students about to begin high school sports.

MRI scans provide noninvasive but remarkably accurate pictures of a patient's body.

Produced by passing the patient through a powerful, often circular magnet, these photos can show even the tiniest injury or abnormality.

Read on...

By The Associated Press

February 10th, 2008

Boston Herald

BOSTON - The stories have become all too familiar — young athletes, and sometimes their parents and coaches, turning a school playing field into the set of a Jerry Springer episode.

Now a bill set to be heard by Massachusetts lawmakers on Monday seeks to reduce the number and intensity of school sports scuffles by drafting new curriculum to teach sportsmanship.

Lawmakers and supporters hope the new pilot program could help young athletes learn how to conduct themselves both on and off the field. 

The bill would create lessons to help children develop "the mental skills associated with self-control in an effort to reduce violence, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, bullying and other destructive choices."

The teaching materials would be offered free of charge to youth and school sports leagues and teams.

Read on...

By Bill Gosse
January 19th, 2008

Green Bay Press-Gazette

The tongue often is described as the strongest muscle in our bodies. Actually, it consists of sixteen muscles.

Because much of the surface is covered in taste buds, it is the primary organ of taste. With its wide variety of possible movements, the tongue also assists in forming the sounds of speech.

When used properly, the tongue helps us do things like eating and vocalization, but hopefully, not at the same time. It is used to lick ice cream, blow bubbles and whistle.

Injuries to the tongue are painful. Pain caused from the tongue is even worse.

An ancient proverb states the tongue has the power of life and death. In other words, what we say has the power to motivate or destroy, energize or deflate, inspire or create despair.

Read on...

By Marcia C. Smith

December 12th, 2007

OC Register

 

America's kids have known what's going on. They have spent much of 2007 watching the sports world's doping dragnet catch cheaters, big and small.

They've witnessed American sports' kings and queens squirming beneath suspicions of anabolic steroids use and facing federal perjury charges for covering up their syringe-stuck success.

They've seen stars getting booed and humiliated and stripped of Olympic medals, a Tour de France leader's yellow jersey, a home-run record's untainted glory and their reputations as "clean" sportsmen.

When about 50 former and active players are expected to be revealed today in George J. Mitchell's report on performance-enhancing drug use in major-league baseball, America's youth will get more characters to add their already well cast cautionary tale about drug-cheating in sports.

There will be more names. More heroes to fall. More achievements to question. More shame on sports.

But there will also be more lessons for today's children — and tomorrow's professional athletes — to learn about fair, drug-free play.

The government's gold standard of youth drug-use studies, the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study, shows that the years of doping crackdowns in major sports and heightened efforts for anti-drug education have had positive effects.

The nationwide survey of 48,025 students — not just athletes — revealed a continued pattern of marked decline in youth steroids use and unwavering disapproval of these performance-enhancing muscle builders.

Steroids never have been frequently used drugs among middle- and high schoolers. Their rate of usage, which hasn't crested far beyond 3 percent, ranks steroids higher than that of PCP and heroin but about half that of OxyContin and Vicodin.

Their epidemic status of steroids is non-existent compared with the 25-65 percent of surveyed students who have admitted to trying alcohol, inhalants, cigarettes or marijuana.

 

Read on...

By Nick Schirripa
December 11th, 2007
The Enquirer

The scene is all-too familiar to many people who've attended a youth sporting event.

The kids are playing, the coaches are coaching and the officials are officiating.

And somewhere in the bleachers, a few moms and dads are yelling and complaining, taking the game far too seriously and often becoming a nuisance to others on and off the field, court or rink.

In Battle Creek alone, there were some 26,000 participants this year in 92 recreation department programs, according to parks and recreation Director Jeff Hovarter. Many participants are children, and with them come all kinds of parents and a long list of concerns and problems, including negative comments, poor and unruly behavior and inappropriate pressure on players, officials and coaches.