October 30, 2010

Kansas High School Player Dies After Tackle: A Kansas high school football player who suffered a concussion earlier this month died Thursday night after a hard tackle during a game. Nathan Stiles of Spring Hill High School collapsed on the sideline after telling a coach, "my head is really hurting." He was the school's homecoming king and had run for 65- and 18-yard touchdowns in the game, which his team won 99-72.

posted by rcade to football at 01:26 PM - 7 comments

Very tragic. .

(Just a side note that score seems a little, shall we say, inflated?)

posted by jagsnumberone at 11:38 PM on October 30, 2010

Sad indeed.

As to the score, it does seem a bit high, however, the school's records show the same score, and oddly, this is only game they've had all year with this type of scoring. Now, if you click on the team they beat, you'll see that they've given up a ton of points in some very lopsided contests.

posted by dviking at 01:34 AM on October 31, 2010

That's what they get for letting Michigan's defense play for them.

All jokes aside, very tragic incident.

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posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 01:38 AM on October 31, 2010

If I was a high school coach in any sport, given recent events, hearing the words "My head is really hurting" would have me sending that kid to the hospital with lights and sirens. Sadly, it sounds like it wouldn't have made any difference in this case.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:34 AM on October 31, 2010

If there's a lesson to be learned from this tragedy, maybe it's that they should have benched him for the season after the first concussion. Hindsight's always 20/20, though.

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posted by cjets at 11:00 AM on October 31, 2010

We don't take brain injuries as seriously as we should, particularly among young athletes with developing brains. This death could have been caused by other reasons, but it sure looks like a case where an already injured brain was hurt worse by a second trauma.

posted by rcade at 11:51 AM on October 31, 2010

Quite by coincidence, this story appeared in today's Boston Globe. The cost is not prohibitive, and smaller communities could even pool their resources to fund it. The testing can set a neurocognitive baseline for all players, and players with suspected head injuries are re-tested to determine any effects. I would like to see the idea spread. Too bad that it could take tragedies like that of Nathan Stiles for people to wake up.

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posted by Howard_T at 01:54 PM on October 31, 2010

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