What an amazing and inspiring story. If you're a coach, this should be why you are in the business. This has to be worth more than any amount of trophies and ribbons and accolades. Making this kind of a difference. AWESOME STORY!!! This story highlights all that is good in the youth sports arena.
From Tampabay.com
http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/article1172792.ece
DeWalt is proud that Ladarious came within 13 positions of being in the top half of the 310 graduates at Gulf High. "It just speaks to his determination,'' the coach said, "but also to the power of athletics. Without wrestling, he wouldn't be here. Sports is the greatest dropout prevention program we have in school.''
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Then there's the bad news.
This puts winning and losing a baseball game in perspective and is a story that we never want to see minimized just because it happens relatively infrequently.
From Hardballtalk.com
13-year-old dies after getting hit by pitch
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/03/13-year-old-dies-after-getting-hit-by-pitch/
13-year-old Little Leaguer Hayden Walton, from Winslow, AZ, was killed Tuesday when a baseball hit him in the chest as he was attempting to bunt.
“He took an inside pitch right in the chest,” Winslow Little League official Jamey Jones said. “After that he took two steps to first base and collapsed.”
He died Wednesday morning at a local hospital. Paramedics said the cause was commotio cordis. His heart stopped after he was hit by the pitch.
Coaches would do well to spend some practice time teaching kids how to protect themselves in the batters box when squaring to bunt or when faced with the occasional inside pitch. Many young kids turn into the pitch instead of away. In most cases, the kid is better off getting hit in the backside rather than the front. When they expose the face and chest to the pitch, invariably they "freeze" and cannot protect themselves.
A side benefit is that, once kids are more comfortable in knowing they can better protect themselves from errant missiles, they become better hitters. The "fear" factor is lessened and they can hit relaxed rather than tensed.
More on commotio cordis from Wikipedia.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotio_cordis
Commotio cordis (Latin, "agitation of the heart") is a disruption of heart rhythm that occurs as a result of a blow to the area directly over the heart (the precordial region), at a critical time during the cycle of a heart beat. It is a form of ventricular fibrillation, not mechanical damage to the heart muscle or surrounding organs, and not the result of heart disease. The fatality rate is about 65%. It can sometimes, but not always, be reversed by defibrillation.[1]
Commotio cordis occurs mostly in boys and young men (average age 15), usually during sports, most often baseball, often despite a chest protector. It is most often caused by a projectile, but can also be caused by the blow of an elbow or other body part. Being less developed, the thorax of an adolescent is likely more prone to this injury given the circumstances.
And more from medscape.com
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/730549_3
Commotio Cordis
Commotio cordis is defined as sudden death or aborted sudden death secondary to a chest wall impact. This phenomenon is reported in 10–20 individuals a year. Nearly all are male and the mean age is 14 years.[32,33] Individuals in competitive sports account for nearly 60% of cases and impact always occurs over the left chest. Nearly one-third of those in competitive sports were wearing a chest protector. Resuscitation is possible with rapid cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation.
An animal model has shown that the timing of the impact relative to the cardiac cycle is perhaps the most important variable of commotio cordis[34] followed by location of impact,[35] hardness of the impact object,[36] and energy of the impact object (Fig. 2).[37] Commercially available chest wall protection does not appear to be prevent commotio cordis.[38]
Figure 2.
Variables and proposed mechanism of commotio cordis. In the animal model several variables of commotio cordis have been described and include characteristics of the impact object such as shape, hardness, diameter, velocity of the impact. Timing and location of the impact are perhaps the two most important variables accounting for the rarity of commotio cordis. In addition, cellular determinants of commotio cordis are just beginning to be understood; cell membrane stretch likely leads to ion channel activation which increases the dispersion of repolarization and providing the substrate for ventricular fibrillation to occur An appropriately timed ventricular contraction caused by the impact leads to ventricular fibrillation.
Commotio cordis is thought to occur when a chest strike causes both altered dispersion of repolarization and a ventricular depolarization trigger.[32,39–41] The altered dispersion of repolarization is likely secondary to alterations in current flow. Thus far, the KATP channel, normally closed but opened by myocardial ischemia with resultant increased K flow during repolarization, has been shown to be involved in commotio cordis.[42]
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And of course, the ugly side is on display as well.
From Foxsports.com
Report: Violence erupts at hoops tourney
http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/Players-attack-parents-as-San-Fernando-Valley-teams-brawl-at-San-Diego-youth-basketball-tourney-053111
Players attacked parents and each other when a Memorial Day youth basketball tournament erupted in violence that left one player hospitalized and another arrested on assault charges.
Police were called to San Diego's Mira Mesa High on Monday when teams from Southern California's San Fernando Valley began brawling at the end of their game, according to NBC San Diego. The tournament featured varsity, JV and traveling teams.
FANS GONE WILD
Some people just can't enjoy a game without getting involved. Here are a few unruly spectators.
The semifinal game between the Rising Stars of San Fernando Valley and the Granada Hills Eagles had been so rough that referees ended it a minute early. Parents and spectators exchanged words and taunted players on the court, according to officers, then things got violent when a coach confronted parents who allegedly used a racial slur. A fight broke out involving at least 15 people.
"Within about 20 seconds, almost the entire Eagles team ran over to the stands and started attacking one of the Rising Stars parents," witness Stuart Schneider told NBC San Diego.
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And finally, the humorous side of baseball.
Apparently, Aubrey Huff's wife is quite the budding young hitting coach. Or maybe it's just a matter of Aubrey knowing well the theory of "when momma is happy, every body's happy" (Happy wife, happy life). Atta boy, Aubrey.
From the San Jose Mercury News:
Aubrey Huff hits three home runs as San Francisco Giants win 12-7
By Andrew Baggarly
http://www.mercurynews.com/giants/ci_18195781?nclick_check=1
The timing couldn't have been better -- for the team, for Huff and for his better half, too.
"My wife, Baubi, it's her birthday today," Huff said. "She wanted me to hit her a home run. I hit three. That's Brownie points."
It was Mrs. Huff who first convinced him to purchase the Rally Thong last year, and everyone knows how that played out. But it took more than magic underwear for Huff to break out of a two-month slump that dragged down the lowest scoring lineup in the National League.
It took hitting the mental reset button.
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