Back in April the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) announced that full padded practices and drills for football will be banned for the summer. This has left players and parents wondering, why? 

The reason behind the ban is because IHSA wants to reduce the number of football related injuries by banning full contact until football season. According to The State Journal-Register, ‘IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman says that the effort will minimize risk to student-athletes and is another step in making high school football as safe as possible’. 

Last season, senior Drew Williams, a Lane Tech running back/corner back, suffered severe head trauma on October 4 while playing against Dunbar High School and has been hospitalized ever since. This is only one of a number of serious injuries that have occurred in Illinois high school sports in recent years. 

Back in 2009 Demond Hunt Jr’s, a linebacker of the East St. Louis football team, mother (Shanai McLorn) claims her son suffered permanent and serious brain injuries that cause strokes. His complaints of having a headache throughout the game were ignored by his coach as he continued to play. Due to the negligence of his football Coach (Darren Sunkett) McLorn sued Sunkett claiming that he has a win-at-all-cost mentality and disregards the immediate safety of the players. 

Football can have a severe impact to your body and brain.

Dislocations, strains, fractures, and sprains are all related to football and lets not forget about concussions. 

According to Wikipedia, concussions can increase the risk of mental illnesses such as dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). They both show symptoms of confusion, depression, memory loss, and aggression. 

Reports state that the after effects of CTE, a neurodegenerative disease, are as severe as suicide. Former Bears player Dave Duerson was confirmed to have CTE by neurologists at Boston University. Duerson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his chest. He told his family that he would like for his brain to be used for research at Boston University School of Medicine. Players such as Brett Favre, Dan Marino, and Tony Dorsett have all shown signs of CTE with memory loss and dizziness.

IHSA wants to limit the actual contact within the sport to only during the season in order to limit the number of catastrophic injuries. Many teams have taken the steps to do 7-on-7 games where the pass game is mostly focused on.

Some of the football community are outraged that IHSA is limiting the progress of the players and not giving them the full experience of the game. They feel players need the practice of actually being tackled and hit by another player at full force.

IHSA has to remember that they have some first time players and going all summer without knowing how it feels to be tackled in game speed will leave them unprepared when they play the first game of the season.