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Championship Comments

April 23, 2013

Tom Lang wrote for the Lansing State Journal on April 5, 2013, about our most recent four-time MHSAA wrestling champion who, in keeping with our policy of not naming students in blogs, is not named here.

What really makes me want to name the Fowlerville senior heavyweight is that, in Lang’s article, the four-time champ freely names his practice partners over the years and credits them for his success.

With maturity and humility uncharacteristic of athletes twice his age, our newest of 17 four-time champs said:  “I definitely had some great practice partners who were beating me up;” and he named five of them who he said “were all great practice partners for me.  They were quicker so I had to make sure I stayed in good position and worked a lot on speed and more fluid technique.”

This senior, who pinned every opponent he faced this past season continued:  “A lot of people might have been four-time state champs but they get one injury and that ruins it.  Four years can be looked at as a very short time, but that’s a long time with wrestling and how you can face injury.  There seems to be a lot of knee torqueing and shoulder injuries, the joints – and it really wears at you going four years in high school.  It can be brutal on the body.  So just staying healthy four years so you get a chance, is just the start.”

Giving credit to good partners and good luck.  I’m thinking this young man already knows much more about life than wrestling.

Life Saving Lessons

June 24, 2015

In 2015-16, we enter the fourth quarter of a heightened eight-year health and safety emphasis. We began with Health Histories in 2009-10 and 2010-11; the second quarter focus in 2011-12 and 2012-13 was Heads; the third quarter focus in 2013-14 and 2014-15 was Heat. In 2015-16 and 2016-17, it’s Hearts that we bring in focus ... especially addressing sudden cardiac arrest which is the No. 1 cause of death to youth during exertion.
Sudden cardiac arrest seems to us to have a random, unpredictable nature; and medical experts tell us that screening is somewhat unreliable, often missing some likely candidates even as the tests identify many false positives. There are symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest, but they often reveal themselves too late to be of much help, like sudden collapse, no pulse, no breathing and loss of consciousness.
Nevertheless, there is something we can do. We can be prepared. We can develop emergency plans, display AEDs and deliver CPR. And, like any good sports teams, we need to practice our preparations.
Through the energy of the Minnesota State High School League and the generosity of Medtronic and the NFHS Foundation, the MHSAA has sent to every MHSAA member high school athletic director this month the ANYONE CAN SAVE A LIFE Emergency Action Planning Guide for After-School Practices and Events. This publication suggests a game plan that establishes four teams on every level of every sport in a school – a 911 Team, CPR Team, AED Team and Heat Stroke Team.
This resource can help schools revise or revitalize their existing emergency plans in ways that engage team members in planning, practice and execution. This could help save lives now and also convey important lifelong lifesaving lessons to students involved on these teams.