The societal value we all have for athletes and sports goes back all the way to ancient Rome, when men fought for their lives in front of thousands of spectators in massive stadiums. It’s been said that history has a way of repeating itself, and it looks like history has showed up on our doorsteps. Professional, collegiate and high school athletes are recreating the atmospheric presence of gladiator fights some 2,000 years ago, while racking up some of the largest amounts of wealth since Rockefeller.

We, as fans of the game and some as former players, have an immense impact on children when it comes to sports. Many children’s first heroes are professional athletes, and they want to replicate them in every way.

In certain regions of the country, athletics are revered like religion, and are established almost in infancy. According to studies, 2/3 of boys ages 5-18 play some kind of youth sport. While 1/2 of girls in the same age range also compete in youth athletics. The growing trend for youth athletics is consistently increasing with a 1.04% rise in participation in the last decade. The figure may not seem like a seismic increase, but this has been the biggest jump since the recent plateau of participation within athletics.

This growth in participation is great, and I do believe in the importance of youth sports, because of its focus on discipline and self-reliance, which is not found often enough throughout daily life. The feelings I have towards the game is the main reason why this article is prevalent today. To keep the games intact and growing, we need to explore both sides, and show the importance of safety.

The importance of safety throughout high school sports is at an all time high. We have seen countless studies done on the effects of injuries at younger ages, as well as some debating whether or not to even have high school athletics, but the one thing that has caught the attention of everyone in the nation are the occurrences and effects of concussions. Studies show that with that 1.04% of growing participates, there has been a 2.2% increase on concussion related injuries. The one place the concussion epidemic has been prevalent throughout recent years can be found in one of the wealthiest companies in America: the National Football League.

Americans became aware of the growing issue when investigators found several settled cases from the NFL of former players suing for game-related head trauma and not being properly educated. According to MMQB.com with Peter King, the cases consisted of 4,500 ex-players settling for more than $765 million for the past decades. These cases, with the recent player suicide rates rising, have put the country on notice and have sparked the question, how safe are our youth athletics?

Over the past decade, high school sports have had a complete reform on all of their safety standards. In 2009, the state of Washington passed the “Zachkery Lystedt Law,” which was imposed to directly address concussion management. The new law was the first to implement a “removal and clearance for Return to Play” rule, which required coaches and parents to have strict guidelines for children after they receive a concussion. Since then, all 50 states have adopted this law and enforce the Return to Play standards.

With any sport you play, you need the proper equipment and proper training to be successful. High school athletics have beefed up their rules for play and the equipment to make sure the children are as safe as possible. For the four major high school sports (football, soccer, basketball, baseball) many new and improved standards have eased minds and changed the game. The education for equipment has changed so much that even sports with almost no equipment are now becoming safer than ever.

Studies have shown that one of the biggest factors of concussions is not just related to blows to the head, but to the athlete’s teeth as well. Heavy contact sports and light contact sports have had similar studies done to show that your mouth guard can have a great impact on decreasing the risk of concussions. Many brands like Shock Doctor have branded themselves for protecting against concussions and almost every sport you will see will require some sort of mouth-guard.

Football pads and helmets have been revamped and better suited for the bodies of young adults in high school. Some helmets even include sensors that can detect the exact moment when a concussion occurs. These new safety standards have been and are currently tested by professional sports like the NFL and the NBA.

For anyone still speculating about the safety or may still have concerns for high school athletics, the research is there, and trust me, there’s plenty of it. Players, former and current, can all attest to the danger of sports, they know the risk before hand are prepared for it. But I believe there are so many other reasons why we play. Fame, glory and recognition are all beneficiaries to the game, but the connection you make with people and the family atmosphere you’re around is something you can’t find anywhere else. The need to rally around sports is at an all time high in this generation. The great thing about it is that you can rally behind the simplicity of the good/evil, home/away conflict that can entertain whole towns and cities. The values established at a young age can create building blocks for any person to live by, and that is what makes the game so beautiful.