Being Healthy - With Concern For Others

It was more than one month ago, Sept. 23 to be exact, that I wrote a blog on H1N1 and high school sports. Lots of people saw it. I know because many people actually wrote to me thinking I was nuts and that this was only a cold blown out of proportion.

I made a mistake in the blog. I assumed that many coaches and athletes were thinking twice about shaking hands - in the best interest of others. That was my error. It's still happening. So is sharing of water bottles, towels, even the ones that athletes cough and spit in. Surely the world won't end and people will understand, if the traditional act of sportsmanship is put on hold until we get over this flu situation.

Well, not so - and I saw it myself many times this week. No matter how much has been said about proper health care, sanitization, warnings and more - people just don't get it.

Maybe school coaches and athletes figure they're immune from this nasty thing. They shouldn't be. Just talk to some of the athletes - and the ones who have worked hours and hours, months and months to get to finals and are now in sick bay.

Let's see, there is a high school hockey player in Whitby, who is recovering and was in isolation of some sort. There is another in York Region who wasn't playing football this week. In  Mississauga, I was out at a school and learned of a basketball player sent home.

And at the cross-country finals in Durham Region, a heavy favorite to finish in the top five, didn't do well at all. Flu? Some say no. It wasn't because the weather was so-so. And classes have lots of empty seats. Many teachers are absent too.

This is high school sports. That's all it is. Whether you believe H1N1 is a pandemic or not, think and play it smart. Don't put other people at risk. I see that finally, my friends at OFSAA posted a message on the website. Same stuff that the public health departments have had out for months.

I scratch my head wondering why this provincial athletic association took so long to communicate this national health concern. Maybe because it's because it had to post information about field hockey and cross country finals first.

Comments

[PT]

All media hype, this is only a cold that blows over and not the scare that everyone claims. Big deal if a few kids get sick. It happens all the time.

[Former Coach]

Another bold move by OFFSAA. One day they will get their heads out of the sand and wipe the mud off too.

[Johnny]

God help us if all these teachers and coaches teach the same way they interpret health issues. For Heavens sake, sharing watter bottles still and shaking hands with sweaty palms after players cough and sneeze. No wonder illiteracy is so high.

[Morris]

Andy doubt, cancel a game, send a kid home and cut the fake handshakes.

[Rick Traugott - Trinity College School]

Living in a boarding school environment can teach some valuable lessons about the flu or a bad cold going through a good chunk of your student body. I always make sure my hockey team has their own water bottles and don't share anything during the season that might spread germs through the team.

It is not good to lose half your team to illness at the same time in the middle (or worse - the end) of the season.

Yes, H1N1 might be a little blown out of proportion by the press. But, taking care that you don't have some bug go through a whole team at the same time is just common sense - in any year.

[Dober]

Well articulated. I find your blogs to be insightful and some of the comments by readers to be ludicrous. Can people not understand that high school sports is not like playing a game of chess and when it comes to health and the well-being of people, I think that comes first.

[Pepper]

When people die of H1N1, I don't agree that the press take things and blow something like this out of proportion. They are doing their job. Don't get me wrong and I question some stories I read but flip things around and imagine the out cry if they don't draw so much awareness.