IrishTex
10-01-2009, 07:51 PM
By MARK DENT / The Dallas Morning News
mdent@dallasnews.com
TCA-Addison volleyball coach Karen Wright sent the message by e-mail to her players.
Get some rest, she wrote. Stay home. Forget about volleyball for a few days.
School is out until Monday at TCA-Addison because of an alarming number of flu-related absences. The school also isn't competing in athletic competitions. TCA-Addison's football team has a bye this week, but the volleyball team will have to reschedule two matches.
TCA-Addison falls on the extreme side of the flu scare, as does Richardson Canyon Creek. Larry Thexton, Canyon Creek's football coach, said Wednesday that his team has canceled its game that was scheduled for Friday because the opponent, The Woodlands Christian Academy, has 16 players – from a roster of 30 – who have flulike symptoms.
Otherwise, game and practice cancellations have been rare thus far. But some area athletic departments are seeing a greater number of sick athletes and are being proactive in battling illnesses, aware that germs spread quickly in locker rooms, huddles and gyms.
"It really is an optimal area for transmission, said Dr. John Carlo, Dallas County medical director, noting that athletes aren't more or less susceptible to influenza than nonactive teenagers.
Mike Harrison, a trainer with Allen High School, estimated that 10 percent of the school's athletes – an unusually high number – are out sick. It could be H1N1 or the regular flu. It could also be strep or allergies.
The Garland, Carroll and Plano districts reported similar or slightly increased numbers of illnesses from years past. They are still preparing, though.
"We just think it's going to hit hard," said Allison Loftin, a Southlake Carroll athletic trainer.
Two weeks ago, Carroll began switching from water bottles to cups at football practice. At Allen, a maintenance company sets off what Harrison calls a "chemical bomb" in the locker room, hoping to sanitize germs. Allen used to do this once a week. Now the school plans to do it every night for the foreseeable future.
The rest is simple. Coaches and trainers are reminding athletes to shower and wash their hands. They're telling them to use the bottles of hand sanitizer spread throughout most schools.
They're even telling them to break away from the old athletic adage of playing through pain. When it comes to sickness, they don't want to mess around.
Earlier this season, one of Wright's players didn't show up for school. She still showed up on the bus that afternoon, though, ready to play in a volleyball match.
"I sent her home," Wright said.
Nobody at TCA-Addison wants to risk anything, especially the volleyball team. Wright is pregnant, due in about two weeks. Her assistant, Kyla Obert, is due later this year.
Two girls had H1N1 earlier this season. Another, senior Madelyn McGinnis, suffered from it just before the season started.
She said that before the break, everybody at school was talking about swine flu.
"At first a lot of people didn't see it as a big deal," she said. "I think it's become more serious now."
McGinnis slept until noon Wednesday, resting like Wright asked, but she can't wait to practice Monday. This is the kind of break no one enjoys.
mdent@dallasnews.com
TCA-Addison volleyball coach Karen Wright sent the message by e-mail to her players.
Get some rest, she wrote. Stay home. Forget about volleyball for a few days.
School is out until Monday at TCA-Addison because of an alarming number of flu-related absences. The school also isn't competing in athletic competitions. TCA-Addison's football team has a bye this week, but the volleyball team will have to reschedule two matches.
TCA-Addison falls on the extreme side of the flu scare, as does Richardson Canyon Creek. Larry Thexton, Canyon Creek's football coach, said Wednesday that his team has canceled its game that was scheduled for Friday because the opponent, The Woodlands Christian Academy, has 16 players – from a roster of 30 – who have flulike symptoms.
Otherwise, game and practice cancellations have been rare thus far. But some area athletic departments are seeing a greater number of sick athletes and are being proactive in battling illnesses, aware that germs spread quickly in locker rooms, huddles and gyms.
"It really is an optimal area for transmission, said Dr. John Carlo, Dallas County medical director, noting that athletes aren't more or less susceptible to influenza than nonactive teenagers.
Mike Harrison, a trainer with Allen High School, estimated that 10 percent of the school's athletes – an unusually high number – are out sick. It could be H1N1 or the regular flu. It could also be strep or allergies.
The Garland, Carroll and Plano districts reported similar or slightly increased numbers of illnesses from years past. They are still preparing, though.
"We just think it's going to hit hard," said Allison Loftin, a Southlake Carroll athletic trainer.
Two weeks ago, Carroll began switching from water bottles to cups at football practice. At Allen, a maintenance company sets off what Harrison calls a "chemical bomb" in the locker room, hoping to sanitize germs. Allen used to do this once a week. Now the school plans to do it every night for the foreseeable future.
The rest is simple. Coaches and trainers are reminding athletes to shower and wash their hands. They're telling them to use the bottles of hand sanitizer spread throughout most schools.
They're even telling them to break away from the old athletic adage of playing through pain. When it comes to sickness, they don't want to mess around.
Earlier this season, one of Wright's players didn't show up for school. She still showed up on the bus that afternoon, though, ready to play in a volleyball match.
"I sent her home," Wright said.
Nobody at TCA-Addison wants to risk anything, especially the volleyball team. Wright is pregnant, due in about two weeks. Her assistant, Kyla Obert, is due later this year.
Two girls had H1N1 earlier this season. Another, senior Madelyn McGinnis, suffered from it just before the season started.
She said that before the break, everybody at school was talking about swine flu.
"At first a lot of people didn't see it as a big deal," she said. "I think it's become more serious now."
McGinnis slept until noon Wednesday, resting like Wright asked, but she can't wait to practice Monday. This is the kind of break no one enjoys.