Athletic trainers step up efforts to combat sickle cell trait
June 28, 2007
The National Athletic Trainers Assn., with more than 6,000 in attendance in Anaheim this week, on Wednesday took a first step toward making the athletic field safer for black athletes, as well as others who carry the potentially lethal sickle cell trait.
Having spearheaded a task force that included more than 20 organizations, the NATA recommended that colleges and high schools show greater awareness of the typically benign condition, which poses a grave risk during intense exertion of physical activity.
"You can take a body of athletic trainers, a body of team physicians, a body of family practice physicians, a body of coaches and athletes, if you ask them what are the non-traumatic causes of deaths for athletes, No. 1 they would say cardiac, No. 2 they would say heat stroke, but after that you'd probably get a lot of head scratching," said Scott Anderson, head athletic trainer at Oklahoma and co-chair of the task force. "Sickle cell trait is the third-leading cause of non-traumatic death at the secondary and collegiate level."
The inherited blood disorder ranks just ahead of asthma, the No. 4 killer.
"We have a lot of kids with asthma," said Lou Randall, who coached Riverside North to the Southern Section's Eastern Division football title. His program is comprised of about 60% black athletes and, statistically, would have about seven or eight players with the trait. "As far as I see, there's nothing in the medical history that shows" sickle cell trait. "I could be wrong. I look for what they're allergic to and if they've had any major injuries."
Randall isn't the only one in the dark.
Anderson cited the similarity in deaths of the first college football player to die of sickle cell trait, Colorado sophomore Polie Portier in 1974, and the most recent, Rice freshman defensive back Dale Lloyd in 2006.
"Thirty-two years later, the athlete, the coaches, the athletic trainer didn't know he had it. Nothing's changed," Anderson said. "There was no association with exertion rate and sickle cell trait. There's a lack of awareness of the syndrome or the risk."
Sickle cell trait is the inheritance of one gene for sickle hemoglobin and one for normal hemoglobin. Under extensive exertion, the sickle hemoglobin can change the shape of red blood cells to that of a quarter moon, or the shape of a farmer's sickle.
Although newborn children are screened for the trait, by the time they enter high school they are often unaware of their condition, which is why the NATA recommended secondary institutions and universities consider testing an athlete, Anderson said, essentially "for the cost of a pizza" from certain laboratories.
Over the past seven years, nine athletes -- including a 14-year-old female basketball player and two 12-year-olds training for football -- have died when their red blood cells began "sickling." The sickle-shaped cells create a logjam in the blood vessels which can lead to collapse from the rapid breakdown of muscles starved for blood.
Deadly sickling can begin in two to three minutes of any all-out exertion, such as running sprints or stadium steps, and poses a grave risk to athletes if they aren't allowed a longer recovery period between repetitions. Lloyd, the Rice football player, died after running 16 sprints of 100 yards.
One of the critical points of the consensus statement was that having the trait should not prevent an athlete from participation, however training should build up slowly with paced progressions. Athletes should ideally work at their own pace, engage in year-round strength and conditioning programs that meet sport-specific demands, and cease activity with the onset of symptoms such as muscle cramping, pain, swelling, weakness, tenderness, the inability to catch one's breath or fatigue.
About 8% of the general African-American population in the U.S. has the trait, and a study showed that 7% of African-American players in the NFL have it. Among those are Devard Darling, wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens, whose twin brother, Devaughn, a freshman linebacker at Florida State, died of complications from sickle cell trait in 2001. Devard, one of the featured speakers Wednesday, also carries the trait.
"A lot of people who are in position to help, coaches at the secondary level, they aren't aware of the trait, aren't up to date with the protocols, the trauma," Darling said. "You can't bury your head in the sand and think nothing is happening. Kids are dying, and it's time for people to do something about it. Athletic trainers, they have to know. More important, the athletes have to know their bodies and have to know they carry the trait.
"It needs to be on every high school application."
More information is available at http://www.nata.org .
Having spearheaded a task force that included more than 20 organizations, the NATA recommended that colleges and high schools show greater awareness of the typically benign condition, which poses a grave risk during intense exertion of physical activity.
"You can take a body of athletic trainers, a body of team physicians, a body of family practice physicians, a body of coaches and athletes, if you ask them what are the non-traumatic causes of deaths for athletes, No. 1 they would say cardiac, No. 2 they would say heat stroke, but after that you'd probably get a lot of head scratching," said Scott Anderson, head athletic trainer at Oklahoma and co-chair of the task force. "Sickle cell trait is the third-leading cause of non-traumatic death at the secondary and collegiate level."
The inherited blood disorder ranks just ahead of asthma, the No. 4 killer.
"We have a lot of kids with asthma," said Lou Randall, who coached Riverside North to the Southern Section's Eastern Division football title. His program is comprised of about 60% black athletes and, statistically, would have about seven or eight players with the trait. "As far as I see, there's nothing in the medical history that shows" sickle cell trait. "I could be wrong. I look for what they're allergic to and if they've had any major injuries."
Randall isn't the only one in the dark.
Anderson cited the similarity in deaths of the first college football player to die of sickle cell trait, Colorado sophomore Polie Portier in 1974, and the most recent, Rice freshman defensive back Dale Lloyd in 2006.
"Thirty-two years later, the athlete, the coaches, the athletic trainer didn't know he had it. Nothing's changed," Anderson said. "There was no association with exertion rate and sickle cell trait. There's a lack of awareness of the syndrome or the risk."
Sickle cell trait is the inheritance of one gene for sickle hemoglobin and one for normal hemoglobin. Under extensive exertion, the sickle hemoglobin can change the shape of red blood cells to that of a quarter moon, or the shape of a farmer's sickle.
Although newborn children are screened for the trait, by the time they enter high school they are often unaware of their condition, which is why the NATA recommended secondary institutions and universities consider testing an athlete, Anderson said, essentially "for the cost of a pizza" from certain laboratories.
Over the past seven years, nine athletes -- including a 14-year-old female basketball player and two 12-year-olds training for football -- have died when their red blood cells began "sickling." The sickle-shaped cells create a logjam in the blood vessels which can lead to collapse from the rapid breakdown of muscles starved for blood.
Deadly sickling can begin in two to three minutes of any all-out exertion, such as running sprints or stadium steps, and poses a grave risk to athletes if they aren't allowed a longer recovery period between repetitions. Lloyd, the Rice football player, died after running 16 sprints of 100 yards.
One of the critical points of the consensus statement was that having the trait should not prevent an athlete from participation, however training should build up slowly with paced progressions. Athletes should ideally work at their own pace, engage in year-round strength and conditioning programs that meet sport-specific demands, and cease activity with the onset of symptoms such as muscle cramping, pain, swelling, weakness, tenderness, the inability to catch one's breath or fatigue.
About 8% of the general African-American population in the U.S. has the trait, and a study showed that 7% of African-American players in the NFL have it. Among those are Devard Darling, wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens, whose twin brother, Devaughn, a freshman linebacker at Florida State, died of complications from sickle cell trait in 2001. Devard, one of the featured speakers Wednesday, also carries the trait.
"A lot of people who are in position to help, coaches at the secondary level, they aren't aware of the trait, aren't up to date with the protocols, the trauma," Darling said. "You can't bury your head in the sand and think nothing is happening. Kids are dying, and it's time for people to do something about it. Athletic trainers, they have to know. More important, the athletes have to know their bodies and have to know they carry the trait.
"It needs to be on every high school application."
More information is available at http://www.nata.org .
