School Football Team Research Articles

Invasion USA (review)

Reviewed by: Invasion USA Ron Briley Invasion USA (1952). Directed by Alfred E. Green. Distributed by American Pictures. 73 minutes. Americans have long celebrated their opposition to tyranny, dating back to the American Revolution and clarion call of "no taxation without representation." Many citizens take pride in the second amendment to the Constitution, believing that individual possession of firearms will prevent foreign invasion and the imposition of dictatorship in the United States. More sophisticated considerations of how fascism might come to America, such as It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, emphasize that American fascism would most likely manifest itself in the guise of right-wing populism. Nevertheless, American popular culture perpetuates the fantasy of foreign invasion and heroic citizen resistance. While such scenarios are often reminiscent of partisan European fighters (many of whom were communists) during the Second World War, there is a tendency to view such resistance as uniquely American. This is another example of American exceptionalism, grounded in a perception that the belief in freedom is a national, and not a human, value. Red Dawn, released in 1984 when President Reagan was reinvigorating the Cold War, describes the adolescent fantasy of a high school football team, the Wolverines, who defeat communist forces from Cuba and the Soviet Union, no match for quarterback Patrick Swayze and his teammates/warriors. Although made on a much lower budget, film director Alfred E. Green's Invasion USA (1952) perhaps best places the idea of American Cold War exceptionalism in historical and global context. Invasion USA projects the scenario of a full-scale Soviet assault upon the United States. Made during the Korean War and heyday of McCarthyism in Washington, Invasion USA depicts an expansionist Soviet empire intent on world domination, abetted by fifth columnists and Americans too soft to make the sacrifices necessary for the preservation of liberty. [End Page 148] The film begins in a New York City bar, where news anchor Vince Potter (Gerald Mohr), factory owner George Sylvester (Robert Brice), Congressman Arthur V. Harroway (Wade Crosby), Arizona rancher Ed Mulfory (Erik Blythe), and attractive socialite Carla Sanford (Peggie Castle) are mesmerized by the enigmatic Mr. Ohman (Dan O'Herlihy), who suggests that the patrons should curb their carping about selfish concerns and recognize that the American way of life is being threatened. Mr. Ohman mysteriously disappears, and the group at the bar is awakened from a trance-like state by a news bulletin reporting that American forces in Alaska are under attack. The source of this assault remains unnamed in the film, but the Cold War historical context, the invasion route through Alaska, the unintended comical Slavic accents, the proclamations from the "People's Army," and the use of MiG-15 fighter planes clearly indicate that the invading enemy comes from the Soviet Union. The story of the invasion is modeled after the news bulletin technique pioneered by Orson Welles in his radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. The startled bar patrons watch the enemy launch an invasion of the Pacific Northwest supported by the employment of tactical nuclear weapons against American military installations. The President announces that the United States will retaliate with atomic bombs and take the war into the enemy's home territory. Nevertheless, the invasion appears to be gaining momentum, and the denizens of the bar recognize that they need to do their patriotic duty. Each, however, pays the ultimate price for failing to venerate and uphold the American Way. Sylvester returns to his tractor factory in the San Francisco area. While at the bar, he complained about government intervention in the operation of his plant, voicing discontent with suggestions that he direct some of his production lines into national defense. But his return is too late, for the enemy has occupied the factory. A fifth- columnist laborer helped the invading forces gain control over the means of production, casting doubt upon the political loyalty of labor. Sylvester confronts his former employee and is shot in the back by a member of the "People's Army." Meanwhile, Mulfory arrives in Arizona to retrieve his family. As they flee their home, the enemy bombs Hoover Dam, setting off a flood, which consumes...

The Long Gay Line: Gender and Sexual Orientation at The Citadel

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Joe Johnson was born in Palatka, Florida, and grew up fourteen miles outside of town. His father was a logger, and his mother worked various jobs, including school bus driver and cafeteria worker. Johnson was a well-rounded kid: he loved art, excelled in academics, and played on the offensive of his high school football team. Coming from a working-class family, college was only an option if admission came with a generous scholarship. The Citadel's acceptance letter did, and Johnson decided to go. His parents couldn't have been prouder. Hell Week is always hot and humid, and the summer of 1983 was no exception. The weather is just part of the trial by fire that includes racking (yelling), marching, push-ups, shirt-tucks, and haircuts. For Johnson, however, Hell Week wasn't all that hellish. He had already gone through boot camp after joining the National Guard a year earlier, and he was in pretty good physical shape because of football. More importantly, Johnson knew that Hell Week was as much about mental discipline as physical strength. Still, as the Military College of South Carolina, The Citadel prided itself on being tougher than the toughest boot camp, more difficult even than the national service academies. After all, the service academies had been admitting women since the mid-1970s. In the 1980s The Citadel's mission was to fashion whole men, men who would become leaders in the military and in civil society. Most of these men were southern. A few, like Joe Johnson, were gay. Like other American military academies, The Citadel is an institution steeped in tradition. The graduates of academies like The Citadel and West Point join a long gray line of distinguished alumni who have gone on to guide the American military during times of war and govern the country during times of peace. It should come as little surprise that some of these alumni were and are gay. It may be a bit more surprising that gay cadets and alumni believed in and defended the tradition of all-male military schools with the same tenacity, and employing many of the same arguments, as their straight comrades: The Citadel built character, deepened a sense of honor, and strengthened the bonds of brotherhood among men. Just as important, for some cadets (gay and straight), The Citadel offered unassailable proof of manhood in a society that might otherwise doubt or deny it. Exploring the contentious history of The Citadel during the culture wars of the 1980s and '90s reveals much about the roles of gender and sexuality often hidden in plain sight in the South. Even though there has been excellent work on the struggle over gender integration at The Citadel, the role of homosexuality at the institution and the relationship between gender and sexuality remain largely unexplored. When we finally look at these once taboo topics, we find, not surprisingly, that The Citadel was (and is) populated by a varied cast of characters, individuals who shatter stereotypes about singular identities of womanhood, manhood, southernness, and homosexuality. A range of men, some gay, attended The Citadel and fought to keep it all-male. Losing that battle, these men found that the newly integrated institution evolved both in ways that they had feared and in others they could not have foreseen. (1) CITADEL HISTORY Today, The Citadel guards the marshy bank of the Ashley River, one of two rivers that together separate the peninsula of Charleston from the mainland. But when the garrison was first established in the early 1820s, it was more centrally located, just north of downtown, where it was the first of defense against slave insurrections. Founded in 1822 after an aborted rebellion planned by a freedman named Denmark Vesey, the municipal guard of armed white men stood at the ready to thwart future uprisings by the region's enslaved African Americans. By 1842 South Carolina officials saw that more than arms were necessary to defend the state and its people. …

Review

Reviewed by: American Indian Education: Counternarratives in Racism, Struggle, and the Law Ruth Spack (bio) Matthew L. M. Fletcher. American Indian Education: Counternarratives in Racism, Struggle, and the Law. New York: Routledge, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-415-95735-9. 223 pp. American Indian Education: Counternarratives in Racism, Struggle, and the Law is the inaugural volume in Routledge’s series on critical race theory in education. Matthew Fletcher, a law professor, examines the legal underpinnings of contemporary American Indian education by telling stories about a fictional Michigan tribe, “loosely based” on his own community: the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (6). Most of the chapters address issues of ethics and fairness and follow specific, often recurring, characters as they negotiate emotionally charged social settings and legal or semilegal proceedings dominated by the non-Indian population. For readers who are well versed in the history of American Indian education (which Fletcher touches on only briefly in his introduction) and who therefore understand the truth of the fictionalized events, the book is a unique and useful addition to the literature. Chapter 1, “Commodifying Indian Students and Sports Mascots: The Lake Matchimanitou Warriors,” introduces an activist named Parker Roberts, who appears before the school board to protest rules that disadvantage an all-Indian high school football team and to call for the elimination of stereotypical names, war cries, plastic tomahawks, and other offenses at the games. Chapter 2, “Burying [End Page 72] Indian Histories in the Curriculum: The American History Teacher,” follows Parker as she attempts to change the school curriculum to include histories of Michigan Indians. Chapter 3, “Criminal Injustice and Demonizing Indian Students: The American Indian Student,” focuses on the treatment of high school Indian students, who are forced to sign “affidavits” and are turned over to the local police for actions that non-Indian students enact with impunity. The participation of a tribal lawyer at the school board hearings significantly affects the outcome. Chapter 4, “Intergenerational Character of Indian Experiences in Education: Niko Roberts on the Ice,” which Fletcher describes as “an interlude” (9), provides the larger sociopolitical and familial context in which American Indian students attain an education. The most dramatically rendered chapter in the book, it links Parker’s personal experiences with her son’s and describes a harrowing accident involving heroism in the face of tragedy. Chapter 5, “Indian Academic Fraud: The Terrible Tribe,” revolves around a secret society supported by the university that Parker’s son, Niko, attends in Ann Arbor. Founded more than one hundred years earlier by “children of wealthy and powerful members of the Great Lakes shipping elite” (96), the society comprises members who conduct themselves according to their version of authentic Native American teachings and traditions. Their practices offend Indian students on campus. Niko’s petition to end the university’s support of the society engenders heated and sometimes thoughtful discussion at the Board of Regents Student Affairs Committee. Chapter 6, “Indian Literary Fraud: Vann Logan’s Novel,” exposes the deceptive posing of a non-Indian as an Indian writer, causing Niko and other students to consider such issues as who has “authority to speak on behalf of or about Indian people” and what constitutes American Indian literature (134). Chapter 7, “Indian Cultural Restoration: Toledo Marks’ Return,” involves a lawsuit that leads Niko, now a lawyer, to represent his grandfather, a traditional pipe carrier, against an accusation that he violated the First Amendment when he spoke to schoolchildren about the pipe ceremony. Chapter 8, “Indian Political Resurgence and Affirmative Action: [End Page 73] The Lake Matchimanitou Indian School,” has a satiric, futuristic bent. It describes how a tribal community establishes a private school designed exclusively for Indigenous people and humorously imagines a future U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of “the Indianization of American education” (175). This chapter serves as a literary expression of Fletcher’s point that “American Indian education continues to be in crisis and perhaps always will be until American Indian people have the necessary resources and take the full responsibility for education their own” (3). One of the most successful features of Fletcher’s book is the range of educational experiences covered, from elementary...

Introduction of Kevin D. Lafferty as the Henry Baldwin Ward Medalist for 2009

Members and fellow officers of the American Society of Parasitologists, it is my pleasure and honor to introduce Dr. Kevin Dale Lafferty, the winner of the 2009 Henry Baldwin Ward Medal. As his major professor, I have tracked Kevin's professional career since its inception. As his collaborator for 20 yr and co-leader of our research group for 17 yr (now as a leadership trinity with Ryan Hechinger), I have witnessed many of the events Kevin will present in his acceptance speech. So my observations here will be like the classic Japanese film Rashomon, directed by Kurosawa, in which the several characters give their somewhat different interpretations of the same incident. In the fog of memory, who knows what really happened? I will finish with much greater certainty, offering a brief overview of his contributions to the field of parasitology. Kevin was born in 1963 in Glendale, California, and raised near Pasadena, a committed southern California surfer dude. His early years are clouded in mystery, but we do know that he had a loving family and he was a wide receiver on his high school football team. He ventured off to university at UCSB as an aquatic biology major. UCSB is the only university in the United States with a surfing break on campus, and this played a big role in his choice of school. I gather that his plan was to do something within an easy drive of a SoCal beach. To a great extent, this still governs his academic geography. I met Kevin in November of 1987. He was a student in the

The Gesu in Miami: A Story of God's People in a Subtropical Metropolis, 1896–2006 (review)

Reviewed by: The Gesu in Miami: A Story of God's People in a Subtropical Metropolis, 1896–2006 Francis J. Sicius The Gesu in Miami: A Story of God's People in a Subtropical Metropolis, 1896–2006. By Paul S. George. (Hialeah, FL: Fort Dallas Press. 2006. Pp. x, 177. $25.00.) Miami's Gesu Church—initially called Holy Name—came into being at the same time that Henry Flagler's train first arrived into Miami, and his workers voted to incorporate Miami—with its passenger station, a few humble buildings, and shacks—as a city. In 1897, a year after the city's incorporation, the [End Page 881]Gesu congregation moved into its new church in downtown Miami, two blocks north of the city center. There it would remain a constant witness to the meteoric and often peripatetic transformation in demography, architecture, and economy that became Miami. Historian Paul S. George has traced the story of South Florida's oldest Catholic church from its pioneer beginning to its present status as downtown parish of a major urban area. George's narrative will please the local antiquarian and old parish member by providing details such as the records of the parish school's football team; the names of important parishioners, priests, and favorite nuns; and statistical data on the number of confessions heard and communions distributed. But, at other times, he deftly weaves the story of the parish into the broader urban, regional, and even national social narrative of the tumultuous twentieth century. Interspersed with details on the cost of the new church bell, for example, is the story of Miamian's interest in the Cuban War of Independence, a war in which Miami, George reminds us, served as a training base for more than 7000 Cuban-bound troops. He also uses the story of the parish as a vehicle to carry the reader through Miami in the World War I years, the economic boom of the twenties, and the rampant nativism of that era. He also describes Depression-era Miami, when the Gesu—along with the Catholic Welfare Bureau—became a last refuge for those down on their luck in Miami. Probably one of the most significant roles the Gesu church played, not only in the story of Miami but also in the political history of the United States, was when it became the country's first refugee center for Cubans fleeing Castro's Cuba in 1959. Originally established prior to the revolution to serve the entire Hispanic community, Centro Hispano Catolico, located in the basement of the Gesu church, responded to the emerging Cuban refugee crisis by providing the new arrivals with canned goods, free medical examinations, day-care service, employment information, and a few dollars to tide them over. Until the federal government established a center in 1961, Centro Hispano remained the single most important lifeline for the desperate thousands leaving Cuba. Following the tumultuous decade of the 1960s, the Gesu church suffered the fate of many center city churches that watched their boundaries shrink as new suburban parishes emerged. The once vibrant school closed, and although the church remained relatively full, it housed an extremely eclectic congregation where worshipers in Armani suits rubbed elbows with those in cotton overalls as the church became the principal place of worship for downtown executives as well as for the newest immigrant families, who huddled into the low-rent apartments that border the luxurious downtown business section. George's work is a sensitive and sympathetic narrative of a venerable church and the diverse parishioners it has served. Unfortunately, there are questions that his history of the region's oldest Catholic church should have addressed. For example, in the Flagler years, immigrant workers—many of [End Page 882]them Catholic—protested the railroad's often harsh treatment. Did Flagler's donations to the church buy the clergy's approbation of his treatment of workers? George mentions that Al Capone was a parishioner, but he does not mention the church's stand on organized crime that permeated Miami in the twenties and thirties. Although George mentions that Gesu was the mother church of Miami's first black Catholic parish, he says nothing...

They’re Not Just Little Adults

Kids are really different from their adult counterparts! It is critical that physicians, coaches, physical therapists, and athletic trainers keep the features of growth and development in mind as athletes progress from childhood to adolescence. Children are not all the same and they don’t necessarily mature in the same way or at the same rate. Just take a freshman high school football team for instance: There may be a few teammates who shave, are well developed, and are ready to compete against juniors and seniors. They are likely close to their adult size, having already experienced their growth spurts. Others will probably be baby-faced—perhaps with peach fuzz on their chins. Their muscle development is still waiting for the blast of testosterone that will hasten their development. The weight and height differences between these groups may be substantial, thus raising the question, should they be competing against one another in a contact sport? Such are the issues of maturation sorting—a mixing bowl of factors complicated by hormones, genetics, nutrition, and environment. The progressive musculoskeletal development that occurs between childhood and adolescence is fascinating but presents challenges for clinicians who care for those attempting to reach their maximum athletic potential. As we consider the consequences on the bone growth centers from the increased hours of training and the miles run, we realize that we do not have all the answers with which to reconcile optimal performance and growth. Many aches and pains that arise are minor concerns and so may reflect what previous generations of clinicians called “growing pains.” Some discomforts, though, should not be ignored and must be attended to properly to avoid more significant problems later. Such dilemmas are addressed by Lindenfeld et al and Purcell et al in this edition. Many sports injuries sustained by children and adolescents clearly demonstrate that there are limitations to what the growing skeleton can tolerate. Knowledge of these limitations should be part of the planning schedule for practice and training, especially in high-risk sports such as gymnastics and wrestling. Of particular concern are some of the conditions that affect the spine of young athletes. Whereas many adults suffer from low back pain (and a number use this condition for secondary gain), children, with rare exception, don’t malinger. Low back pain in children should always be taken seriously. Most cases involve mechanical or structural issues that can be successfully treated, especially if diagnosed early. All the more reason to pay special attention to such complaints in kids. In addition to focusing on treating many of these musculoskeletal conditions, it is worthwhile to emphasize their prevention, as Sekiya et al and Zernicke et al do in this issue of Sports Health. Sekiya et al demonstrates the difficulty of changing the mind-set regarding unsafe weight loss practices in amateur wrestling. Although recent guideline and rule changes have helped, much more can be done to improve the health environment of wrestling. The nutrition work by Zernicke et al is particularly interesting in light of what the typical American teenager ingests in high school cafeterias and fast-food outlets, making one wonder why teenagers don’t sustain hip fractures in their 20s. The publications in this issue pose a challenge to those looking to improve the health of youngsters. By accepting this challenge, we hope to enhance the lives of this and future generations.

Posterior Sternoclavicular Dislocation

A 17-year-old boy playing quarterback for his high school football team was tackled by a lineman who fell onto him, driving his right shoulder into the ground. On presentation to the Emergency Department, he complained of right shoulder pain and difficulty swallowing. His right arm was semi-adducted and he was unable to move it without significant anterior chest discomfort. A chest radiograph was performed (Figure 1), followed by a computed tomography (CT) scan of the chest with intravenous contrast (Figures 2, 3).

Traumatic Dislocation of the Hip in a High School Football Player

Although traumatic dislocation of the hip often occurs as a result of automobile accidents, dislocations have been reported to occur during sports activities. Using the experience in treating a 17-year-old high school football player with a posterior dislocation, complicated by involvement of the sciatic nerve, this case report provides background information on hip dislocations and provides a description of the immediate treatment by the physician, followed by 6 weeks of immobilization, and a detailed account of the 5-month intervention. The patient was injured while making a tackle during a high school football game when another player fell on him from behind. The case report describes his plan of care after immediate hip reduction surgery and 6 weeks on crutches. Generally, the program utilized a progression of non-weight-bearing resistance training and stretching in the initial stages of intervention and progressed to weight-bearing activities (on land and in the pool) as the patient was able to tolerate more stress. In addition, the treatment of the sciatic nerve using electrical stimulation during treadmill walking is described. The patient was seen in an outpatient physical therapy clinic an average of 2 times per week for 5 months. At the end of 5 months, results of the Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) indicated that recreational and sporting activities were within normal limits, and the patient was able to return to playing on his high school football team the next year.

Meningitis in the Athlete

Infectious diseases among athletic teams commonly present challenges for team physicians and primary care doctors. There is some evidence to suggest that athletes are more susceptible to infection during an outbreak of the general population. The frequent physical contact and close travel arrangements associated with many team sports may put athletes at even greater risk. Viral meningitis is the most commonly reported central nervous system infection in the literature, and transmission seems to be increased among U.S. high school football teams. Septic meningitis is a life-threatening emergency that can occur in outbreaks affecting populations frequently involved in organized athletics (adolescents and young adults). The purpose of this review is to identify current medical literature on the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of meningitis in the athletic population.

Dancing around the Subject: Race in Country Fan Culture

Two roommates are hanging out in a dorm, playing their records for each other. Alan puts on one of his favorite tunes, and from the speakers, country star Buck Owens belts out “Act Naturally” in his trademark, twangy Bakersfield vocals.1 Alan bounces awkwardly out of time to the music, a look of pure glee on his face. Nearly giddy with enthusiasm, he blurts out, “Yes! This one … I mean, I don't even have to ask, but I will. What do you think of this one?” His roommate cradles his head in his hands, and with his face grimaced in an expression of pure agony, wails, “Does the term ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ mean anything to you?!” This short scene appeared in October 2000 in Hollywood's blockbuster film Remember the Titans, a triumphant story of teamwork and friendship overcoming racial difference and segregation.2 Based on the true story of integrating white and black high school football teams in Virginia, the film used its soundtrack to highlight cultural differences based on race. Alan (played by Ryan Gosling) is white; his roommate Blue (Earl C. Poitier) is black, and Blue's musical sensibilities are obviously assaulted by Alan's beloved country music. By the end of the film, the white and black players have befriended each other, both on the playing field and off. The soundtrack artfully represents their reconciliation by having all the players embrace the same music—decidedly not the country twang that Alan introduced, but instead the soul and rhythm-and-blues tracks that the black players brought.

"Breaking the Plane": Integration and Black Protest in Michigan State University Football during the 1960s

"Breaking the Plane": Integration and Black Protest inMichigan State University Football during the 1960s by John Matthew Smith Before top-ranked Notre Dame played second-ranked Michigan State University (MSU) in November 1966, the media built up the contest as "the game of the century." It was the first time in college football history that the top two teams would meet so late in the season. Millions of college-football fans anticipated what they hoped would be "the greatest battle since Hector fought Achilles."1 Equally remarkable was the racial makeup of each team: Michigan State would start twelve black players while Notre Dame had only one. By 1966, MSU fielded so many black players that the team was often compared to those of Historically Black Colleges and Universities like Grambling, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical, and Morgan State.2 For Michigan State star player Charles "Bubba" Smith, a black Texas native who had never played in an integrated stadium until he went to college, this would be the pinnacle of his college career. If Smith symbolized Michigan State football, Jim Lynch, a white Irish-Cathohc Ohioan and All-American linebacker, epitomized the kind of player for whom Notre Dame fans In addition to the staff of the Michigan Historical Review and the anonymous referees, I would like to thank Nora Faires, Mitch Kachun, John Larson, and Randy Roberts for their support, their careful reading of earlier drafts of this article, and their suggestions for revision. 1 "Fans, Bets, and Alcohol Abound as Nation Sets for Big Football Game," Wall Street Journal, November 18, 1966. See also Mike Celizic, The Biggest Game ofThem All: Notre Dame, Michigan State, and theFall of '66 (New York Simon & Schuster, 1992). Celizic, a journalist and Notre Dame alumnus, provides a fine account of the buildup to 'The Poll Bowl" and the game itself. However, while his work does discuss the fact that MSU had a large number of black players, there is little analysis of the significance of the game in the context of the civil rights movement. 2Alan Page was the only black player on Notre Dame's varsity squad. Souvenir Program, Michigan State versus Notre Dame, November 19, 1966; Lawrence Casey, "Sports Ledger," Michigan Chronicle, October 30,1965; "And He's You Know What," Baltimore Afro American, October 18,1966. Michigan Historical Review 33:2 (Fall 2007): 101-129 ?2007 by Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved. 102 Michigan Historical Review were used to cheering. At a pep rally two days before the game, on Notre Dame's pristine campus in South Bend, Indiana, forty-five hundred students and fans flooded the old field house as the marching band played the school's fight song. With chants of "cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame" ringing from the rafters, the overwhelmingly white male crowd hanged Bubba Smith in effigy next to a sign that read "LYNCH 'EM."3 Coaches and athletes were often hanged in effigy by the fans and students of opposing schools, but "hanging" Smith next to a sign that said lynch 'em suggested some mixture of insensitivity and outright racial bias at Notre Dame. Two years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and nearly twenty years after Jackie Robinson broke major league baseball's color barrier, the "dummy in the green uniform with a number 95" represented not only Bubba Smith but a rejection of racial equality.4 Well into the twentieth century lynching had expressed and enforced white supremacy in the South, and the powerful memory of mob rule was reinforced for African Americans in the 1960s when their churches were bombed, or they were clubbed and hosed by pohce or stoned by white crowds. Notre Dame's rally was emblematic of a dominant white sports culture that resisted integration. The racial makeup of each school's football team illustrates the uneven progress of the civil rights movement. On one end of the spectrum, Notre Dame represented how hard blacks had to struggle to move beyond token athletic integration at predominantly white institutions. At the other end, Michigan State's squad was an example of what a fully integrated team might look hke. While many northern...

Breaking the Silence: Power, Conflict, and Contested Frames within an Affluent High School

This article examines an incident between male student athletes within a locker room at a private school. The reaction of many in this school community to this incident reveals that “hazing” rituals were normally ignored or condoned by many of the parents, coaches, administrators, and teachers who were aware of them. These attitudes changed when the incident was formally brought to the attention of the larger, public audience of the community. We analyze conflicting framings of this incident, exploring how a “joke” in the private space of the locker room became a case of “sexual harassment” in the public arena of the school, and how subsequent conflicts emerged and were resolved. We examine the reasons why different individuals and constituencies had different ways of framing the event, and how this incident can be framed as “hazing,”“joking,” or a liminoid rite of initiation into an affluent high school's football team.

COMMUNITY-ACQUIRED METHICILLIN-RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS OUTBREAK IN A LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL TEAM UNSUCCESSFUL INTERVENTIONS

A retrospective review of an outbreak of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus soft tissue infections in a high school football team was conducted. Thirteen players had 20 infections. Available community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates showed identical antibiotic susceptibility and field inversion gel electrophoresis analysis band patterns. Nasal cultures and mupirocin were ineffective at predicting and controlling infection, respectively. Infections treated with beta-lactam antibiotics were at risk for recurrence.

Does Testosterone Relate To Physical Maturity Of 13???14 Year-old Boys Involved In American Football?

The literature claims that involvement in organized sports, like American football, could provoke marked fluctuations in testosterone levels. However, little is known how involvement in American football interacts with the physical maturation process. PURPOSE To examine the relationship between involvement in American football and testosterone (T) levels of 13–14 year-old boys and in addition examine how this involvement in sports was associated with their physical maturation process. METHODS Thirty-two male football players (age 14 +/- 0.4), members of a junior high school football team, volunteered to participate in the study. Each participant was given a coded envelope containing two questionnaires. The first questionnaire was used to quantify the number of training sessions and training hours per week as well as the time period they were involved in the sport both during and off-season. The second questionnaire was a physical maturity questionnaire modified for males. Bioelectrical impedance was used to estimate relative body fat [percent body fat (%BF)] using the variables, age, weight, height and sex. In addition, the OMROM displayed the BMI of each participant. Two samples of saliva were collected to avoid the complication of diurnal fluctuations of testosterone. The second sample was taken an hour after the first sampling, and the means from both collections were calculated. RESULTS No significant difference (depended pair t-test, P =0.05) was found between the two T samples. Height was significantly correlated (r = .434, P=0.05) with Physical Maturity. As expected, weight was significantly correlated (r = .530, P <v:shape id=_x0000_i1027 style=“WIDTH: 5.25pt; HEIGHT: 7.5pt” alt=“0.01”) with the body fat percentage and BMI. Total free Testosterone was not significantly related to any of the variables. Percent body fat (%BF) and BMI were significantly correlated (r =. 707, P <v:shape id=_x0000_i1028 style=“WIDTH: 5.25pt; HEIGHT: 7.5pt” alt=“0.01”). CONCLUSIONS The findings of the study indicate that physical maturation is not associated with the number or hours of training. Exercise training had little relationship to the participants T levels and the T levels had little relationship to physical maturity. Further investigation is needed to determine what factors are involved (hormonal changes, epiphyseal injuries, athlete selection, etc) and how these factors might affect the maturation process of prepubertal children that are involved in sports incorporating intense training. In addition, further investigation is needed to define the intensive training threshold that might affect physical maturation.

Does Testosterone Relate To Physical Maturity Of 13–14 Year-old Boys Involved In American Football?

The literature claims that involvement in organized sports, like American football, could provoke marked fluctuations in testosterone levels. However, little is known how involvement in American football interacts with the physical maturation process. PURPOSE To examine the relationship between involvement in American football and testosterone (T) levels of 13–14 year-old boys and in addition examine how this involvement in sports was associated with their physical maturation process. METHODS Thirty-two male football players (age 14 +/- 0.4), members of a junior high school football team, volunteered to participate in the study. Each participant was given a coded envelope containing two questionnaires. The first questionnaire was used to quantify the number of training sessions and training hours per week as well as the time period they were involved in the sport both during and off-season. The second questionnaire was a physical maturity questionnaire modified for males. Bioelectrical impedance was used to estimate relative body fat [percent body fat (%BF)] using the variables, age, weight, height and sex. In addition, the OMROM displayed the BMI of each participant. Two samples of saliva were collected to avoid the complication of diurnal fluctuations of testosterone. The second sample was taken an hour after the first sampling, and the means from both collections were calculated. RESULTS No significant difference (depended pair t-test, P =0.05) was found between the two T samples. Height was significantly correlated (r = .434, P=0.05) with Physical Maturity. As expected, weight was significantly correlated (r = .530, P <v:shape id=_x0000_i1027 style=“WIDTH: 5.25pt; HEIGHT: 7.5pt” alt=“0.01”) with the body fat percentage and BMI. Total free Testosterone was not significantly related to any of the variables. Percent body fat (%BF) and BMI were significantly correlated (r =. 707, P <v:shape id=_x0000_i1028 style=“WIDTH: 5.25pt; HEIGHT: 7.5pt” alt=“0.01”). CONCLUSIONS The findings of the study indicate that physical maturation is not associated with the number or hours of training. Exercise training had little relationship to the participants T levels and the T levels had little relationship to physical maturity. Further investigation is needed to determine what factors are involved (hormonal changes, epiphyseal injuries, athlete selection, etc) and how these factors might affect the maturation process of prepubertal children that are involved in sports incorporating intense training. In addition, further investigation is needed to define the intensive training threshold that might affect physical maturation.

Analysis of baseline by treatment interactions in a drug prevention and health promotion program for high school male athletes

This paper investigates baseline by treatment interactions (BTI) of a randomized anabolic steroid prevention program delivered to high school football players. Baseline by treatment interactions occur when a participant's score on an outcome variable is associated with both their pretreatment standing on the outcome variable and the treatment itself. The program was delivered to 31 high school football teams (Control=16, Treatment=15) in Oregon and Washington over the course of 3 years (Total N=3207). Although most interactions were nonsignificant, consistent baseline by treatment interactions were obtained for knowledge of the effects of steroid use and intentions to use steroids. Both of these interactions were beneficial in that they increased the effectiveness of the program for participants lower in knowledge and higher in intentions at baseline.

The Town that Sold its Sunset

Rising above Pennsylvania's fertile river valleys, an ancient Appalachian ridgeline abuts the town of Palmerton. At the base of this corroded mountain, the day's dying rays seem to linger long after sunset. Mountain-veiled dusk swaths a town where people still know each other's names, attend the community festival in August, and root for the high school football team, the "Bombers." Many residents see nothing wrong with Palmerton. And little is wrong—except that the town and surrounding mountain are poisoned. The mountain above Palmerton is bare. Its trees are dead, its wildlife has fled, and with each rain its dark soil flows down open earthen arteries. Some town yards nurse not even a blade of grass. Instead, townspeople hold Fourth of July barbeques on backyards of blacktop, bark chips and Astroturf. Louise Calvin's yard was once one of these areas. On a warm day in April, I meet Louise Calvin in a small diner near her hometown and not far from my hometown. She introduces herself and asks that I call her Louise. As she speaks to me, she looks past the droning lights and the dull metal shell of the café, over the homes and the gray-granite graveyards, past the onion-dome churches and sky-slicing smokestacks to the heart of Palmerton—a rust-red zinc smelter. Palmerton was born to refine zinc. Its houses and churches cluster around an industry that melts rock for the metal within. From 1898 until 1980, Palmerton's people fed ore to the town smelter. With each passing year, its stacks belched lead, cadmium, arsenic, and zinc—smelting's toxic by-products—across the town and valley. Pollution from zinc smelting has now put Palmerton on the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) list of the most contaminated places in the country. But many of Louise's neighbors disagree with the agency. The dangerous levels [End Page 90] of lead in their homes, some residents say, came from old lead paint on their walls. It could not have come, they say, from their jobs. A photograph in Louise's mother's high school yearbook from 1939 shows a forested mountain overlooking a wilderness town. The trees of sixty years ago grew so dense that at sunset the mountain appeared washed in a subdued midnight blue against a polychrome sky. For this reason, people called the ridge "Blue Mountain." But the mountain above Palmerton no longer shimmers blue at day's end. Today the treeless mountain has faded to gray. A yearbook picture is all Louise has to remind her that the mountain once grew trees. During the 1930s the smelter's researchers developed something called Leafox-200, a zinc oxide product that prevents mold and fungus on houseplants. The product worked better than expected. As smelter smoke spread Leafox-200's ingredients throughout the valley, an area surrounding Palmerton's zinc smelter twice the size of Manhattan has been defoliated, denuded, and destroyed. The town continues to operate under a dusty veil. People awake to sun streaks on corroding smelter stacks. Babies crawl across Astroturf lawns. Nurses draw blood from young children to test for lead contamination. Residents work on at the smelter. People endure in this town without a view—a town that long ago sold its sunset. I grew up a few miles south of Palmerton on the other side of Blue Mountain. In the lee of the mountain, my home was shielded from Palmerton's poisoned wind. But one day at the age of twelve, I hiked beyond the mountain's green veil and saw the other side. Now, after many years of researching similar environmental problems, I find myself again on the trail to Palmerton. As I have done so many times before, I travel the road from my house that curls through a notch in the mountain and on toward Palmerton. From this notch, the mountain stretches southwest...

Volume, Surface Area, and the Harmonic Mean

1. E. Barbeau, Perron's result and a decision on admission tests, this MAGAZINE 59: 1 (1986), 12-22. 2. D. Harville, The use of linear-model methodology to rate high school or college football teams, J. Amer Statist. Assoc. 72 (1977), 278. 3. T. A. Jech, The ranking of incomplete tournaments: a mathematician's guide to popular sports, Amer. Math. Monthly 90 (1983), 246-266. 4. J. P. Keener, The Perron-Frobenius theorem and the ranking of football teams, SIAM Review 35:1 (1993), 80-93.

Kids with medical conditions need help choosing the right sport

![Figure][1] Choosing the most appropriate sport can be difficult for children who suffer from medical conditions. Larry, a Colorado high school student with congenital aortic stenosis, dreams of becoming the punter on his high school football team. Like other adolescents who suffer from

Multilevel Modeling of Individual and Group Level Mediated Effects

This article combines procedures for single-level mediational analysis with multilevel modeling techniques in order to appropriately test mediational effects in clustered data. A simulation study compared the performance of these multilevel mediational models with that of single-level mediational models in clustered data with individual- or group-level initial independent variables, individual- or group-level mediators, and individual level outcomes. The standard errors of mediated effects from the multilevel solution were generally accurate, while those from the single-level procedure were downwardly biased, often by 20% or more. The multilevel advantage was greatest in those situations involving group-level variables, larger group sizes, and higher intraclass correlations in mediator and outcome variables. Multilevel mediational modeling methods were also applied to data from a preventive intervention designed to reduce intentions to use steroids among players on high school football teams. This example illustrates differences between single-level and multilevel mediational modeling in real-world clustered data and shows how the multilevel technique may lead to more accurate results.