Focus Story Structure: Football Injury

High School Football Resulting in Serious Injuries

Many high school athletics dream of playing in the Friday night football games under bright lights and their friends and family cheering for them in the stands. A 16 teen-year-old, junior named Pete Stenhoof was one of them. During one of those games at Chula Vista High School in Redmond, California Stenhoof rammed his head into the ball carrier's chest cracking vertebrae in his spine. Now he is unfortunately confirmed to wheelchair. At the time of the accident, Stenhoff weighed 210 pounds and now he weighs 172 pounds. He was not able to graduate with his class and is now taking correspondence courses to get his diploma.
There are 20,000 injuries in high school football each year with twelve of them result in permanently disabling the victims. Thirty-five percent of the injuries are to the neck and head and many critics blame the helmet. Sadly thirteen youth died last year because of high school football injuries. Stenhoff is not bitter, "I knew the risks involved when I decided to play football." He also added, "I wish I would have known just how bad it could be."