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“Take a shower, dude! You stink! And while you’re at it set aside a couple of hours and visit a laundromat!”

Many people don’t believe me when I tell them that I have this conversation with many of todays college student athletes. Of course if I told a regular college student this I’d probably get fired!

“You’re kidding me, right?”

I wish I was. But the fact of the matter is many of todays youth, at least where I work, is traumatized to take a shower in a public locker room facility.

Perhaps it’s just my generation. Grew up in the late sixties, early seventies. Streaking was in vogue. So was taking a locker room shower after PE class (which no longer exists in most parts of the country anymore) from the time we were in, oh… about 5th grade.

So being naked in front of your peers was absolutely no big deal. Everyone has parts!

The scene has drastically changed today. Many kids wouldn’t be caught dead in a locker room shower and some of those brave soles will only shower there after donning some week old sweaty, skanky swim trunks and showering in those.

“You’re kidding me, right?”

I wish I was!

“But don’t those sweaty football players shower after practices and games?”

Some do. Many don’t. I sat next next to a 290 pound fatty for a 9 hour bus ride home after a game in early September. Everyone should want to take a shower after competing on that hot field turf. But not this guy. And he wasn’t the only one.

“How about the basketballers?”

These guys never heard of a locker room shower let alone use one!

“You’re kidding me, right?”

I wish I was! But the sad truth is if the OSHA reps ever showed up they would quarantine the basketball gear and locker room facility where I work. At least the guys anyway. Don’t know about the gals all that much since I don’t make it a habit of walking through their locker room to check on someone. But I doubt the hygiene practices are much better than their counterparts across the hall.

“Runners?”

Nah! Taking a shower isn’t a part of their regiment. And they never, and I mean never, waiver from the regiment! Even if it makes total sense to do so! Endorphin overload does not allow it! They do want to crawl all over your ice baths in their stinky, sweaty, crotch soaked gear after workouts though.

Now the wrestlers always shower after every workout. And there are many. When you work as hard as they do you welcome the chance to clean up actually using soap and shampoo. But most of these guys have been wrestling since they were little so it’s no big deal. They can’t imagine not wanting to take a shower after workouts!

I don’t have many rules in the training room but one that’s strictly non-negotiable reads, “After Practice, No Shower-No Service!“, unless of course a kid is acutely injured.

“Kids probably shower then don’t they?

No they don’t! But they don’t get any service either, unless of course, they’ve sustained an acute injury. They do lie about it long and often but that’s another posting.

When enforcing this policy, and I have to do this repeatedly on a daily basis, the looks and excuses I get from the non-compliant are laughable. You would have thought I just confiscated their Xbox, iPhone, and MySpace party pictures all at the same time. Just who do I think I am?

“You’re kidding me, right?”

I wish I was! But when addressing a particular group of kids prior to the beginning of their season I emphasis the importance of showering immediately after practices and games. For several reasons!

• MRSA infections are on the rise.
• Impetigo infections are on the rise!
• Tinea (ringworm) fungus infections are on the rise!
• Herpes virus transmissions on the rise!
• Poor hygiene is on the rise!

It’s also about respect for the athletic training room facility and the Certified Athletic Trainers that are there to help them. This facility is operated and governed like a medical facility (which it is) and is not an extension of the locker room, thank goodness!

As Certified Athletic Trainers we shouldn’t have to tolerate and provide services to students athletes too lazy to clean up appropriately, choose to smell like 3 day old August road kill, and then clean up after them. I do not and will not!

The youth of America needs a good scrubbing.

I’m not kidding!

Teach a kid how to take a shower today! It’s a Win, Win!

Ike

Popularity: 45% [?]

Sportsmanship in American sport stinks! The concept is a myth. An outdated term for outdated people.

Yet the governing body for collegiate athletics, the NCAA, places more and more supposed emphasis on appropriate sportsmanship than ever and human/student behavior in this area keeps slipping out of site.

Why is this?

I’ve often wondered what drives a person to shout obscenities and degrading remarks at people in the sporting area. And I’m talking about all levels of the sport. From kids sports, high school, college, and professional levels the amount of verbal slim a participant must wade through is staggering.

Of course some of the participants contribute a fair share to poor sportsmanship but I’m talking about the fans and spectators.

It’s very difficult, disturbing, irritating, and many other adjectives I can’t use here, to deal with some of the spiteful comments that fly out of the student sections of college athletic contests.

Many college and university administrative types like to place their obnoxious student bodies immediately behind the visitors’ bench. This arrangement is to, supposedly, allow the students the opportunity to harass the opposition in a “good natured” way which will in turn provide a home crowd advantage.

Sounds good enough. Except many of the harassing comments aren’t good natured. They’re disgustingly inappropriate and if it wasn’t for the barrier separating players from spectators there would be a lot more deaths at sporting events. Particularly in the student section.

A few infamous situations that I seriously take exception to include:

1. “Hey #67, you’re nothing but a f#%&*ng pussy!” This was repeatedly shouted by a drunken student from a host institution who was no more than 30 feet from the table I was examining one of my football kids who just sustained a season ending ACL injury. Needless to say I had to fend off the urge to bait him out of the stands and inflict forceful blows about his head and shoulders (”Who’s the pussy now, dude?”). That would have gotten the attention of the administrators (and a few lawyers) that advocate having the student body sit directly on top of the visitors sidelines and scream shamelessly degrading remarks at injured kids.

2. “FU!, Go Home You Piece of S*%t!” This was repeatedly screamed at our kids following a defeat (on the field mind you!) by the host institutions’ student body. Note I said following the game! This same institution won the conference sportsmanship award that year. Nice touch, don’t you think?

3. During a wrestling dual I attended to a kid that had hurt his knee during a match. The host institution decided to seat their highly successful football team immediately at mat side, literally touching the edge of the mat. As I was assessing this injury one of these football guys shouted out, “He’s just a pussy! Throw him a tampon!” The rest of the goons rejoiced in this remark which was repeated in a later match. When our coach requested that these guys seat themselves in the stands and away from being directly on the mat he was relentlessly chastised. Like he was the cause of the problem.

Conference commissioners need to crack down hard on some of this and hard line policies and procedures for dealing with this nonsense need to be drawn up and enforced. Athletic directors need to be held accountable to insure such conduct will not be tolerated and will be dealt with swiftly and decisively.

Currently all I hear from the collegiate brass hierarchy is lip service given to the subject of sportsmanship. Poor sportsmanship is something “the other guy is guilty of. Not me!” Therein lies the problem.

So why don’t these college administrators do something about such conduct? I’ll tell you why!

There are far too many administrative types in the American work force, not just in athletics and education, that refuse to stand up, be accountable, make hard decisions, and stand by them. They would rather allow the heat and turmoil to fall on the backs of those they are hired to serve. In the case of athletics, the student athletes and coaches. It’s far easier to pretend that it’s all in good fun. Too bad it bears no resemblance to good sportsmanship.

Help a kid display good sportsmanship today. It’s a Win, Win!

Ike

Popularity: 78% [?]