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EDITOR’S NOTE: Ninth grade students at Belwood-Antis were asked to read a recent article about a mother in Wisconsin suing a Pop Waner football league over the suicide of her son, which she claims was brought on by the head trauma he suffered while playing football.  They were then asked to write an opinion piece referencing the article and addressing the question: should hard contact sports like football be banned for young people.

Debra Pyka is a normal mother. Her son Joseph, however, is less than ordinary. Joseph committed suicide in 2012 due to brain injuries he sustained from playing football.

Joseph started playing football when he was 11-years old, and accumulated numerous injuries over the course of the next 14 years. Would Joseph have the same fate if he had not been able to play football? I believe that in order to prevent more cases like this, we should ban hard contact sports-such as football-until varsity level. This will prevent many injuries in youth. The children of America are our future, and their health is being endangered. It’s for this reason that injuries, especially brain injuries such as concussions, should be our top priority.

To begin with, students would get to play these sports; they would just have to wait longer. For example, if a student really wants to play basketball and chooses to pursue it into college, they can still play throughout high school. This would give them up to four years of “practice” before trying out for college. In addition to being experienced, students will also still be able to achieve scholarships. As long as the students play in high school, they will still get scholarships to play in college.

Next, I believe that we should ban hard contact until the varsity level because parents-as well as players-are not informed of the risks of playing. The article says that “Pop Warner never warned Chernach, other children or parents about the risk of playing tackle football.” This shows how some leagues are irresponsible. If they can’t be trusted to tell parents the dangers of playing, then can they even be trusted to exist? Also, does it really require the threat of a lawsuit to make these leagues be responsible?

Finally, and most importantly, hard contact sports have a high risk for injury. Kids that play sports when they are young are more susceptible to brain injury. If we ban hard contact sports until the varsity level, people’s brains will be more developed and they will be less likely to brain injury.