When to let injured players return?

My DD was out for two months with rotator cuff/bicep tendinitis. TB coach was fine with it since she was doing PT twice per week and working on it. It was the school PE teacher who gave her crap about it, even with a doctor's note. They were going to the weight room and PE teacher was pushing her to do leg machines. Well, some of those leg machines require you to hold on/brace with your arms and it can pull on the shoulder. DH had to talk to her to get her to let DD just use the treadmill or something else during weight time. If my DD was more meek than she is, she could have really aggravated the injury because she didn't want the PE teacher (who is our head Varsity Girls' basketball coach) to be mad at her.

On Tuesday I was watching a JV softball game. One of the girls on the other team was recovering from a recent injury, I think a broken arm or something.

Anyway, this girl was on third, tried to get home on wild pitch or something, I can't remember, but I do remember the play at the plate. Catcher for DD 3's team is a big girl. DD 3 was pitching, ran to the plate for the play. Catcher ran over and made the tag, but it was probably a hard tag since the catcher was running one direction and the runner the other, a bit of a collision right in front of the plate.

Turns out the tag was exactly right on the spot that had been broken earlier. The game stopped for a few minutes while the girl was sobbing in pain, being consoled by the coaches until she could finally get up and leave the game.

And the girl didn't even score the run. She was out. All that pain for nothing.

I truly hope the poor girl's injury wasn't aggravated. Not worth it for a game.

And remember another close call. Almost 4 years ago DD 3 hurt her wrist playing LL games, and made the injury much worse pitching in a tournament. After we saw the doctor, the doctor said she could play the two games on two nights of the end of the season LL tournament, but she had to quit her all-star team, and had to rest her wrist for a while after that.

The first game, I talked to her coach (by coincidence the father of the catcher who made the tag on Tuesday), and discussed what positions she could and couldn't play. Everything seemed find, then DD 3 was running to first, and tripped. My reaction was, oh, that is going to make this minor injury a major injury that will require surgery now. Thank the heavens DD 3 had the presence of mind to stick out her elbows and land on her elbows. Her elbows were scraped, but her wrist wasn't damaged.

Or another time when DD 1 had surgery while in elementary school, and we sent her in with a note not to do anything in gym class. Substitute teacher ignored the note, so we called the principal right away to make sure that would never happen again. Fortunately nothing bad happened, but it could've.


SO coach, if you let the girl get back into the game too soon, you are playing with dynamite. Worst comes to worst, it could blow up in your face as a lawsuit, or it could blow up on the girl as a permanent injury. Don't take the chance. Protect the girl, and protect your sorry six.

CMMom1740 said:

My DD was out for two months with rotator cuff/bicep tendinitis. TB coach was fine with it since she was doing PT twice per week and working on it. It was the school PE teacher who gave her crap about it, even with a doctor's note. They were going to the weight room and PE teacher was pushing her to do leg machines. Well, some of those leg machines require you to hold on/brace with your arms and it can pull on the shoulder. DH had to talk to her to get her to let DD just use the treadmill or something else during weight time. If my DD was more meek than she is, she could have really aggravated the injury because she didn't want the PE teacher (who is our head Varsity Girls' basketball coach) to be mad at her.

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I think I remember this from a thread a few years ago. It got me angry to read it, because of something my DD 1 went through in grade school (mentioned in my previous post). I remember in DD 1's case, calling up the principal, who was horrified, to make sure it never, ever happened again.

Phathead said:

I agree with your thought but don't want to be in a court room lawsuit and my only back up is they dressed her out said it's ok. They said " xyz" can or could be iffy. I have went by parents word in TB since I knew parents well. School ball no way.

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School ball is much more regulated, but generally, there's a ton of "assumed risk" in sports. Softball, like many other sports, is something where injuries are common. Playing with some kind of dent or ding is common. Heck, probably a fourth of DD's team has some kind of hurt at any given time.

Absent gross negligence, lawsuits are more feared than real. My kids have been involved with sports for a decade, and I've coached most of that time. I've seen coaches do some sketchy things, and there are a couple who I'd like to strangle, but I've never even heard of a lawsuit. When I say "gross negligence", I mean something well beyond the normal conduct of a practice or game. Coaches aren't expected to be doctors, and unless there's an obvious and significant injury present (and the parents aren't around), or the coach does something really reckless that causes injury, a lawsuit is a waste of time. That, and I can't imagine anything more toxic to the kid's chances for making a future team than parents who've attempted legal action against a previous coach.

Strike2 said:

Absent gross negligence, lawsuits are more feared than real. My kids have been involved with sports for a decade, and I've coached most of that time. I've seen coaches do some sketchy things, and there are a couple who I'd like to strangle, but I've never even heard of a lawsuit. When I say "gross negligence", I mean something well beyond the normal conduct of a practice or game. Coaches aren't expected to be doctors, and unless there's an obvious and significant injury present (and the parents aren't around), or the coach does something really reckless that causes injury, a lawsuit is a waste of time. That, and I can't imagine anything more toxic to the kid's chances for making a future team than parents who've attempted legal action against a previous coach.

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1000% agree nor have I seen it. In TB wasn't as worried since bloody turnips are scarce. Parents could see school system as a cash cow and I would be more inclined to cover my rear.

CYA...if they don't have a docs written clearance (recommended) at least have them sign a release to play. If they were initially saying surgery is required then retracted, what if she re-injures and now surgery is required, who pays? If this is a club team possibly consult your insurance provider, maybe they have an applicable release to play form. You don't want to be the person the buck stops with if something happens and the question is asked "who approved her to play".

If this is a school team, I would think you would want to defer to the AD and/or medical personnel. I would assume a school has a protocol in place for clearance since they are so wary of legal exposure.

CMMom1740 said:

My DD was out for two months with rotator cuff/bicep tendinitis. TB coach was fine with it since she was doing PT twice per week and working on it. It was the school PE teacher who gave her crap about it, even with a doctor's note. They were going to the weight room and PE teacher was pushing her to do leg machines. Well, some of those leg machines require you to hold on/brace with your arms and it can pull on the shoulder. DH had to talk to her to get her to let DD just use the treadmill or something else during weight time. If my DD was more meek than she is, she could have really aggravated the injury because she didn't want the PE teacher (who is our head Varsity Girls' basketball coach) to be mad at her.

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Ugh. I hate seeing stories like this.

In case I came off as someone like this PE teacher, that's not me! Since our player got hurt, I've been telling her she'll be back in time for the summer team. I'm only just now even considering her getting back sooner because she's begging to play.

I spoke with my AD this morning, and since we never were given any kind of documentation on the injury, he's fine with a parent-signed letter stating she can play. I'm not so worried about the legal ramifications though. I'm worried about, as others have brought up, some fluke thing happening and her injuring her finger again. Then she misses more time, just because she had to try to play in a couple games.

You came off great IMO. Just asking a good question.