The Las Vegas Review Journal has a story headlined, Math-inclined assistant has Eagles coach Doug Pederson’s ear. That "math-inclined assistant" is onetime Dartmouth running back Ryan Paganetti '14 (who just so-happened to live directly across the hall from That Certain Dartmouth '14 when they were freshmen).
Paganetti's first experience with analytics came helping out at Belmont Hill School while still at Dartmouth. Belmont Hill coach Chris Butler on Paganetti:
“The thing that I really valued with Ryan is that even at a young age, he wasn’t afraid to disagree with me or say, ‘Hey, in this situation we should be doing A, B and C.’ That’s great to have on the sideline when you can get that other voice, especially in high school. We’re not dealing with the same volumes of data as they do in the NFL. But Ryan was just great in terms of situational stuff. …
“I’m a pretty conservative coach. He was far more aggressive in certain situations, and that was helpful. … He’s a brilliant young man. Very driven. Very focused.”Find the full Las Vegas Review Journal story HERE.
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A loyal BGA support sent along a clipping from a Wall Street Journal letter to the editor that is food for thought, particularly today. Here's how it reads:As a neurologist, I couldn’t agree more with Dr. Auerbach’s pleas to save football players’ brains. However, I wonder why we stop there?
The American Journal of Sports Medicine published a review of concussions in 17 NCAA sports from 2009-14. This is important, as the typical college athlete still has a developing brain. It found that the highest proportion of recurrent concussions among student athletes in 17 sports was (in descending order): men’s ice hockey, women’s field hockey, men’s basketball, women’s soccer, women’s basketball, women’s softball, women’s ice hockey, women’s lacrosse, women’s gymnastics, men’s wrestling, men’s lacrosse, women’s volleyball and, finally, men’s football.
Yet I don’t see a lot of interest expressed in tackling the risk of recurrent concussion in these other sports. Nor do I see a lot of interest in having these women’s sports address concussion. I have yet to see a field hockey game where the women were wearing helmets.
Perhaps we should look at all sports and protect all athletes, , not just the ones which garner the most press.
Todd J. Janus, PhD., MS, FAAN
Des Moines, IowaGreen Alert Take: I found the cited Epidemiology of Sports-Related Concussions in National Collegiate Athletic Association Athletes From 2009-2010 to 2013-2014 online. Reading it through is a reminder why I'm a writer and not a scientist ;-)
