For years and years football games have been a huge part of the “High school experience.” Your parents may have played football or been cheerleaders, and possibly your grandparents as well; needless to say it’s been around a while.

It was reported by Sports Illustrated that in the 2015 year, 11 students in America died from football related accidents. Football has year after year come out on top for the highest amount of injuries so what should be done about it?

As the number of years these football programs have on their backs grow, the amount of injuries within in them grow as well. The amount of children that participate in school sports has nearly doubled since the 1971-1972 school year from 4 million to a staggering 8 million as of 2016 as told by David Mills of Health News. With this increase in players, there is going to be an increase in injuries by default.

In order to prevent injuries and to treat ones should they happen, athletic trainers overlook most high school football games within most N.C school districts. As told by The Charlotte Observer in 2010, “CMS announced a five-year agreement with Carolina’s Healthcare to bring the trainers, who will be Carolina’s Healthcare employees, to the schools campuses.” It would also be acceptable for lower level first responders to be present instead.

This act of course would be expired in 2015 but to no dismay, a state policy was created in its place requiring schools to have a licensed trainer present during all high school football games and practices. The next preventive step to these increasing numbers would be to make this policy true in all states and then true for all high risk sports.

With as many years that football has been in schools, it is widely known the dangers that come with it. Removing the program would be devastating to students and teachers alike. It is entertainment as well as it is a good outlet for students to partake in to keep them active and engaged. With cheer leading being centralized around football, it is an all inclusive sport that would be heart-breaking to lose.