SPORTS
The head coach of Army,
one of the nation's
best, answers a perennial
parent question: jQJ
Your Boy Play
Football?
By PAUL DIETZEL
Should your boy play football? For
that matter, should any boy play
football?
I can't honestly say to you: "Yes!" I don't
know your boy. But I can say this to you: "Al
most every boy who is physically able should
play football."
President Kennedy and President Eisen
hower before him warned the nation's youth
that it was becoming soft and sedentary. Wher
ever possible, boys should be active participants,
not side-line spectators. Football, of course,
means sweat and labor and often tears. But it
is one of the best tests of personal abilities
including determination and fighting spirit.
On a bronze plaque outside Michie Stadium
at West Point is written : "I want an officer for
a secret and dangerous mission. I want a West
Point football player." That statement was made
by Gen. George C. Marshall, then chief of staff
of the U.S. Army in World War II.
Another general once told me his only prob
lem with former athletes during the Korean war
was that he had to hold them back by the shirt
tail. Ma.. young men who had been brilliant
in the classroom were busy looking up the cor
rect procedures when circumstances called for
leadership by action. This ability to take over
when leadership is needed is an asset constantly
nurtured on the field of play.
But will your boy be injured playing football?
Ho might. He might also get hurt driving around
in the family car. Statistics show that in the
15- to 21-year age group automobile deaths
lead football fatalities by hundreds to one. The
bruises he'll receive playing football can be
painful, but there will always be a doctor avail
able, and with present medical and training tech
niques, most athletic injuries heal completely in
less than three months.
Who should play football?
1. Only boys who want to play football not
boys whose fathers want them on the field.
2. Only boys physically fit. A doctor should
check prospective players.
3. Only boys in good condition. It's not enough
to train a week before the season. Condition
ing is a year-round necessity.
For pre-teen-agers boys between seven and
12 contact sports should be supervised. Com
petition is an essential part of every child's ed
ucation, but it must be allowed to develop nor
mally, with competition and cooperation as bal
anced forces in his personality. Athletics need
to be as carefully supervised as other parts of his
education are.
IN ADDITION, the American Medical Association
discourages interschool and intercommunity
contact sports for children in the, pre-teen group.
The pre-teen's excitement should come only from
playing and playing only because he likes to
play, not to satisfy desires of adults or to be
exploited by them.
As a parent of a football-playing boy, you
have a right to demand certain conditions of his
school. Perhaps the most important is that there
be a physician as well as a trainer on duty. The
best equipment should be provided as well. If
your school can't afford the best, your school
can't afford football.
Until a few years ago, the first game of the
season was scheduled after only a few days'
practice. The greatest number of injuries oc
curred in these early games when players were
not properly conditioned. Now a minimum of
three weeks' conditioning should precede the
first game, with a suitable number of practice
periods before the first contact scrimmage.
When all the requirements I've mentioned
requirements of boy and school are met,
then I'd say your boy should play football. I feel
that today's adult world tells youngsters to get by
with as little effort as possible, to take care of
"No. 1" (yourself) first, to sit back and let
the "other guy" do it. Those are unhealthy ideas
to carry into adulthood. But if a boy goes out
for football .and sticks to it, he is not likely
to become a selfish slacker. There's no place in
football for that kind.
Football can make your boy a champion. If
he's willing to be the first guy on the practice
field every day and if he works at being the
best on the field, if he's willing to learn that the
team comes before any personal glory and if he's
willing to give any time the team asks, then
win or lose your boy is a champion I
COVER:
Teen-ape actress llayley Mills has a daz
zling film career before her (she plays her
first groum-up role in "The Chalk Gar
den"), and no small credit goes to "The
Woman Behind liayley Mills," page It.
Family
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