When the Desire Street Academy football team played in a Louisiana state semifinal playoff game yesterday, the Lions featured three starting linemen who weigh at least 135kg and two others who weigh 122kg and 127kg, reflecting a trend in which high school players are increasingly reaching a size once seen almost exclusively among linemen in college and the NFL.
High school football rosters reveal weight issues that go beyond the overall increase in obesity rates among children in the US. Two studies this year, one published in The Journal of the American Medical Association and another in The Journal of Pediatrics, found that weight problems among high school football players - especially linemen - far outpaced those of other male children and adolescents.
Now coaches and researchers fear that some young athletes may be endangering their health in an effort to reach massive proportions and attract the attention of college recruiters.
"The old saying was, 'Wait till you get to college to make it a business,'" said Rusty Barrilleaux, the coach at Hammond High in southeastern Louisiana and a former offensive lineman at Louisiana State. "It's still fun, but if you want to get to college, you have to get that size. The pressure is definitely on."
TROUBLING STATS
While massive size may make a small number of players more attractive to recruiters, doctors and researchers say they are growing concerned about long-term health risks associated with being overweight and obese. Some advocate weight limits for high school football, similar to a cap of 129kg for heavyweight wrestlers.
A study of more than 3,600 high school linemen in Iowa, published in January in The Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 45 percent were overweight and 9 percent were classified with severe adult obesity. This compares with 18 percent of male children and adolescents who are overweight.
Another study of 650 football players in Michigan youth leagues from ages 9 to 14, published last month in The Journal of Pediatrics, found that 45 percent were overweight or obese, with the problem more prevalent among linemen, who are typically the biggest players on the team.
"That's staggering," said Robert Malina, a professor emeritus of kinesiology at Texas and the lead author of the Michigan study. "Youngsters are already being rewarded for being big and overweight before playing big-time football."
He said he was concerned that the culture of football "puts a premium on big boys the way gymnastics puts a premium on small, underweight girls."
High school football players are participating in a sport that is becoming increasingly businesslike and pressure-filled, even though only 6 percent of seniors go on to play in college.
Weight-training programs are essentially conducted year-round. Linemen face pressure to keep up with counterparts who are getting bigger. They also face urging from coaches to gain or maintain weight and from parents who hope they might receive college scholarships.
And it takes nothing more than turning on the television to see the gargantuan size needed to play on the line in college and in the NFL.
For those who want to gain weight, legal dietary supplements are readily available and largely unregulated. Also, high school athletes who choose to use banned performance-enhancing drugs are unlikely to be caught; only three states have drug-testing programs, and they are not considered rigorous.
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