Coaches report that injuries caused by player-to-player contact is often intentional

Online, June 9, 2010 (Newswire.com) - June 8, 2010 Purchase, NY- In a survey of thousands of travel, high school and college coaches compiled by Manhattanville College's National Coach Survey Research Center, over half of the respondents believe that one of their players had been intentionally injured by an opponent. A full report on the survey results can be found at www.nationalcoachsurvey.org.

More results: 68% of the more than 5,000 coaches who responded to the survey believe that it was at least "possible" that one of their athletes was intentionally injured. Twenty-one percent believed that their player was "definitely" injured on purpose, while 16% said it was "probable."

"One of the basic tenets of good sportsmanship is, of course, that nobody wants to see either themselves or one's opponent be injured during the course of competition," said Rick Wolff, noted sports parenting expert and host of WFAN's "Sports Edge." "As such, if these results from travel team, high school, and college coaches are accurate - that athletes are deliberately trying to hurt others-this is a serious matter that needs to be addressed immediately."

A sampling of coaches' comments on incidents follows:

"I have witnessed an opponent intentionally kick one of my players after the ball has left his feet for at least 5 seconds and inflict a career ending ACL injury. It was on tape and the opposing coach refused to hold his player accountable for the assault. The player reflected the attitudes and behavior of his head coach."

"We have had players injured intentionally by our opponents. Some of the injuries are as follows: head butt resulted in eight stitches above the eye, sucker punches (results concussions), double forearm shivers, sucker elbows, kicking a keeper when he was down (result: literally an inch and half crack in the shin)."

"It was a blatant leg whip to the knee on one occasion and multiple times had to do with diving on the back of my players legs with attempts to injure knees or ankles. This happens a lot and mostly it is inadvertent, and it is also illegal, but in a few instances it was missed by officials and was a blatant attempt at injuring another player."

"The most egregious example of another player intentionally injuring another was in a softball game when, upon arriving at first base, after catcher's interference was called, the batter (now runner) told our first baseman that she was sorry that she hit the catcher on the arm with her bat, but her coach told her to do it."

The National Coach Survey is funded by My Sports Dreams, the nation's leading sports fundraising program, which provides support to tens of thousand of travel, high school and college teams and programs. For more information, visit www.mysportsdreams.com.

The Graduate Sports Business Management program at Manhattanville College leads to a Masters of Science degree, providing its students with the necessary knowledge and business skills to assume a leadership role in sports management. The course work provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study of sport management intended to provide a thorough foundation in sport and business, while allowing flexibility for students to explore a wide variety of opportunities within the field.