Brooke de Lench | |
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Born | Plymouth, Massachusetts | February 15, 1952
Occupation | Author, writer, filmmaker and young athlete safeguards and sports injury prevention advocate |
Nationality | American |
Website | |
de Lench's Web page |
Brooke Cranston de Lench (born February 15, 1952) is an American author, filmmaker, journalist, and advocate. Her advocacy focuses predominantly on athlete safety, welfare and rights of young athletes. In 2000 she founded MomsTeam, Inc organization and in 2013 MomsTeam, Inc became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization MomsTeam Youth Sports Safety Institute, frequently referred to as "MomsTeam". That same year she had her directorial debut with the film The Smartest Team: Making High School Football Safer, which aired on PBS. [1] In 2015 MomsTEAM was named an Institute Pioneer Organization For U.S. Implementation of Int'l Safeguards for Children in Sport by UNICEF UK. [2] [3]
De Lench was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, raised in Duxbury, Massachusetts and Stratton Mountain, Vermont. A lifelong athlete she captained her field Hockey team in high school to a Massachusetts State Championship. [4] She currently lives in Concord, Massachusetts and is the mother of adult triplet sons. [5]
De Lench has participated in awareness campaigns, initiatives, and organizations that focus on raising awareness on athlete safety, welfare and rights in youth athletes, and has been a speaker on this topic at several summits and symposia around the world.
In 2003 she launched the nonprofit organization Teams of Angels, which supports families of children that have died or been severely injured in youth sports. [6] In 2013 she founded the MomsTeam Youth Sports Safety Institute, which raises awareness of health, nutrition and safety best practices in youth sports. [7] De Lench serves as the organization's executive director and in 2014 she, along with MomsTeam, organized the SmartTeams Play Safe summit at the Harvard Medical School. [8] Through the organization she has also launched a program called SmartTeams, which endorses the use of ideas and new technology that could minimize common issues with youth sports. [9] [10]
Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to entertain the audience, or for competition. Cheerleading routines typically range anywhere from one to three minutes, and contain components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting. Cheerleading originated in the United States, where it has become a tradition. It is less prevalent in the rest of the world, except via its association with American sports or organized cheerleading contests.
The participation of women and girls in sports, physical fitness, and exercise has existed throughout history. However, participation rates and activities vary in accordance with nation, era, geography, and stage of economic development. The modern era of organized sports did not begin to emerge either for women or men until the late industrial age.
Christopher John Nowinski is an American neuroscientist, author and retired professional wrestler. After extensively researching concussions in American football, Nowinski co-founded the Concussion Legacy Foundation, where he is currently CEO and co-founded Boston University's CTE Center. As a professional wrestler, he is best known for his tenure with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) under the ring name Chris Harvard and later under his real name.
Pop Warner Little Scholars, commonly known simply as Pop Warner, is a nonprofit organization that provides activities such as American football, for over 425,000 youths aged 5 to 16 years old, in several nations. It is the largest youth football organization in the United States.
USA Football is the governing body of American football in the United States. It is the United States' member of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), and a recognized sports organization of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee. It selects and organizes the U.S. men's national team and the U.S. women's national team in federation-sanctioned international competition. They also organize the men's and women's flag football teams.
High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, partly due to risk of injury, particularly concussions. According to The Washington Post, between 2009 and 2019, participation in high school football declined by 9.1%. It is the basic level or step of tackle football.
Mary Virginia Harvey is an American retired soccer goalkeeper. She was the starting goalie for 1991 U.S. Women's National Team which won the inaugural 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup; and a member of the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal team. Harvey retired from international competition in 1996 following the Atlanta Olympics.
The National Football League (NFL) Foundation, previously known as NFL Charities, is a non-profit making charitable organization, established by the member clubs of the National Football League (NFL) in 1973. It enables the clubs to collectively make grants to charitable and worthwhile causes at a national level.
American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or throwing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
The Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine (CJSM) is a peer-reviewed medical journal in the sports medicine field. It is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. It was established in 1990 by the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine with Gordon Matheson as the founding editor. It is also the official journal of the Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) and American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine. It is the pre-eminent non-surgical sports medicine journal of North America. In North America, sports medicine is a subspecialty field of medicine with an even split between surgical and non-surgical subspecialties. The surgical branch of sports medicine is a subspecialty field of orthopedics, whereas the non-surgical branch draws from specialties including family practice, physiatry, pediatrics, internal medicine and emergency medicine. The journal editor-in-chief is Christopher Hughes. There are active associated CJSM Blog and Podcast sites which are edited by Deputy Editor James MacDonald.
The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) is one of the two main national organizations in youth soccer in the United States for children aged 4 through 19. AYSO was established as a non-profit soccer organization in Torrance at Jefferson Elementary School in 1964 with nine teams. Today the organization claims membership of over 50,000 teams, with over 630,000 participants.
Gender in youth sports refers to the role and influence that both young male and females have in sports. The participation of youth in sports is a matter that is always trying to be improved and appeal to all genders. There are organizations across the world that are trying to improve the disparity of participation rates between boys and girls. Every sport can be played by both girls and boys.
The health issues of youth sports are concerns regarding the health and wellbeing of young people between the ages of 6 and 18 who participate in an organized sport. Given that these athletes are physically and mentally underdeveloped, they are particularly susceptible to heat illness, eating disorders and injury; sufficiently severe conditions can result in death. Awareness and prevention are key factors in preventing many health issues in youth sports.
Concussions and play-related head blows in American football have been shown to be the cause of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which has led to player deaths and other debilitating symptoms after retirement, including memory loss, depression, anxiety, headaches, stress, and sleep disturbances.
Concussions, a type of mild traumatic brain injury, are a frequent concern for those playing sports, from children and teenagers to professional athletes. Repeated concussions are known to cause neurological disorders, particularly chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which in professional athletes has led to premature retirement, erratic behavior and even suicide. A sports-related concussion is defined as a "complex pathophysiological process affecting the brain, induced by biomechanical forces". Because concussions cannot be seen on X-rays or CT scans, attempts to prevent concussions have been difficult.
Axon Sports, LLC produces cognitive training products for athletes. These tools are intended to accelerate skill acquisition and develop cognitive skills for success on the field of play. Axon Sports' training products have been adopted by professional teams, prominent USA NCAA Division I athletic departments and elite high performance training centers in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Mark John Aubry is a Canadian physician and sports medicine specialist. He is the team physician for the Ottawa Senators, and serves as the chief medical officer of both the International Ice Hockey Federation, and Hockey Canada. He researches and lectures on concussions, plays a leadership role for safety in sport, and is an injury prevention activist in minor ice hockey. He is a recipient of the Paul Loicq Award for his international work, the Dr. Tom Pashby Sports Safety Fund Award for Canada, and the USA Hockey Excellence in Safety Award for the United States. He will be inducted into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame in 2024.
Debra Geraldine Alexander, is a South African clinical psychologist and a lecturer in psychiatry at the University of Stellenbosch in South Arica. She is also active in sports governance and administration in the fields of international parasports and triathlon.
The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) is a large sports medicine membership organization, representing over 3000 physicians in the United States, established in 1991. AMSSM includes members who serve as team physicians at the youth level, NCAA, NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA, MLS, and NHL, as well as with Olympic and Paralympic teams.
Michael J. Stuart is an American sports physician and orthopedic surgeon. He is a professor and vice-chairman of orthopedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic, and a co-director of the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center. He has published more than 370 journal articles and 50 book chapters, as of 2022. He specializes in sports medicine, and advocates for strength, flexibility, and awareness, to reduce injuries in ice hockey. He collaborated to arrange the 2010, 2013 and 2017 Ice Hockey Summits, which focused on concussions, and educational programs for players, coaches and parents. His concussion research includes studying biomarkers, neuroimaging, and cognitive neuroscience. He argues that concussions are diagnosed more accurately with electroencephalography and the King-Devick Test eye test, and advocates their usage in sport.