I find that lots of extra stretching before and after activity (even BEFORE the season/games start) help minimize them. Perhaps the greatest invention EVER is that foam roller thingie. I roll my calves over it numerous times now 2-3 times each day and it has worked wonders in preventing/reducing shin splints.
Shin splints show up from increasing your running/workload on your legs too much too quickly.
I got them pretty bad after a 4 day officiating camp last summer. I found that filling paper cups with water, freezing them, and then rubbing them on the parts that hurt helped reduce the pain. There are a couple of exercises you can do as well to help reduce them.
Calf raises and REVERSE calf raises are crucial (at least, for me). Many times, reverse calf raises are neglected, therefore the back of the calf muscle is dis-proportinatly stronger than the front of the calf muscle (that is actually what hurts in "shin splints", the front calf muscle). Whenever I train legs, I super-set calf raises with reverse calf raises. For reverse ones, I'll sit down on a bench, place a 25 or 35 pound plate on the the top of each foot, and raise my toes up with the plate on. That's 1 rep. I'll do 25-40 of these, which has helped strengthen the front of my calves tremendously and help reduce my shin splint pains. Now, I wouldn't start off with these weights, maybe just try the reverse calf raises sitting at your desk with no extra weights (that's how I started).
And again, STRECH, STRECH, STRECH!!
disclaimer....I'm not a trainer or a doctor, but these experiences have worked for me
