[Mark Padgett]

Yesterday I had two girls "competitive" rec games, first an 8th grade game then a 7th grade game. In both games, virtually the same thing happened - one of the girls got injured pretty bad when a teammate collided with her. In the first game, the injured girl went down hard but, fortunately, didn't hit her head on the floor. The teammate who ran into her got her with the elbow right in the mouth. The injured girl has braces and her upper lip was cut pretty bad. She left the game.

In the second game, it happened on a scrum for a rebound. A rather large girl was in the air and got bumped by a teammate. She came down to the floor and bonked the side of her head. She didn't pass out or seem disoriented, but her coach kept her out the rest of the game (about the last 12 minutes) with a series of ice packs.

I'm telling you - I hate when this stuff happens. And no - I didn't take any action when their parents ran onto the court.