This had to hurt

[Mark Padgett]

Last night, 7th grade boys "competitive" rec game. Middle of Q3, partner calls a foul on B1 and A1 goes to throw the ball to my partner for the subsequent inbound. Unfortunately, A2 (who wasn't looking) stepped in the path of the ball and it smacked him in the back of the head. The pass had a lot of force behind it and it knocked A2 to the floor. He didn't lose consciousness but he didn't want to get up, either. We let his coach decide what to do and he had his assistant bring over an ice pack. He applied it and we let A2 just stay there for a few minutes. Eventually, he got up and went to the bench where his dad came down and sat with him. Needless to say, he didn't return.

Wait - it gets scarier. A3 was just about a foot away from A2 when he got hit and the ball bounced off of A2's head and hit A3 in the nose, causing it to bleed. He also received an ice pack and he was able to return in Q4.

As you might imagine, A1 was quite remorseful and his head really wasn't in the game from that point on - no pun intended.