Focus Structure

It was just another game of football for Pete Stenhoff, 16, a senior at Chula Vista High School in Redmond Calif., the only difference was this time all 210 pounds of him walked onto the field, but he didn’t walk off.
When Stenhoff rammed his head into the ball carrier’s chest the day of the accident he cracked vertebrae in his spine. He now weighs 172 pounds and is confined to a wheel chair for the rest of his life. Although he was unable to graduate with the rest of his class, Stenhoff is not bitter. “I knew the risks involved when I decided to play football,” he says, and adds “I just wish I would have known just how bad it could be.”
And just how bad is it? Thirteen youths died last year as a result of high school football injuries. And as startling of a sum as that is, it is only the tip of the iceberg composed of the 20,000 injuries that occur each year -12 percent permanently disable the victims and 35 percent involve injuries to the head or neck. And what is the cause? Most critics blame the helmets.