Another high school football game ends early due to injuries

Another high school football game in New Brunswick has ended in a forfeit due to injuries and, while there has been a recent focus on head injuries in the sport, parents from both teams said it seemed like everyone was playing by the rules.

A playoff game between Sackville's Tantramar Titans and Dieppe's École Mathieu-Martin Matadors was cut short at half time. Mathieu-Martin headed into the game with the odds already stacked against them.

About 18 players on the team couldn't play because of injuries suffered throughout the season, ranging from severe bruises to concussions. So, the team only had 24 players dressed for Saturday's game, the minimum required to field a team.

Following an injury in second half of the game, the Dieppe squad was forced to throw in the towel. It's not clear what kind of injury that player suffered, but he was attended to while lying on the field, and then was able to walk off the field with the help of two other men. 

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The decision to end the game early wasn't without controversy. While the coaches of both teams met with referees on the field, Tantramar's coach appeared frustrated while speaking.

This isn't the first time this season the Tantramar Titans have won a game due to injuries on the opposing side. Two weeks ago, a game between the Sackville team and École L'Odyssée Olympiens ended after several players on the Moncton team suffered head injuries.

A New Brunswick Interscholastic Athletic Association review of that game cleared the Tantramar squad of breaking any rules. Still, the move to end the game over concussion concerns was roundly praised.

Following this latest win with a forfeiture, some Tantramar parents were upset at how their players were being portrayed.

"The Titans and the head coach were portrayed as bullies," said Christine O'Neal, whose son Owen plays for Tantramar. "They're not bullies, they just train, practice hard and go out and play football."

O'Neal said her son's team shouldn't be demonized for playing good, technical football.

"I didn't see anything that was done wrong in the game," she said. "It's football, there's hits, there's often injuries, people choose to play the game."

A Matador player's father agreed that nothing appeared to go wrong during the game. René Melanson said the Sackville team was simply the superior team on the field Saturday.

"They are more physical than most of the teams in the league and they are being discriminated for it," said Melanson. "Some unnecessary roughness may occur, that's the refs job, not ours."

However experts have said there are many factors that contribute to injuries in contact sports. 

Dr. Pierre Fremont, the chair of Canadian Concussion Collaborative, said between the ages of 12 and 16 the body grows to correct disparities in the proportions of a young person's body and, since no person's growth schedule is the same, differences in the size of players can be a problem. 

"There's so much that has been shown that can be done just by limiting, reducing dramatically the [amount] of contact during training — you can potentially cut by half the number of concussions," he said.

But he did say there are measurable steps to be taken to reduce head injury in youth football, including reducing contact during training. 

Cathy Simon, a physiotherapist who works with University of New Brunswick Saint John's varsity teams, said much has been revealed about the long-term effects of concussions in recent years. 

"There's long-term effects that show your brain doesn't heal," she said. 

Simon says it's important to keep learning about contact sport injuries to better understand how to prevent them. 

École Mathieu-Martin's athletic director said there were some concerns heading into the game, but not because of who they were playing. Luc Leblanc said 18 players on his team were injured, leaving mostly second-string players to pick up the slack.

Still, Leblanc said his students should be proud, following another rebuilding year. But with only one win under their belts and a high number of injuries, Leblanc said the football program will need to be looked at.

"We need to sit down, the whole coaching staff to re-evaluate the season that we've been through," said Leblanc.