'Lights Out' Moment
It was a beautiful spring day in West Point, New York, but my mouth was full of blood. As an attackman for the lacrosse team from State University of New York, Cortland, I'd been outwitting my West Point defender. He was a linebacker, probably 6'3" and 250 pounds. Each time he got the ball, I'd check him, he'd lose it, and I'd pick it up and score. Each time that happened, he said he'd get me. And after my fourth goal, he did.
It was a lights-out moment. I woke up in the Army hospital with an immense headache, dizzy, with a cracked tooth, a split lip, and my coach leaning over me. "The score is tied," he said. "Seven minutes to go. I think I can get you back in the game."
That was more than 30 years ago, but it was a defining moment that affected all I would do and become, first as a lacrosse coach at Johns Hopkins University and then as a sports physician working with athletes at every level of competition.
Stewards of the Game
In sports, disparate stakeholders come together: athletes, parents, families, friends, coaches, opponents, referees, fans, trainers, and physicians—all of whom are stewards of a game whose ultimate purpose should be to enhance the growth of its participants.
