Adolescent athletes are increasingly encouraged to specialize in a single sport year-round in an effort to receive a college scholarship. For collegiate baseball, only 11.7 scholarships are available for a 35-player team. The beliefs of the parents of baseball athletes towards sport specialization are unknown, along with whether they have an accurate understanding of college baseball scholarship availability. The parents of high school baseball athletes were recruited to complete an anonymous questionnaire that consisted of (1) parent and child demographics, (2) child baseball participation information, and (3) parent attitudes and beliefs regarding sport specialization and college baseball scholarships. One hundred and fifty-five parents participated in the questionnaire (female: 52.9%, age: 49.4 ± 5.5 years old). The parents spent a median of 3000 USD [Interquartile Range (IQR): 1500–6000] on their child’s baseball participation. Most parents believed that specialization increased their child’s chances of getting better at baseball (N = 121, 79.6%). The parents underestimated the number of college baseball scholarships available per team (median [IQR]: 5 [0–5]), but 55 parents (35.9%) believed it was likely that their child would receive a college baseball scholarship. Despite having a realistic understanding of the limited college scholarships available, the parents were optimistic that their child would receive a baseball scholarship.

Context: California is currently the only state that does not regulate who can and cannot call themselves athletic trainers (ATs). Therefore, previous national or state-specific investigations may not have provided an accurate representation of AT availability at the secondary school level in California. Similarly, it is unknown whether the factors that influence AT availability in California, such as socioeconomic status, are similar to or different from those identified in previous studies.Objective: To describe the availability of ATs certified by the Board of Certification in California secondary schools and to examine potential factors influencing access to AT services in California secondary schools.Design: Cross-sectional study.Setting: Online survey.Patients or Other Participants: Representatives of 1270 California high schools.Main Outcome Measure(s): Officials from member schools completed the 2017–2018 California Interscholastic Federation Participation Census. Respondents provided information regarding school type, student and student-athlete enrollment, whether the school had ATs on staff, and whether the ATs were certified by the Board of Certification. The socioeconomic status of public and charter schools was determined using the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.Results: More than half (54.6%) of schools reported that they either did not employ ATs (47.6%) or employed unqualified health personnel (UHP) in the role of AT (7.0%). Nearly 30% of student-athletes in California participated in athletics at a school that did not employ ATs (n = 191 626, 28.9%) and 8% of student-athletes participated at a school that employed UHP in the role of AT (n = 54 361, 8.2%). Schools that reported employing ATs had a lower proportion of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch than schools that did not employ ATs and schools that employed UHP (both P values < .001).Conclusions: With ongoing legislative efforts to obtain regulation of ATs in California, secondary school administrators are encouraged to hire ATs with the proper certification to enhance the patient care provided to student-athletes and improve health outcomes.

Context: Girls high school volleyball is very popular across the United States. There is limited prospective data regarding the incidence and risk factors of time loss (TL) and non-time loss (NTL) injuries sustained in this population. Objectives: To estimate the incidence and describe the characteristics of injuries (TL and NTL) sustained in a girls' high school volleyball season. Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Setting: Convenience sample of 78 high school interscholastic volleyball programs. Patients or Other Participants: High school volleyball players participating during the 2018 interscholastic season. Main Outcome Measures: TL and NTL injury rates, proportions, rate ratios, and with 95%CI. Results: A total of 2,072 girls enrolled in the study with 468 subjects (22.5%) sustaining 549 injuries (NTL=28.4%, TL=71.6%) for an overall injury rate of 5.31 [4.89, 5.79] per 1000 AEs. The competition injury rate was greater than the practice injury rate for all injuries (IRR: 1.19, [1.00, 1.41]) and TL injuries (IRR: 1.31, [1.07, 1.60]). Players with a previous musculoskeletal injury had a higher rate of TL than NTL injuries (IRR; 1.36 [1.12, 1.65]). Ankle injuries accounted for the greatest proportion of TL injuries (n=110, 28%), while the greatest proportion of NTL injuries occurred in the hand/fingers (n=34, 22%). Moreover, ligament sprains accounted for 40% of TL injuries (n=156), whereas muscle/tendon strains (n=79, 51%) accounted for over half of all NTL injuries. Conclusions: While the majority of injuries sustained by adolescent girls' volleyball athletes were TL in nature, nearly a third of all injuries were NTL injuries. Injury characteristics differed widely between TL and NTL injuries. Understanding the most common types and characteristics of injury among high school volleyball players is critical for the development of effective injury prevention programs.

Background: Club sport participation is increasingly common among high school athletes. Sport participation characteristics may vary widely between the high school and club sport settings. However, there have been no large-scale comparisons of sport participation volume between high school and club teams from similar sports. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to compare the sport participation characteristics of high school and high school–aged club teams. We hypothesized that club team athletes would participate in more months per year and hours per week and would take more overnight trips than high school athletes and that club team coaches would be less likely to track their athletes’ sport volume than high school coaches. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: A total of 769 coaches (266 female; 34.6%) from 3 sports (basketball, volleyball, soccer) completed an anonymous online questionnaire regarding their team’s sport volume and their knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding sport specialization. Coaches were eligible to participate if they had served as the head or assistant coach of a high school sport team or high school–aged club sport team in the past 12 months. Results: Overall, 64.6% (n = 497) were coaches of a high school team, and 35.4% (n = 272) were coaches of a club team with high school–aged athletes. Club coaches’ teams played more months out of the year and took more overnight trips for competitions than high school coaches’ teams but participated in fewer hours per week of practices or competitions during their season. There were no differences between club and high school coaches in tracking their athletes’ sport volume, with most coaches in both settings reporting that they do not track the amount of time that their athletes participate in other sports. Conclusion: Significant differences in sport participation volume exist between the teams of high school and club coaches.