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“I knew the risks involved when I decided to play football, I wish I would have known just how bad it could be.”


That’s what Pete Stenhoff, 16, a junior at Chula Vista High School in Redmond, California says. Stenhoff was hurt in a game during his senior year. He rammed his head into the ball carrier’s chest and cracked vertebrae in his spine. Stenhoff is now confined to a wheelchair. Stenhoff has gone from weighing 210 to 172 pounds these days and is currently taking correspondence courses to finish getting his diploma.


Each year there are 20,000 football injuries in high school. Twelve percent of them permanently disable the victims. Thirty-five percent of those injuries are to the neck or head, and just last year thirteen youths died from injury. Some critics blame the helmet worn during play, but there could be more behind the injuries than a piece of gear.