Blocking Out the Fear

WEST HILLS —  There was no moment of silence before the football game at Chaminade High on Friday night. The news had come over TV and radio too late.

So barely anyone at the Chaminade-Poly High game knew that a running back from another school, in nearby Reseda, had been found dead in his sleep after playing a tough game the night before.

The Chaminade stands filled with smiling parents and the excited chatter of students as the band persevered through the national anthem. Poly coach Tim Feeley watched his team charge from the locker room in blue pants and crisp white jerseys.

“They look good,” he said to no one in particular. “Real good.”

Feeley was among the few who knew about Eric Hoggatt, the 18-year-old player who died of undetermined causes that morning. It had not been determined if the physical punishment of the game had contributed to his death. Feeley had decided not to tell his team.

“Of course we worry about any kid getting hurt,” the coach said. “But we’re in good shape and I expect a good game.”

Then a glimmer of doubt showed, a chink in the bravado of a spanking new season. “I pray to God,” he said.

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There is a fear when young men pit themselves against each other in this violent game, a fear that someone could be badly hurt. It is rarely spoken aloud. But you can hear it in the murmur of the crowd when a player lies injured on the field. You hear it in the hesitant applause when he hobbles to the sideline.

As a game official, a back judge, Brad Glenn spent Friday night watching the action thunder toward him play after play--accompanied by a soundtrack of thudding feet and grunts and concussive tackles.

“I played high school football 18 years ago,” he said. “There was no way kids were this big. Now they’re bigger, faster, and obviously the collisions are harder.”

On the sideline, athletic trainer Kevin Reiseck also watched each play with care. Did the tackler duck his head, risking a neck injury? Did the runner knife into the turf shoulder-first? That’s the harbinger of a possible shoulder separation.

“If we see the injury happen, we can assess it more quickly,” he said.

Reiseck is a volunteer who is studying to be a trainer at Cal State Northridge. He stays close to the tools of his trade--boxes of bandages and gauze, rolls of tape. A backboard and neck brace lay just behind the bench. “It’s always in the back of your mind,” he said.

But on Friday night, Reiseck’s work was limited to cuts, scrapes and bruises. There was one play, early in the game, when a Poly player got blindsided, driven into the ground by a clean, hard block, and the crowd gasped. But he bounced back up.

For the remainder of the night, cheerleaders led cheers and the snack bar sold out of hot dogs and cheeseburgers, leaving only a sweet barbecue smoke to drift across the field. Players hugged each other after touchdowns and raised their arms to receive the accolades of the crowd. Said one mother: “You have to let them play.”

At the booster club booth, Dan Holtzman expressed a similar philosophy as he peddled coffee mugs and sweatshirts emblazoned in school colors.

“Not that I’m a fatalist, but if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” he said of the potential for injury. “People don’t want to think about it.”

They wanted to yell and stomp their feet as the home team marched down the unbroken green of a field yet to suffer the rigors of a long season. It was, after all, a good night for the home team. A running back named Steven Hoo scored four touchdowns as Chaminade pulled away in the third quarter for a 32-7 victory.

Even the losers found reason to celebrate.

“Look at the kids. They’re really pumped up,” said Heather Daims, a Poly assistant principal who paced the visitors’ sideline.

Daims knew about Hoggatt. The news made her worry about coaches teaching proper technique. It made her worry about physicians taking care with preseason physicals. She could not, however, imagine high school without football.

“Football is a different animal from every other sport,” Daims said. “There’s so much passion involved. Just a lot of emotion.

“This is Americana.”

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