Pre game hydration

Let me preface this post to tell you that I am not a doctor, I don't know much about doctor related things, get queazy at the first sight of blood, cannot look at things like broken bones or anything like that without wanting to throw up.

That said, this weekend, after working the u11 girls match I mentioned in my previous post, the next match was a match between a team that had 8 players (in an 8v8 match) and another team who had 10 kids (so they had 2 subs). I figured that the team with 10 would find a way to win towards the second half because the other kids would be really tired. The result of the match was not what I wanted to report on, it is the situation that happened during a game thanks to what happened before the game.

To start, the game ended 5-4 in favor of the team that had 8 kids. The final goal happened when they had 7 on the field. So very interesting and powerful that they were able to get the victory with everything stacked against them. 

During the first half one of the kids looked off on the team with no subs. He would run but almost in a trance. At one point he went down (with about a minute left in the half). He was tended to and did not return until the start of the second half. I asked my ARs to look at him well and to ensure that he was not concussed or something similar and to be able to help me figure out what was ailing him. In the second half he went down again, after a very clumsy foul he committed and grabbed his head. He then sat up and said he was really dizzy. I thought, oh crap, here is a kid with a concussion and I let him play.

The coach came on again and I told him the kid was done for the day. This was while they were up 4-3. The other team immediately tied the match and with 1 minute left, the goalkeeper of the 10 man team committed the blunder of all blunders and allowed a silly goal in for the win. 

For the dizzy kid, what I thought was a concussion was really a power drink (Monster I believe) drunk 15 minutes before game time. This was the first time the 11 year old had consumed an energy drink to boot. While again, I am not a doctor, it seems downright dangerous to consume something that is going to make your heart race right before going out and running a lot that also makes your heart race. Fortunately nothing happened, but it did raise the awareness for me. He looked off, he was dizzy and if I had known, I would have kept him out sooner. But the parents must have been happy, they won, didn't they?