It’s estimated that more than 30 million youngsters take part in various organized sports in a year’s time. That probably doesn’t surprise anyone familiar with the athletic scene in the Lawrence area. Many local families spend untold hours coming and going to events in which their youngsters are involved — football, baseball, soccer, basketball and the like.

Fitness is important but a major new survey also offers some cause for concern about competitive sports. The study by the National Safe Kids Campaign shows that one in three children ages 5-14 will be injured while taking part in individual and team competition. National Safe Kids Campaign is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit group dedicated to preventing childhood injuries, in and out of sports.

Writes Martin Miller in the Los Angeles Times: “Although most injuries by young athletes are rooted in physical causes, some have a mental component as well. As youngsters learn the intricacies of sport, they must contend with growing bodies that can leave their coordination wobbly at times. And young athletes are often grouped by age, not by height and weight, resulting in opponents who are the same age but vastly different in size. Particularly in contact sports such as football, the mismatches can lead to injury. … The vast majority of injuries are cuts and bruises, sprains and broken bones, which almost always heal with little risk of long-term impairment. The real risk for children, whose bones are softer and break more easily than those of adults, lies in not letting bones heal properly. If a child reinjures the bone then the risk for premature arthritis becomes more likely.”

The intensity of competition and pressure from coaches and family members is also a major concern of the Safe Kids Campaign. Too many expect mere children to operate with the zeal and competitiveness that once was reserved for college and professional performances.

“Parents watch the professional ranks and they think their 6- or 7-year-old ought to be playing at the same level,” says Bill Prentice, a professor in the exercise and sports science department at North Carolina University. “Soccer moms and football dads are pushing harder than ever and it’s often just too much for the kids.”

As for a premature return to action after injury, “A lot of kids don’t want to be called a ‘baby’. Others are out to please the coach or their parents, and others are just kamikazes,” says Dan Gould, director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University. “Kids are vulnerable. Parents and coaches have to remember that it’s only a game.”

Those who follow “kid sports” in many communities are fully aware of just how many adults get carried away and forget that. What will the toll be on the youngsters they are pushing so