cramp

Nobody knows why cramps really happen, but Friday night’s Gardena Serra-Sierra Canyon high school football game took the issue to an unprecedented level.

Serra players kept cramping on defense, repeatedly slowing down Sierra Canyon’s up-tempo offense. By the end of the third quarter, Sierra Canyon coach Jon Ellinghouse had seen enough. His 11 offensive players, at his direction, simultaneously went to the ground and engaged in fake cramping.

That caused an enraged Serra coach Scott Altenberg to go on the field and be held back by others. Officials halted the game briefly and called 15-yard penalties on Sierra Canyon and Serra.

Ellinghouse said after his team’s 30-0 victory that he was frustrated with the repeated game stoppages and in hindsight, regrets having his players engage in the fake cramps.

Altenberg said he was never angrier in 27 years of coaching. He denied his team was faking cramps to influence the game. “I’m not that kind of coach,” he said.

It wasn’t the only controversy on Friday night. Salesian scored 91 points to beat Cantwell-Sacred Heart 91-13. It was 84-7 at halftime.

Salesian coach Anthony Atkins said he started substituting in the first quarter. There was no running clock until the third quarter. Cantwell-Sacred Heart apparently didn’t ask for a running clock in the first half.

In a text message, Atkins said, “I went back and watched the film just to make sure there wasn’t any malice or that it didn’t look like we were trying to run up the score. Honestly, there was nothing more we could have done short of sitting our guys for the entire game.”

The Mira Costa-Lawndale game was halted with Mira Costa ahead 14-0 in the first quarter because of a security threat at Mira Costa after a bullet was discovered on campus. Also canceled was a girls’ volleyball tournament.

In a developing story, standout quarterback Brady Smigiel of Newbury Park was injured in a game against Santa Barbara and left in the second half. Smigiel, who has committed to Michigan, was expected to get an MRI exam on a knee on Saturday.

After the physios and doctors have looked at the data, adaptations can be made in training, which could include a reduction of intensity, taking out extra conditioning or in a lot of cases adding extra mobility sessions in the warm-up.

“It’s about working out how can we maximise ourselves and when you are not feeling so great [bleeding], how can we adjust things like the gym to suit you,” explained Dow.

“You are not going to get PBs [personal bests] and that is OK.

“The coaches are not going to go, ‘can you push?’, because we know that that isn’t going to happen and that isn’t something to be frowned upon.”

Jarrell-Searcy, 26, said her team’s coaches are “very careful with our numbers and pushing into what they call, the red zone”.

The red zone can be seen where a player is in a state where they are fatigued and more at risk of injury through tiredness.

“It’s cycle informed, but it’s not as cycle mediated,” added Jarrell-Searcy.

This means the menstrual cycle doesn’t control what adaptations are made, it just influences decisions made by the professionals.

The menstrual cycle is personal, so often the physios will monitor the player during the sessions and games, but it is unlikely they will sit out training or a game.

“The perception of a period can take over, but when the players have their rugby head on, they tend to be focused and pretty involved,” said Okell.

Regardless of periods, Jarrell-Searcy added the game schedule stayed the same and a bleed was “not going to make or break you as an athlete”.

There are other things to aid players during stages of their menstrual cycle.

Clubs have nutritionists who can use the tracking data from players to help prepare the body for the bleed and ensure they get enough nutrients before, during and after sessions.

For example, an athlete will eat more carbohydrates to give them the energy stores they need.

“Some athletes will have a heavier bleed than others and we have to look at whether they will need some medical intervention in terms of adding in tablets.” added Okell.

This would give athletes more vitamins and minerals they might lose during a bleed.

She added: “We’re not men’s athletes, so we need to more so than just 40g of protein a day every day.”

“It’s not like this like 24-hour cycle that they (men) get to have,” said Jarell-Searcy. “We do need to be aware that you have to increase your intake of certain things and your behaviour around recovery to accommodate your hormonal fluctuations.”

Players also take things to try to minimise the pain of cramping in the stomach so they can continue to perform.

This includes ‘Sylvia’s Cramp Cocktail’ – named after a former member of the USA medical and physio team – which is a mixture of vitamins and minerals designed to replace those lost during a bleed.

“You just take it and then tough it out for the the next 20 minutes until it kicks in and then you’re OK to train,” revealed Jarrell-Searcy.

For all the warnings, lectures and advice given to high school football players before their first game of the season to hydrate so they can avoid cramping, it still happens. For whatever reason, the pain begins, gets even more painful, then walking off the field becomes a chore.

“Game 1, for some reason in football, they cramp,” said Loyola High athletic trainer Tim Moscicki, in his 37th year. “Whether it’s lactic acid building up, anxiety or excitement, I’ve seen it for years.”

North Hollywood players were cramping repeatedly in their opening game on Thursday night against Granada Hills. Certainly hot weather doesn’t help, but everyone seemingly has a different strategy for dealing with cramps. There are so many supplements people could try a different one each day of the week.

“Once they start to cramp, it’s usually an uphill battle,” Moscicki said. “I don’t think it’s just the weather. I’ve seen cramps in cold weather, hot weather, in rain. Everyone has their own list how to treat — coconut water, bananas, pickle juice, mustard, Gatorade.”

St. John Bosco is using a supplement added to water called Lytening Hydration during its trip to Florida to help with cramping.

“There’s no cure-all for cramps,” Moscicki said.

He advises players prepare two or three days before games with hydration. Just starting on game day won’t work.

What’s certain is players cramping on opening weekend and coaches asking their athletic trainers, “Why are we cramping?”

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