JOHN DOHERTY: Where are the adults in sports?

While I was contemplating providing an explanation of the difference between a shoulder dislocation and separation this week, Bears quarterback Justin Fields got better and events on another field and in (not on) a court demanded greater attention.

On Tuesday, the parents of a Georgia high school basketball player, who died after a 2019 summer conditioning session, announced that they had reached a $10 million lawsuit settlement with the girl’s school district.

On Friday, USC quarterback Caleb Williams made a remarkable run of 59 yards during the first quarter against Utah. However, after evading or breaking one attempted tackle after another, he inexplicably — at that moment — folded up like an accordion on the Utes’ 12-yard-line. The immediate focus from FOX cameras was on a serious laceration Williams suffered on his throwing hand during the play.

As the game went on, though, it became apparent to a nationwide audience — and Utah defenders — that Williams was limping on his left leg. By game’s end, a suddenly stationary Williams had been sacked an entirely uncharacteristic seven times.

After the 47-24 loss, Williams and Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley revealed that Willliams had “popped” his hamstring during the run in question. Riley went on to claim that Williams would not allow Riley to take him out of the game. “It was maybe the gutsiest performance I’ve ever seen,” Riley continued.

Which begs the question, “Who is the head coach here”?

Sure, Riley looks like a kid, but does he need to act like one? Riley should have protected Williams from Williams. Not only was the sophomore risking worse injury to the affected hamstring, he was being treated like a tackling dummy by Utes defenders.

Somebody needed to be the adult in the room — or, in this case, on the sideline. Where were the head athletic trainer, the team physician or even the strength and conditioning coach? The lack of adult supervision on the USC sideline should not be so surprising, though, given how Williams has been allowed to decorate his fingernails with an obscenity each week directed at USC’s opponent. What you permit, you promote.

That maxim means even more at the high-school level, where the student-athletes really are children and unfortunately, far too often, they need protection not only from themselves but from poorly prepared and/or slimly supervised coaches.

On August 13, 2019, Imani Bell collapsed after running the football stadium stairs at Elite Scholars Academy in suburban Atlanta while the temperature neared 100 and the heat index exceeded it, prompting a heat advisory. She died later the same day, the victim of heatstroke.

In the aftermath, her coaches were charged with murder and child cruelty. They have not yet gone to trial.

I am sure when that day dawned, Larosa Walker-Asekere and Dwight Palmer had no intention of harming anyone. However, what possessed them to hold that workout in those conditions? High-school basketball is not played outside in the heat. Even if it was, the conditions were too dangerous for a strenuous session, regardless of sport.

While the focus has been on the alleged negligence of the coaches, what about the school’s administrators? They needed to be the adults when the coaches were not.

If the athletic director didn’t know that the workout was scheduled, he should have. If he did know, he should have stopped it. Ditto for the principal. Both were named — along with the indicted coaches — in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Imani’s parents in February. Neither is with the school in those roles any longer.

(Of note, no athletic trainer was named in the lawsuit. Nor does the school list an athletic trainer in the GHSA directory.)

School administrators should understand that requiring coaches to take safety courses is not enough. Not only should expectations be set upon hiring, but they should also be regularly reinforced. Then, when danger beckons, those in charge need to be especially vigilant.

Coaches, young ones in particular, require regular mentoring. Assuming they will always get it right is a recipe for disaster. Most do learn from their mistakes and most of those mistakes end up being largely forgettable. But an error in judgement during dangerous heat may trigger a tragedy that no amount of money will undo.