Focus Story Exercise

Pete Stenhoff, 18, rammed his head into the ball carriers chest, cracking the vertebrate in his spine during a football game.

There are 20,000 injuries in high school football each year- 12 percent of them are permanently disabled victims. Thirty five percent of the injuries are to the neck or head. Most critics blame the helmet.

Pete attended Chula Vista High School in Redmond, Calif. At the time of the incident Pete weighed 210 pounds; now he weighs 172 pounds and confined to a wheel chair.

After such tragedy, he is not bitter. “I knew the risks involved when I decided to play football” he says, and adds, “I wish I would have known just how bad it could be”.