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Youth sports feed ERs

Dr. Michael Conn treats Joseph Giancristofaro, 15, a shortstop on the Ridgewood High School baseball team, for a cut on the nose caused by a ball, at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The cut required 15 stitches. More than 3.5 million children ages 14 and younger are treated for sports injuries each year in the United States. High school athletes suffer 2 million injuries.

HACKENSACK, N.J. — Hit by line drives, high sticks and 200-pound tacklers, more young athletes are ending up in hospital emergency rooms.

Some casualties arrive by ambulance; others are escorted by coaches or parents: A 15-year-old shortstop whose nose was bashed by a bad throw. A teen whose spleen was ruptured by a hockey stick. A girls' volleyball player who was elbowed going after a spike. An elementary-school boxer with a broken thumb.

"There are tons of organized sports injuries," said Dr. Peter Lee, director of the pediatric emergency department at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, N.J.

Injuries are rising because adolescent and teen athletes are playing more aggressively now at younger ages, emergency room doctors said. With travel teams and clinics running year-round, young athletes have more opportunity to injure themselves — and less downtime to heal.

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