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2023 Legal Issues High Sch. Athletics 1 (2023)

handle is hein.hackneytwo/lihsa2023 and id is 1 raw text is: January-February 2023 New Jersey Court: Coaches Should 'Exercise Reasonable Care' When Deciding Where and When to Stage a Practice By Gary Chester; Senior Writer articipants in recreational sports generally must clear the high bar of reckless conduct by a defendant to recover for injuries. However, a New Jersey Supreme Court case, Dennehy v. East Windsor Regional Board of Edu- cation, 2022 N.J. LEXIS 978 (October 26, 2022), reminds us that the lesser standard ofsimple negligence can apply in some circumstances. BACKGROUND On September 9, 2015, the Hightstown High School athletic director arranged after-school sports practices so that the girls' field hockey team would practice on the school's turffield when the boys' soccer team's use of the field ended at 3:45 p.m. At 3:00, Dezarae Fillmyer, the field hockey coach, instructed her players to warm up in an area adj acentto the turffield. During the informal warm- up, one of Fillmyer's players, Morgan Dennehy, was struck at the base of her skull by an errant soccer ball, allegedly causing substantial injuries. Dennehy filed a negligence action in the Superior Court ofNew Jersey against Fillmyer, the board of education, the See COURT on page 10 State Supreme Court Overrules Lower Court's Decision; High School Student- Athlete's Fifth Year of Eligibility Denied By John Miller; Ph.D. high school senior, who had re- peated his junior year, petitioned the Massachusetts Interscholastic Ath- leticAssociation (MIAA) forafifth-year eligibility to play sports. The MIAA deniedhisrequesttodo so.The student- athlete, parents of the student-athlete, and representatives of the second high school he was attending then challenged the MIAA's eligibility requirements to the Superior Court. The judge on the Superior Court allowed an injunction which permitted the student-athlete to participate on the school's football team. The MIAA took the case to the Su- preme Judicial Court (SJC), the state's highest court. According to the SJC, a Superior Courtjudge made amistake by granting an injunction against a decision by the MIAAto prevent a student-athlete from playing in high school sports dur- ing his fifth year (Hohler, 2022). While the SJC ruled in favorofthe MIAA, this case brings some interesting insights into future high school student-athletes pursuing a fifth year of eligibility. See STATE on page 10 Copyright 0 2023 Hackney Publications (hackneypublications.com) Legal Issues in High School Athletics