Is it safe for youth athletes to take dietary supplements?
Mass equals gas. It’s a refrain you hear from today’s pitchers, even from early adolescent ages, bent on increasing their velocity with added size. It’s not just baseball. Walk around a high school athletic field, court or track and you’ll see kids who are larger and sleeker than they were just a decade or two […]
It’s a refrain you hear from today’s pitchers, even from early adolescent ages, bent on increasing their velocity with added size. It’s not just baseball.
Walk around a high school athletic field, court or track and you’ll see kids who are larger and sleeker than they were just a decade or two ago.
Young athletes are lifting weights and taking over-the-counter dietary supplements in an attempt to gain size and power. The three most common of these performance enhancing substances (PES), according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): Creatine, caffeine and protein supplements.
“I think sometimes what happens is that a child who’s really interested in adding strength and muscle bulk, they’ll do a lot of things at the same time,” says Rebecca Carl, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness, “and so then it’s not clear if they’re taking caffeine and creatine and they’re on protein supplements and they’re lifting what’s helping them.
“There’s a big issue with contamination,” she says.
How much do supplements help? How safe are they? USA TODAY Sports spoke with Carl, a sports medicine physician and associate professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, about children and adolescents’ use of popular supplements and healthy weight gain.
Creatine: Benefits ‘really doubtful’ for kids
According to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), creatine is produced in your liver, kidneys, and pancreas, then stored as phosphocreatine in your muscles, and our bodies use phosphocreatine to help “jumpstart” during exercise.
The USADA says creatine is also found in red meat, salmon, milk, eggs and mollusks.
Taking in the compound as a supplement, however, is highly popular but also somewhat controversial among the adolescent population.
While you might know a coach who suggests taking creatine supplements, the AAP doesn’t recommend children or adolescents take them.
“There are not studies demonstrating safety in children/adolescents,” Carl says. “More recent reviews suggest that creatine can be used safely but these are generally studies of adults.
“Your body can make creatine so it’s not needed in the diet. There is creatine found naturally occurring in things like meat and fish. But taking it as a supplement, we don’t know if there’s harm in doing that for children.
“The other thing is it has a very narrow performance benefit.”
Carl says creatine could aid athletic bursts of one to three seconds but probably not with overall sports performance.
“If I was summarizing it for a family, I’d say for most athletic activities, the benefits of creatine are really doubtful,” she says. “There may be some benefit for really explosive, short activities. The classic would example be a weightlifter who does a single maximum lift, then there’s probably a performance benefit for that … (but) probably not even repetitive activities like that.
“There’s not a benefit for certainly any sport where there’s an endurance component of it.”
So for baseball, for example, Carr says, creatine might help you with a single swing or single pitch, but not a series of swings or pitches.
“PES use does not produce significant gains over those seen with the onset of puberty and adherence to an appropriate nutrition and training program,” the AAP says in its most recent policy statement on performance-enhancing substances, which Carl says is reviewed every four years.
Coach Steve: When can teenagers start lifting weights? What about a personal coach?
Protein bars, powders and shakes: ‘Totally unnecessary’
Two in five parents say their teenager consumed protein supplements over a one-year period, according to a 2024 University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
Teens think they are taking them to build muscle, but the AAP says there’s no performance benefit to protein supplement if a diet provides adequate protein.
“Protein supplementation is for most children totally unnecessary because they get enough protein in the diet,” Carl says. “Even kids who are lifting.”
If an athlete is a vegan or has other has dietary restrictions, Carl might have them see a registered dietician to determine how much protein and nutrients their body needs.
The AAP recommends that children 4 years and older and adolescents get 10-30% of their daily calories from protein.
Generally, Carl says, adolescents should take in 0.5 grams of protein per pound pound of body weight per day. Those needs may be higher for athletes engaged in intense activity or resistance training.
“Getting adequate protein through the diet is best, especially given the issue of possible contamination,” Carl says. “One other thing that is an important issue with all of these supplements is that supplements aren’t regulated the way that drugs are, so you don’t have to pull a supplement from the market until it causes harm. (With) medications, you have to prove that it’s safe first.”
Caffeine and energy drinks: ‘The risk of taking too much’
The amount of caffeine in food (soft drinks are allowed a maximum of 71 milligrams of caffeine per 12 ounces) is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Caffeine in energy drinks and other dietary supplements isn’t.
“Most children take caffeine, whether or not they’re doing it as a supplement, so it’s not that we think kids shouldn’t have any caffeine,” Carl says, “but some of the energy drinks that have really high doses, there’s been emergency room visits over taking too much of it.”
AAP research connects significant toxicity with the ingestion of multiple energy drink. The AAP doesn’t recommend kids and adolescents drink them at all.
The AAP has guidelines about safe caffeine use. According to its PES statement, 1 to 3 milligrams per kilogram has been shown to have performance-enhancing effects, particularly in endurance activity, strength of knee extensors and improvements in time to exhaustion studies.
So, for example, Carl says a child weighing 40 kilograms (or 88 pounds) would take 120 milligrams.
“Caffeine does have performance benefits, and it’s safer than things like, certainly anabolic steroids and some of the more notorious agents,” Carl says. “I think in specific circumstances, there may be a benefit to taking caffeine, but there’s also the risk of taking too much of it.”
Some potential adverse effects of caffeine overdose include cardiac arrhythmias (premature ventricular contractions), increased blood pressure, headaches, irritability, sleep disruption, tremor and gastric irritation and increased core body temperature with exertion in hot environments.
The FDA issued a warning in 2018 about supplements consisting of pure or highly concentrated caffeine in powder or liquid form.
“It is very difficult to tell the difference between what is a safe amount and what may be a toxic or even lethal amount of this bulk product,” the FDA said in the statement. “Caffeine is a powerful stimulant and very small amounts of pure or highly concentrated caffeine may have serious effects and could even be deadly.”
If you have read Richard Ben Cramer’s biography about Joe DiMaggio (“The Hero’s Life”), you know the baseball legend used to drink many cups of coffee before games to get a boost.
According to FDA calculations, DiMaggio would have had to go on a 28-cup binge to equal the same amount of caffeine in one teaspoon of pure powdered caffeine.
Coach Steve: What are the keys for young baseball players to realize their potential?
Guidelines for adolescent weight gain
Just like with cutting weight as a wrestler, there isn’t a shortcut to gaining weight in a healthy fashion. The practice can become unhealthy for adolescents when it adds excess body fat.
According to its statement on weight control practices in young athletes, the AAP recommends athletes who want to gain weight and add lean muscle mass do so gradually, and without supplements:
For Boys: Up to a half-pound or pound per week.
For girls: up to one-quarter to three-quarters of pound per week.
If you’re maintaining body weight while adhering to the protein guidelines above, consume an extra 300 to 500 calories above your baseline intake, an extra 14 grams of protein, strength train and get adequate sleep.
The AAP doesn’t necessarily use a maximum weight recommendation for height. Carl says Body Mass Index measurements, which have traditionally been used, are not as helpful for athletes with higher lean body mass.
“BMI classify individuals as obese even if they have low body fat (and) more muscle mass,” she says. “We tend to think in terms of recommendations of how to gain muscle mass.”
The problem with supplements and the next level
About 10 years ago, as The New York Times reported, the New York State attorney general accused four major retailers of selling fraudulent and potentially dangerous herbal supplements.
Eric Schneiderman said his office purchased a variety of store brand herbal supplements in different parts of the state. They found, he said, that only 21 percent of the ones they tested had DNA evidence that they contained the product listed on the label.
“Sometimes that’s an issue for things like allergies – if you’re allergic to garlic and there’s garlic power or something like that – but some things they have steroid derivatives in them that could really be harmful,” Carl says of dietary supplements.
We routinely hear from professional athletes who say they didn’t knowingly take a substance banned by their league for which they tested positive. Our children are eventually going to be held accountable, too.
“At the college and professional level, they will recommend athletes not take any kind of supplements unless they have cleared it with the athletic trainers or coaching staff because sometimes there’s things that shouldn’t be in there,” Carl says.
Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.
Got a question for Coach Steve you want answered in a column? Email him at sborelli@usatoday.com
UVA Orthopedic chair warns of rising overuse injuries in youth sports
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) Dr. Bobby Chhabra, Chair of UVA Orthopedics, raised concerns over the increasing number of Achilles tendon injuries in the NBA and tied the trend to long-term overuse starting in youth sports. “Thirty years in the NBA I mean, just looking at the data, they averaged about one Achilles tendon rupture a […]
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) Dr. Bobby Chhabra, Chair of UVA Orthopedics, raised concerns over the increasing number of Achilles tendon injuries in the NBA and tied the trend to long-term overuse starting in youth sports. “Thirty years in the NBA I mean, just looking at the data, they averaged about one Achilles tendon rupture a year and now we have 3 in like 3 weeks during the playoffs,” he said, citing the cases of Tyrese Haliburton, Jayson Tatum, and Damian Lillard. Chhabra pointed to the year-round nature of sports, saying even kids are playing through fatigue and skeletal development.
During an interview on WINA, Chhabra responded to commentary from UVA alum and former NBA player Olden Polynice, who suggested overtraining is draining players’ longevity. “Your body ain’t got but that many jumps in it,” Polynice said during a national radio appearance. Chhabra echoed the sentiment, urging parents to reconsider the current sports culture. “They should be playing three sports a year. They should have plenty of time to rest, particularly during adolescence when they’re skeletally mature and they’re still developing. But that’s not the culture in this country,” he noted.
As youth athletes face increasing pressure from scholarships and NIL deals, Chhabra warned that both physical and mental health risks are growing. “There’s too much pressure on these kids now,” he said. He advised that early specialization can lead to devastating injuries and long recovery periods, which are becoming more common at younger ages.
Steelers Player Had Classy Move After George Pickens Bailed on Youth Football Camp
George Pickens’s rocky tenure with the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t end on the worst of terms, but his latest scrutinized actions may have further soured the Steelers fanbase’s opinions of him. Pickens was traded to the Dallas Cowboys in May and has since revealed he “forced” his way out of Pittsburgh following his up-and-down 2024–25 campaign […]
George Pickens’s rocky tenure with the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t end on the worst of terms, but his latest scrutinized actions may have further soured the Steelers fanbase’s opinions of him.
Pickens was traded to the Dallas Cowboys in May and has since revealed he “forced” his way out of Pittsburgh following his up-and-down 2024–25 campaign with the Steelers. The 24-year-old wideout now gets a fresh start in the NFC East, where he’ll be catching balls from quarterback Dak Prescott as well as trying to win Cowboys fans over.
A recent account about Pickens’s inconsiderate behavior won’t help with the latter: the ex-Steelers star apparently bailed on his summer football camp at Highmark Stadium at the last minute, according to TruEdge Sports, a company that specializes in youth sports camps.
It’s important to note that the company checked with Pickens after the Cowboys trade to see if he was still committed and would still show up to the event, scheduled for June 28. Pickens said he would, but allegedly backed out last week.
“Unfortunately, as of last week, TruEdge was notified by George’s team that he has decided to walk back on his word and is no longer interested in attending the camp,” the company wrote.
Thankfully, Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth volunteered his services and offered to help run the camp in Pickens’s absence. A few other Steelers players may be joining as well.
George Pickens backed out of his Pittsburgh football camp last minute. Pat Freiermuth stepping in as one guest. Possibly other Steelers players as well. #Steelers#NFLpic.twitter.com/zTnaDzNhuW
The Steelers will no doubt be happy to put the drama-filled days of the George Pickens era behind them and are now jumping into a boat with veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers for the upcoming season. What could possibly go wrong?
Families, businesses concerned about effect of tariffs on youth sports
By JAY COHEN, AP Sports Writer CHICAGO (AP) — Youth sports are a big part of Karli Casamento’s life. Her son, Jax, 15, golfs and plays on three baseball teams. Her youngest son, Colt, 7, plays baseball and basketball. The costs, especially for Jax, add up in a hurry. That’s why Casamento, 48, and her husband, […]
CHICAGO (AP) — Youth sports are a big part of Karli Casamento’s life. Her son, Jax, 15, golfs and plays on three baseball teams. Her youngest son, Colt, 7, plays baseball and basketball.
Many of the US’s most popular sports rely on imported equipment
The U.S. has been the largest importer of sporting goods since 2010, accounting for 31% of the world’s imports in 2022, according to a 2024 World Trade Organization report. Boosted by racket sports, China is the most significant exporter of sporting goods at 43% in 2022.
Fueled by golf, badminton and tennis equipment, Vietnam and Taiwan experienced rapid expansion in exporting outdoor sports equipment to the U.S. from 2018 to 2024, according to data from the consulting firm, AlixPartners. Vietnam increased 340% to $705 million, and Taiwan was up 16% to $946 million.
Tariffs of 46% for Vietnam and 32% for Taiwan could go into effect next month after a 90-day pause.
Hockey skates, sticks and protective gear are often imported. Same for baseball gloves and composite and aluminum bats, which are often imported or use materials that are imported, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Soccer goals, lacrosse nets and cones are often sourced from low-cost labor markets.
“You can’t get around the fact that a lot the stuff that we use in youth sports is coming from abroad,” said Travis Dorsch, the founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University. “So surely if the tariffs go into effect and in any long-term or meaningful way, it’s going to affect youth sports.”
The Casamento family cheers for the Philadelphia Phillies, and that’s how Jax and Colt got into baseball. Karli Casamento called sports “a safe way to socialize, and it gets them active.”
But equipment has become a major expense for the family. Jax has a $400 bat and a $300 glove, Karli Casamento said, and his catching equipment is $700. There is an additional cost for registration for his travel team, in addition to what it costs to travel to tournaments.
“We’ve tried to say to Jax, ‘Well, you’re in ninth grade now, do you really need to play tournament ball? You’re not going to grow up and be, you know, the next Mike Schmidt,’ things like that,” Karli Casamento said, “because it’s just, it’s $5,000 a year and now we have two kids in sports.”
Tariffs may not impact all sports families equally
That effect most likely will be felt by middle- and low-income families, threatening recent gains in participation rates for youth sports.
The Sports & Fitness Industry Association, which tracks youth participation by sport, found in 2023 there was a 6% increase in young people who regularly participated in a team sport, which it said was the highest rate (39.8%) since 2015. An Aspen Institute study released in October showed participation for girls was at its highest levels since at least 2012.
“I’m really concerned that we’re going to spike this great momentum because families, who are already saying that sports is getting increasingly more expensive, equipment’s getting more expensive and they’re continuing to stretch to make that work, like this might be the one that just kind of puts them over the sidelines,” said Todd Smith, the president and CEO of the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.
Smith was in China in April for a World Federation of Sporting Good Industries board meeting. He visited some manufacturing facilities while he was in the country.
“The ones that I went to are really, really impressive,” Smith said. “First class, high tech, like highly skilled. And the thought that tariffs are all of a sudden just going to allow a 10-plus million dollar facility to just pop up the next day in the U.S. is just, it’s not feasible.”
Low-income families were already feeling a financial strain with youth sports before Trump was elected to a second term. According to the Aspen Institute study, 25.1% of children ages 6-17 from households earning under $25,000 played a sport on a regular basis in 2023, down slightly from 25.8% in 2022. That’s compared to 43.5% of children from households earning at least $100,000, up slightly from 42.7% in 2022.
Youth sports participation has a wide range of ramifications for public health, said Tom Farrey, the founder and executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program.
“This incredibly virtuous cycle can be engaged if you can simply get kids off their phones and off their couches and into the game and they have a sustained experience into adolescence,” Farrey said. “And if you don’t, then you’re at risk for a range of health consequences, including obesity.”
Going along with playing on three baseball teams, Jax Casamento has workouts for his travel squad and also takes hitting lessons. The Casamentos turned a baseball trip to South Carolina into a family vacation last year.
Michael Casamento is a physical education teacher in an elementary school, so the family’s concerns about the effect of tariffs on the cost of youth sports go beyond their two boys.
“I work with a lot of kids that are a lower socio-economic status,” Karli Casamento said. “It really makes it harder for those types of families to be able to afford to play sports.”
VIDEO: Central Lady Cats Volleyball hosts youth summer camp
SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — Click the video above for sights and sounds from Central’s summer volleyball camp. Youth sports summer camps are alive and well in the Concho Valley. This week, the Central Lady Cats host their annual volleyball camp, lasting between Monday, June 23 and Thursday, June 26. Advertisement Lady cats […]
SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — Click the video above for sights and sounds from Central’s summer volleyball camp.
Youth sports summer camps are alive and well in the Concho Valley. This week, the Central Lady Cats host their annual volleyball camp, lasting between Monday, June 23 and Thursday, June 26.
Advertisement
Lady cats head coach Julie Williams, along with her assistant coaches, teach the fundamentals and basics of volleyball to kids between grades four and nine. The camp is divided into three sessions, starting with fourth and fifth grade in the morning, followed by sixth and seventh and later concluding with eighth and ninth grade in the afternoon.
“[The Camp] is unique because a lot of [Central’s] middle school coaches help along with our high school coaches. [The coaches] are what make the camp go,” Williams said. “Volleyball is just becoming big. It’s big in this town, everybody likes to play volleyball, so we’re just here to provide a service to [the town] to help them continue to grow and develop in the fundamentals and just to really love the game of volleyball.”
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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com.
McMinnville man accused of sexually assaulting family babysitter; More victims feared
MCMINNVILLE, Ore. (KATU) — A McMinnville man was arrested for a reported “historical” sexual assault that allegedly happened between 2011 and 2012, according to Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office investigators. The sheriff’s office Special Investigations Unit began investigating the case on June 18. During the investigations, detectives said they determined that the suspect, Jeremy Roy Nettrouer, […]
MCMINNVILLE, Ore. (KATU) — A McMinnville man was arrested for a reported “historical” sexual assault that allegedly happened between 2011 and 2012, according to Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office investigators.
The sheriff’s office Special Investigations Unit began investigating the case on June 18.
During the investigations, detectives said they determined that the suspect, Jeremy Roy Nettrouer, had allegedly abused a minor who was working as a babysitter for his family at the time.
READ ALSO | Salem man charged in connection with two sexual assaults appears in court
Nettrouer was arrested on Wednesday on one count of first-degree sex abuse. He was booked into the Yamhill County Correctional Facility.
Investigators say Nettrouer has been involved in local youth sports, both as a coach and a referee. Because of the allegations made against him, investigators say they are concerned there may be additional victims.
Anyone with information about this case, or about other potential incidents involving Nettrouer, is asked to call the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit at 503-434-7470.
HOLLIDAYSBURG — The state Department of Human Services has issued another provisional license — the sixth in 3.5 years — to Blair County’s Children, Youth & Families office. The latest provisional license, which reflects correctional plans approved in May to address shortcomings identified in March, is valid through Nov. 23. Blair County CYF Director Shannon […]
HOLLIDAYSBURG — The state Department of Human Services has issued another provisional license — the sixth in 3.5 years — to Blair County’s Children, Youth & Families office.
The latest provisional license, which reflects correctional plans approved in May to address shortcomings identified in March, is valid through Nov. 23.
Blair County CYF Director Shannon Tucker, who was promoted to that job after being named interim director in September, said she was disappointed but not disheartened by the state’s decision to issue another provisional license.
“I think that we have made dramatic improvements since last year,” Tucker said last week in her office. “Am I disappointed in the state’s decision to give us another provisional license? Yes. But in no way am I disheartened because I think we’ve shown that we are on an upward track.”
While the state singled out one Blair County CYF case and indicated that more than 180 days passed without a caseworker visiting what had been identified as a high-risk family, many of its other citations were based on record-keeping issues that reflected late reports and/or no reports.
Tucker said those record-keeping citations can be addressed through ongoing efforts to increase and train staff in ways that reduce their individual caseloads and allow more review of records to catch the shortcomings.
She also said efforts to date are already paying off as the latest report contains about half the citations of the November report.
“I think the state wants to see us make continued progress, and we are,” Tucker said.
In a June 5 letter to Blair County that accompanied the latest provisional operating license, state DHS Deputy Secretary Laval Miller-Wilson pledged the office’s cooperation and technical assistance.
When asked for further comment, the state DHS press office issued a statement indicating that Blair County CYF is making progress through improved staffing levels, fewer areas of non-compliance and engaged leadership.
“While DHS cannot speculate a timeline for when the county’s full license will be restored, DHS continues to work closely with Blair County CYF, its staff and county leadership,” according to the statement.
In May 2022 — when the state issued the first provisional operating license to Blair County CYF — the county office was operating at low staffing levels and it had no applicants to fill vacant jobs created by resignations and retirements that increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout. At that time, Blair County’s pay levels for CYF were among the lowest in the state.
Blair County now advertises for CYF caseworkers — who must be Civil Service qualified — at $40,170 annually.
“We are getting applicants,” Tucker said.
CYF’s first provisional license was followed by three additional provisional licenses during a two-year period — the most the state can award. So in May 2024, the state revoked the county’s CYF license and the county appealed. To resolve the appeal, commissioners and the state negotiated a settlement agreement, which mapped out goals, including the continued assignment of a state DHS operations manager to the county CYF office and required consultants.
While the state restored CYF’s operating license for six months as part of that agreement, it replaced it with a fifth provisional license in November 2024. That license was valid through May, when the state issued the sixth provisional license.
Tucker said she remains confident that CYF’s improvements will continue and encourages local residents to rely on the agency’s personnel to do their jobs.
“On any given day, something could go terribly wrong because somebody made a horrible decision,” Tucker said. “But with the increase in drugs, the fentanyl, the meth … and the violence that comes with drugs, we remain the agency tasked with helping to protect the children.”
In adhering to that goal, Tucker said CYF staffers are now distributing materials to discourage adults from the unsafe practice of sleeping with babies.
“We’ve seen a rise in co-sleeping issues … which creates the potential for tragedies that could be prevented,” Tucker said.
She also spoke of CYF’s efforts to help local families with unstable housing and food insecurity, both related to the rising costs.
“We’re getting some new families that haven’t been affected in the past,” Tucker said.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.
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