CHICAGO -- Soccer injuries are sending soaring numbers of U.S. kids to emergency rooms, a trend driven in part by young players with concussions seeking urgent medical care, a study has found.The findings, based on 25 years of data, partly reflect soccers growing popularity. But the researchers and sports medicine experts believe the trend also is a result of greater awareness about concussions and their potential risks. Coaches and parents are likely seeking emergency treatment for symptoms that in previous years might have been downplayed or overlooked.Nearly 3 million players aged 7 through 17 received ER treatment for soccer-related injuries in the 2000-2014 study. The overall rate of injuries, which takes into account soccers rising popularity, more than doubled to 220 per 10,000 players in 2013, from 106 per 10,000 players in 1990. Researchers did not have enough data to calculate 2014 rates.More than 200,000 concussions or head injuries were treated in emergency rooms, or 7 percent of injuries. The rate jumped to almost 30 per 10,000 people in 2013 from just under 2 per 10,000 players in 1990.That trend underscores a need for better safety education and injury prevention in youth soccer, said Dr. Huiyun Xiang, the lead author and a researcher at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.Concussions can have significant consequences in terms of cognitive function and brain development, Xiang said.His study is an analysis of data from a national injury surveillance system and was published Monday in Pediatrics.According to U.S. Youth Soccer, there were more than 3 million registered soccer players younger than 19 in 2014, almost twice as many as in 1990.The rate of injuries from playing soccer has ranked second behind football in other studies on youth sports, including an analysis of 2015-2016 data from Reporting Information Online, an internet-based injury surveillance system for high school sports.For boys, football-related concussions result in more ER visits than other sports, according to previous research. For girls, its soccer, according to an analysis of 2001-2012 data by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The current study lacks information on gender-specific soccer injury rates.Sprains and fractures were the most common injuries; most players were not hospitalized. Falling and getting hit by another player or the ball were among leading causes of injury but theres no data in the study on whether many injuries were from heading the ball.Concern about kids injuries from heading led to the U.S. Soccer Federations recent restrictions including a ban for kids aged 10 and younger and limits on heading for those aged 11-13.Many concussions in soccer occur when heads collide as two players jump up to head the ball, said Dr. Cynthia LaBella, a sport medicine specialist at Chicagos Ann & Robert H. Lurie Childrens Hospital. She said learning proper technique including tensing neck muscles can help kids avoid injury while heading the ball.Labella noted that soccer has become so popular that it attracts kids with a wide range of athletic ability, and that many injuries she treats are in kids who lack adequate strength and conditioning for their soccer level.Everyones so eager to join the soccer team. Theyre signing up because they want to be with their buddies, she said. The range of athleticism especially at the youth and preteen level is pretty broad.---Online:CDC: http://www.cdc.govYouth Soccer: http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/Heading rules: http://bit.ly/2cgjEWr---Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner . Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/lindsey-tanner . Cheap Ultra Boost For Sale . 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RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina State athletic director Debbie Yow knows the work to build a national top-25 sports program is even tougher now with the Wolfpack hovering near the edge of that goal.In fact, Yow said in an interview with The Associated Press, completing the final steps of that climb could be more difficult than it was to reach the schools current position.Were now into an area where there are very good coaches everywhere, programs that are well-resourced, facilities that are excellent, she said. We have to overcome all of that. Weve got to take someones place. And yeah, that is our goal and I said that the day I was hired six years ago. And it still is.N.C. State stood at 89th in the Directors Cup rankings of Division I sports programs when Yow arrived from Maryland in the summer of 2010. It finished at No. 32 in last weeks final standings for the 2015-16 season after posting its best finish at No. 27 the year before.The school has been ahead of the annual schedule laid out in a five-year strategic plan from 2012. The coming season is the target date to reach top-25 status.We put a stake in the ground. Thats how you have to do this, Yow said. You cant be afraid to put a stake in the ground and then go for it . or (you cant) say, `I cant do that because we might not make it, because thats a horrible way to live.When Yow arrived, N.C. State was coming off a season in which one team finished in the top 25 of its national rankings, while the Wolfpack spent about $78,000 annually per student-athlete, according to the schools report to the U.S. Department of Educations gender equity database.That number has grown to about $109,000 in the most recent numbers for 2014-15 to rank near the middle of the Atlantic Coast Conference. And last year, nine programs earned top-25 finishes, with cross country, mens swimming and diving, and womens swimming and diving finishing in the top 10.The highest-profile sports had mixed results.dddddddddddd. Football made a second straight bowl appearance but fell a win shy of the previous years total. Both basketball programs missed the NCAA Tournament. Baseball was a regional host and a strike away from eliminating eventual College World Series champion Coastal Carolina.Yow -- a former womens basketball coach at Kentucky, Florida and Oral Roberts -- is particularly optimistic about the season ahead for both basketball programs.Hampered by injuries and a shorthanded roster, the mens team missed the NCAAs for the first time in five years under Mark Gottfried but welcomes Scout.coms No. 6-ranked national recruiting class. The womens team had a 20-win season that Yow said without any question deserved an NCAA bid for third-year coach Wes Moore.Were going to sail, Yow said while praising Moores recruiting. Were going to be good. Were going to be fun to watch.That enthusiasm extends to the near-completion of a $35 million revamp to Reynolds Coliseum.Work began in March 2015, displacing womens basketball, volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling into temporary venues. The project included shifting the seating bowl to one end of the nearly 70-year-old campus arena, opening space for new team offices and the Wolfpacks sports walk of fame.Teams are due to return next month. Yow said the campus covered about $15 million to share costs with athletics in a project on schedule and under budget, two of my favorite phrases.I think weve maximized what it will be and can be, she said. Because the walk of fame and history is there, it will become important to football and mens basketball because theyll have big displays there. So well be taking recruits in all sports through there. Weve never had any place like that.---Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap ' ' '