American Lung Association teams up with Heartland Soccer for asthma awareness

OLATHE, Kan. — The American Lung Association is teaming up with Heartland Soccer to teach kids and parents about asthma. 50,000 kids in the Kansas City area are growing up with asthma.

Hunter Norton, 12, is always on the run. The Olathe 7th grader runs cross country and plays competitive soccer.

“I like attacking plus I’m good at it,” he said with a smile.

“An average soccer game kids will run at least 3 to 5 miles depending on what position they are playing,” Heartland Soccer Executive Director Shane Hackett said.

While plenty of kids get tired, things for Hunter can be a little more difficult because he has asthma.

“For children its scary, at best inconvenient, at worst life threatening,” Sara Prem, Director of Advocacy for the American Lung Association of Kansas said.

“I just try to control my breathing,” Hunter said taking deep breaths.

But the American Lung Association wants families to know the lung disease is manageable working with a physician.

“They can keep you on track they can set up an asthma plan,” Prem said.

For Hunter that means three different inhalers. One for everyday use, plus a rescue inhaler and emergency inhaler his coach carries, with a little extra lineup planning.

“Since I have asthma whatever side the coach is on I’ll be on the side that the coach is on,” he explained.

The American Lung Association hopes to demonstrate to families the advances in medication, how to properly use them and technologies now available to help monitor how well athletes lungs are working.

“It’s very easy to teach children how to manage their disease,” Prem said.

But sometimes the best lessons come from a teammate whose not letting asthma slow him down and still getting a kick out of competing.

“Don’t let other people tell you that you are different because you are still a normal human being and you can still do everything that everybody can do just you can’t do it as long,” Norton said.

The first of those tournaments where they’ll be spreading that message along with the dangers of vaping is a tournament where 400 teams will be competing next weekend at Garmin and Scheel’s Soccer Complexes. Two more events at Heartland Soccer tournaments are planned in November.

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