Coaches and sports medicine experts alike strive to make high school sports like these as safe as... 
( Arizona Interscholastic Association/Steve Paynter; National Federation of State High School Associations)
With the school year well under way, and Thanksgiving on the horizon, many fall athletes are winding down their seasons while winter athletes prepare to gear up for theirs.
But as student athletes take the field, some parents worry about potential injuries to their children.
Fear not. While students are at play, researchers are gathering data in the hopes of preventing the injuries that can shorten a young athlete's season.
And while injuries do occur, the risks of playing sports may be far outweighed by the risks of not playing them.
"We never want any of our injury research to scare any parent into pulling their kid out of sports," said epidemiologist Dawn Comstock, a principal investigator at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
"The long-term negative health risks associated with an inactive lifestyle are much more serious than the potential of sports-related injury."
She also noted that the vast majority of sports-related injuries are minor.
"We actually want to see more kids play sports and be physically active more often. We just want to keep them as safe as possible while they're out there."
Visit the OnCall+ Pain Management & Arthritis Center
When Your Pain Has No Name
Killer Jobs: 10 Painful Professions
What Your Figure Means for Your Pain
For those who want to learn more about the injury rates and risks, as well as some ways researchers, coaches and the athletes themselves are trying to prevent them, we present 11 injury-prone high school sports.
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
