| NFHS “Concussion in Sports” Course Free to Coaches, Parents, Players |
With the high school football season underway, coaches, parents, players and officials are encouraged to complete the Concussion in Sports – What You Need to Know online course offered free of charge by the Indianapolis-based National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). To date, more than 47,000 persons have registered and completed the NFHS Coach Education course available at www.nfhslearn.com.
Concussion in Sports provides a guide to understanding, recognizing and properly managing concussions in high school sports. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has endorsed the course and provided many useful resources.
"Although coaches, parents and players involved with football will certainly benefit from Concussion in Sports, research shows that concussions occur in other sports as well," said Bob Gardner, NFHS executive director. "With more than 7½ million young people involved in high school sports, minimizing the risk of injury is extremely important. The course is a 'must do' for anyone associated with high school sports."
The 20-minute online course is designed to highlight the importance of recognizing and responding to sports-related concussions, which pose a particularly high risk for adolescents. The course is hosted by Michael Koester, M.D., chair of the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) and director of the Sports Concussion Program at the Slocum Center for Orthopedics and Sports Medicine in Eugene, Oregon. Individuals have access to the course and printable resources, including a parent's guide to concussion in sports, a coach's guide, an athlete fact sheet and materials for schools to implement a protocol for concussion treatment.
According to the 2009-10 High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, more than 140,000 high school athletes suffer a concussion each year. The study, conducted by Dawn Comstock, Ph.D., director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, also indicated that the incidence rate for concussion is highest among football players. The next two highest rates among boys sports are ice hockey and lacrosse. In girls sports, the incidence rate is highest in soccer, gymnastics and lacrosse.
In addition to education courses, the NFHS has been the leader in establishing playing rules to deal with concussions. In 2008, the SMAC advocated that a concussed athlete must be removed from play and not allowed to return to play on the same day. In 2009, the position was adopted by a leading group of sports concussion experts and the National Football League (NFL).
For 2010-11, the NFHS implemented new guidelines for the management of a student exhibiting signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion. Based on the SMAC, these guidelines have been included in all NFHS rules books for the 2010-11 season. The language reads: "Any athlete who exhibits signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion, such as loss of consciousness, headaches, dizziness, confusion or balance problems, shall be immediately removed from the contest and shall not return to play until cleared by an appropriate health-care professional."
The NFHS Coach Education Program began in 2007 with two core courses – Fundamentals of Coaching and First Aid for Coaches. The core courses provide coaches with content from all eight domains contained in the National Standards for Sport Coaches (NASPE 2006). These two courses form the foundation from which all elective courses and sport-specific courses are developed specifically for interscholastic coaches. To date, more than 140,000 coaches have completed Fundamentals of Coaching. Forty-five of the 51 NFHS member associations have adopted or recommended the course. All 14 of the NFHS coach education courses, including sport-specific courses for football, soccer, softball, spirit, volleyball and wrestling, are available at www.nfhslearn.com.
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| Hazing incident warrants reflection |
Recent news about an alleged hazing incident among players of a Minnesota football team warrants reflection of what exactly constitutes hazing and the consequences both to victims and perpetrators.
Here are a few myths and contradicting facts.
MYTH: Hazing is nothing more than foolish pranks that sometimes go awry.
FACT: Hazing is an act of power and control over others — it is victimization. Hazing is premeditated and NOT accidental. Hazing is abusive, degrading and can be life-threatening.
MYTH: Hazing is an effective way to teach respect and develop discipline.
FACT:First of all, respect must be EARNED — not taught. Victims of hazing rarely report having respect for those who have hazed them. Just like other forms of victimization, hazing breeds mistrust, apathy and alienation.
MYTH: It's difficult to determine whether or not a certain activity is hazing. It's such a gray area.
FACT: It's not difficult at all to decide if an activity is hazing if you use common sense and ask yourself the following questions.
1) Is alcohol involved?
2) Will active/current members of the group refuse to participate with the new members and do exactly what they're being asked to do?
3) Does the activity risk emotional or physical abuse?
4) Is there risk of injury or a question of safety?
5) Do you have any reservation describing the activity to your parents, to a coach or school official?
6) Would you object to the activity being photographed for the school newspaper or filmed by the local TV news crew?
If the answer to any of these questions is "yes," the activity is probably hazing.
Numerous resources about hazing were distributed to League member schools in 2006 as a resource module of its TeamUp program. Here are links to them:
League Bylaw 209 Definition, Policy and Penalties
The Basics of Hazing
Making Change – You Can Make a Difference
Tips for Administrators
Role of the Coach
Hazing Alternatives: Positive Initiations
Minnesota Hazing Law
Myths & Facts About Hazing
Additionally, the League included a video with these other resources. This video re-enacts an actual hazing incident and explains in detail the League's rules and penalties for hazing. It is titled Hazing — The Painful Truth.
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| Two Harbors High School: A Lesson in Saving a Life |
Posted by John Millea (jmillea@mshsl.org)- Updated 9/1/2010 1:31:02 PM
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 Anyone can save a life, and the volleyball players at Two Harbors know that fact as well as anyone.
At practice last week, one of the Agates collapsed in the gym. There was no panic, because the team knew what to do. One day earlier, coach Brooke Chaffee had talked to the players about what to do in case of such an emergency. The team had planned to hold a mock emergency run-through, but that was not needed after they experienced the real thing.
“Just the day before, we had written down who was going to do what,” Chaffee said.” Last year our basketball team did a mock run-through, and we were planning to do that the following day. We didn’t have to do that.”
The player who collapsed had a history of seizures, but she had not experienced a seizure for a number of years. Nonetheless, the coaches and players knew exactly what to do.
“In the middle of practice she fell down,” Chaffee said. “We realized she was having a seizure and I ran over to her, said ‘Somebody call 911,’ and that’s really all we had to do. One of the girls went to her phone and called the ambulance. Another girl ran to get the AED (automated external defibrillator), others went to the front and back doors to meet the ambulance, because we didn’t know where they would come in. And somebody ran to get the principal. Everybody just kind of got things done.”
The player was taken to a local hospital and everything turned out fine. That isn’t always the case, but the MSHSL’s “Anyone Can Save a Life” program continues to play a vital role in helping schools prepare for such emergencies. The goals of the program -- a partnership between the MSHSL and the Medtronic Foundation – include educating school communities on the symptoms and risk factors of sudden cardiac arrest, and how to react in such situations.
“I can’t thank the High School League enough for developing this program and pushing this program,” said Two Harbors athletic director Scott Ross.
Ross was on hand in March 2005 when Jarrett Brenner of Grand Rapids collapsed and died during an all-star basketball game in Duluth. It was discovered that Jarrett had a heart defect that caused his death. No AEDs were available that day.
“Jarrett was 20 miles away from here, and that scares everybody,” Ross said. “You don’t have to convince the coaches how important this is.”
Two Harbors has implemented the Anyone Can Save a Life program through education and practice runs. All coaches at the school are required to take AED and CPR training, and that has also been expanded to game supervisors, ticket sellers, concession people and others affiliated with sporting events.
After last week’s volleyball incident, Ross said, “I told our other teams, ‘This is why we do it.’ This was the real deal. It makes you feel good to know there’s a plan there. Even then, you don’t know if things will go right. You hope they do.”
It was Chaffee’s first experience of this kind, and “It was kind of scary, because we were not expecting it. We talked about it the next day and I told everyone how proud we were that they executed it so well. They were like, ‘Now we know what to expect.’
“It’s scary, but if you have a plan in place, it makes it less scary. You can’t just send people places. I wasn’t thinking ‘This needs to happen and that needs to happen.’ Everything just happened.”
For more information, click on "Anyone Can Save a Life" on the right side of this page.
--Join the MSHSL on Facebook by clicking on the Facebook button on the right side of www.mshsl.org. John Millea is on Twitter at twitter.com/mshsljohn |
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