High school sports teams have already started practicing for the upcoming fall season.
This year the Michigan High School Athletic Association has launched a new pilot program to help keep athletes safe.
The MHSAA said they felt that there needed to be a program for schools to deal with concussions.
They said while some schools already have concussion testing in place many do not.
“The bottom line is that the game’s never been safer than it has been right now and not a lot of people get that message,” said Eric Schugars, Varsity Head Football Coach at Traverse City Central High School. “As a coach I want to promote our sport and I want to promote it because the benefits of football far outweigh the risks, by far.”
Football, among other sports, involves contact that can cause concussions
This year the MHSAA has more than 70 schools across Michigan participating in a pilot program that will use two methods to test for concussions.
“I think it is nice to have the baseline testing so that you have something to help rely on not just their symptoms because we all know kids want to play,” said Amy Ream, an athletic trainer at Traverse City Central High School. “It’s not that we don’t want them to play, we just want them to be safe when they go back out there.”
Ream said she is hoping to get the athletic program signed up for the pilot program.
Concussion testing would use the King Devick test, which is a rapid eye movement screening evaluation where athletes read single digit numbers, or the XLNTbrain Sport, which is a balance and cognitive test that measures reaction time, attention and memory.
“We have seen the numbers of participants and players decline because of that,” said Schugars. “They’re seeing the NFL and they’re seeing the lawsuits and I try to tell parents that the speed the NFL, we don’t duplicate that at any level in high school at all.”
“I understand the kids not wanting to miss the big game or not wanting to miss a big game, but your life is more important than the game,” said Barbara West, mother of a high school football player.
Baseline testing is done at the beginning of the season and anytime a student athlete is suspected of having a concussion.
The MHSAA is also mandating that member schools keep a record of all possible concussion events from when they’re detected to when an athlete returns to play.
The MHSAA is also requiring all head varsity coaches to be certified in CPR.
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