Tag: MHSAA

The numbers can be dizzying.

Nearly 3.8 million sports concussions occur each year and 5 percent to 10 percent of athletes will experience a concussion in any given sport season, according to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And football is at the top of the list, accounting for 75 percent of those injuries.

As talk of concussions and health problems that arise from multiple brain injuries has risen to the forefront in professional football, parents of younger players are reconsidering whether they want their sons on the gridiron.

The Michigan High School Athletic Association has its own motivation to educate parents about concussions. That group sees high school football as a sport that is getting safer every year and wants to curb thoughts about concussions being a deterrent to play the game.

“Safety and concussion protocol seem to be hot button issue now,” said MHSAA Executive Director Jack Roberts. “Attention has been drawn to football in large part because of what has happened at football’s very highest levels. There is a lot of criticism how the NFL has handled head injuries over the years and some in college. And I think on both levels, they are improving.

“Ironically, in high school, with the least amount of resources, we feel we have been the most proactive. We know the battle is two-fold. One, to assure the sport is as safe as possible by implementing the procedures we have added. And two, to provide assurance to moms and dads and kids that the sport is a safe and quality experience for young people.”

But can the MHSAA, local high schools and coaches protect athletes from concussions in a contact sport like football? According to the CDC, “young children and teens are more likely to get a concussion and take longer to recover than adults. Also, athletes who have ever had a concussion are at increased risk for another concussion.”

The report went on to say a major determinant of sport-related concussions is an athlete’s history of concussions. Research suggests that if someone has already received one concussion, they are 1-2 times more likely to receive a second one. If they’ve had two concussions, then a third is 2-4 times more likely, and if they’ve had three concussions, then they are 3-9 times more likely to receive their fourth concussion.

With those numbers in mind, the MHSAA is getting aggressive in its education for parents on the subject and hoping to limit the rise of concussions for its member schools.

The MHSAA kicked off the 2015-16 school year this month by hosting 70 member high schools for training in two pilot sideline concussion testing programs. These were aimed at assisting in decision-making regarding the removal of athletes from activity after possible concussion events and record-keeping of those events beginning this fall.

Illinois-based King-Devick Test and Maryland-based XLNTbrain Sport will monitor approximately 10,000 Michigan high school student-athletes drawn from schools representing all four classes and a variety of regions statewide. In partnership with XLNTbrain Sport, individuals from each school will get concussion education, testing, tracking and reporting tools throughout the year.

The MHSAA already had ramped-up concussion protocols in place in the last few years where players were removed from play by sideline personal and kept out unless a medical professional made the decision to have the athlete re-enter — taking it out of the hands of the coaches.

This trial takes that procedure to a new level.

Starting this month, athletes from the pilot schools will be entered into the XLNTbrain Sport system to begin the concussion awareness education process. The athletes will then take an advanced concussion baseline test that can be used to assess impairment of brain function after a potential injury. The baseline assessment will help guide decisions on when to allow athletes to return to play.

“Under MHSAA protocols, the initial removal-from-play decisions at school-managed venues are made by school-designated personnel. There are not enough medical professionals to cover all the venues where school sports practices occur for all levels of all sports,” Roberts said. “During the 2015-16 school year, the MHSAA is orchestrating two pilot programs that have the overall objective of bringing more attention to the critically important removal from play process and subsequent reporting and record keeping.”

The sideline testing is a start. But some experts point out the need to be very cautious when it comes to return to play where concussions are involved.

According to the CDC, “if an athlete has a concussion, his or her brain needs time to heal. A repeat concussion that occurs before the brain recovers from the first — usually within a short time period (hours, days, weeks) — can slow recovery or increase chances for long-term problems. In rare cases, repeat concussions can result in brain swelling or permanent brain damage.”

As the president of the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association, Harper Creek’s Ed Greenman hears from parents, players and coaches and knows there are concerns about concussions.

“Yeah, I do understand people will be concerned about safety. But on the other hand we are doing our best to make sure, when you give us your kid, we are going to return them to you, not only safe, but as a better person,” Greenman said. “As coaches, we have always taken an active role in making sure safety is first and foremost with our kids. So it was a great idea to partner with the MHSAA to talk about the great sport of football and the fact we think it is safe.

“Instead of listening to people talk about the negativity, we want to take a more positive role, saying we want to be a part of their kids’ life and teach them all the good things that come from being involved in a team sport like football.”

Still, football at all levels is under attack by concerned parents and players regarding the head health of the athletes.

Western Michigan University head football coach P.J. Fleck went out of his way to address his concerns about concussions at the recent Mid-American Conference media day.

“We’re going to keep our players safe; I used to be a player and I’ve had numerous concussions,” Fleck said. “I have things from concussions that I live with every single day. It’s close to me so I’m going to make sure our players are safe.”

Although conference officials don’t require it, Fleck went on to say he thought schools and conferences should have a separate monitor in the press box to watch for collisions and potential concussions.

“We had one of our administrators who was an athletic trainer doing exactly that,” Fleck said. “I think the person up there needs to have football experience. If you send someone who doesn’t understand the game, it’s going to make coaches unhappy.”

Concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, were the buzz around the recent Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. Junior Seau was inducted posthumously; he had committed suicide in 2012, and the National Institutes of Health reported in 2013 he had CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.

“There’s a lot more spotlight on concussions, with all the NFL players coming out with long-term affects. It funnels down to youth sports pretty quickly,” said Corbett LaFrance, who worked as an athletic trainer in the Harper Creek system last season. “There’s a lot of research that shows that the repetitive hits, as early as youth sports and high school sports, are causing damage.

“So I think there has to be more emphasis on that and we have to be more proactive with treatment and I think we are. There’s a lot more sidelines assessments being used.”

Trainers are often caught in the middle in the concussion debate. An athlete could take a hit to the head and say he feels fine. Or the coach could argue for the player to go back in the game, saying he looks fine. But under MHSAA rules, it’s up to the trainer to make the decision.

“When you get into the athletic training profession, you are not always going to be well-liked by the coaches,” LaFrance said. “But you always have to make decisions based on the safety of the athlete. It’s not always a comfortable situation with the player or the coach, but the No. 1 priority is to keep the kids safe.”

And not just in the games. Concussions often occur in football practices, despite there being more coach and school control in practice situations.

The medical journal JAMA Pediatrics reported “Football practices were a major source of concussion at all three levels of competition. Concussions during practice might be mitigated and should prompt an evaluation of technique and head impact exposure. Although it is more difficult to change the intensity or conditions of a game, many strategies can be used during practice to limit player-to-player contact and other potentially injurious behaviors.”

The conclusions by JAMA Pediatrics were based on a report by the Institute of Medicine that said more than 57 percent of concussed high school and college football players sustained injury during practice.

The MHSAA says that is exactly the focus. Over the past several years, the organization has tackled issues regarding health and heat exhaustion, issues of the heart and now concussions.

“Nationwide concussions are the big issue now,” said John Johnson, communications director for the MHSAA. “There are lawsuits in the NFL, there’s a lawsuit at the high school level in Illinois and it may be that others might be coming. A lot of that has to do with ‘what did you know and when did you know it.’ And we know so much more now than we did three years ago, five years ago. It’s an evolutionary process by which we gather information to communicate to schools, to set policy, to reduce the amount of contact during practices and by giving schools tools to help with probably the most important piece of the puzzle, withdrawal from play and return to play.

“We have acted as quickly as we can. And at the high school level, we probably acted faster than other levels, to get removal-from-the-game and return-to-the-game protocol in place. And we are doing even more with testing to help schools on the sidelines.”

The MHSAA also this fall is the first state association to provide all participants at every MHSAA member high school and junior high/middle school with insurance intended to pay accident medical expense benefits — covering deductibles and co-pays left unpaid by other policies — resulting from concussions sustained during MHSAA practices or competitions. There is no cost to schools or families.

“These pilot programs are intended to not only improve what’s actually happening on the sidelines at practices and contests in these communities that are part of the pilot programs, they’re intended to spread the word of the need for improved concussion detection across every community,” Roberts said. “We hope these schools involved will become involved in their leagues and conferences and with their peers across the state as we expand the awareness of the need for better sideline detection and provide ways to get it done.”

The reason for the studies and the new protocols is because the statistics say concussions are up and opinion polls send the message parents are concerned about their athletes playing football.

For the health of the game and the health of the players, many agree a lot has been done to help with the issue of concussions in this state already and there is an initiative to do even more in the future as necessary.

“I think the football coaches association felt like we were under attack as coaches by different groups claiming football wasn’t safe, and we don’t think that’s the case. As coaches, we have always taken an active role in making sure safety is first and foremost with our kids,” Greenman said. “The game is under fire right now on the topic of safety. However, the truth is it has never been safer. We have partnered with the MHSAA to launch a campaign called ‘Safer Than Ever’, to counter the negative publicity the game has received and illustrate it is a fun and safe game to play.”