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waterbury CT public schools get athletic trainers

It happened. The Board of Alderman said yes. It’s historic. The city pubic high schools finally have athletic trainers.

Yes, historic. 

Monday night the board approved by unanimous vote a three-year contract with Select Physical Therapy, a Pennsylvania firm with offices in 32 states, and now one on Sharon Road in Waterbury, too.

The contract is not to exceed $264,000, which breaks down to $88,000 per year. Select Physical Therapy will have one trainer at three city public high schools for 75 hours per week, total, or 25 hours each week at Crosby, Kennedy and Wilby high schools.

Joe Gorman, the district supervisor for health and physical education, said that the city’s fourth public high school, Waterbury Career Academy, was not involved in the bid because its sports programs had not been accepted into the Naugatuck Valley League when the process began, and many programs are still not at the varsity level, then or now. Gorman said that a plan to share trainers with Career Academy is possible.

The contract does have an option to extend, and a fourth trainer is possible, he said, but only through another round of board approvals down the road.

“I am very, very pleased with the numbers,” Gorman said Tuesday of the contract figures. “They are in the range that we expected, and to have three trainers in the city for a total of 75 hours per week is a home run.”

The timeline to get those trainers into the schools is not firm.

“We hope to have all contracts signed within the next three weeks,” Gorman said.

Select Physical Therapy has started the hiring process, Gorman added, and trainers should come on board during this school year.

“This is a great stride forward,” said Board of Alderman president Paul Pernerewski, who added that the addition of trainers will make playing fields safer for city athletes. “They play their hearts out, and we want to help them do it as safely as possible. I am very happy we got this through.”

So is Wilby athletic director Steve Baldwin.

“It passed?” Baldwin asked Tuesday. “That is fantastic.”

And important.

“We have new state mandates on concussions and sudden cardiac arrest,” Baldwin explained. “A trainer reports all injuries to a national database, and with that hard data we can see where the injuries are happening.”

We are not yet two weeks into the fall season, “and we have many injuries and no one for the athletes to see. This is awesome,” added Baldwin.

Game coverage and daily schedules will be determined by athletic directors. Trainers will cover all sports, Gorman said with emphasis. This is not just for the football team.

“We require flexible scheduling for the needs of all our athletes,” Gorman said. “This will not be dominated by one sport, but it is for women’s teams, unified teams, volleyball, swimming, tennis, all sports.

“I am very, very pleased,” added a gleeful Gorman.

It has been a journey. For a time the only sports in the city covered by medical personnel were football and boys basketball. For the past three years Advanced Physical Therapy worked with city athletes, but under a limited contract that covered each school one day a week.

“One day was not enough,” Gorman said, “but for the services they rendered for a small amount of money, they don’t owe us a thing.”

But athletes need more than one day, two hours. Soon, city public school athletes will have the same access to trainers that most high school athletes take for granted.

It took time. Too much time. That was wrong. Soon it will be right.

“The district has set a precedent,” Gorman said. “Basically, we made history.”

See, everybody thinks so.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://blogs.rep-am.com/off_the_record/2015/09/23/trainers-finally-coming-to-city-sidelines/

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Coach raises awareness for athlete safety needs

WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports
School begins Thursday in East Baton Rouge, which means the prep football season is about to kick off.

Players have been practicing in the summer heat. Along with the heat, there is more focus than ever on injuries, leaving some to wonder if local schools have enough resources to keep players safe.

Standing under the oppressive August sun, Tara High School Head Coach Cooter Mansur watches his team practice for the new season. He said he’s got the players for a strong offense and defense, and a full coaching staff to prep his team. However, he said there is one position missing: a certified trainer.

“It’s a big concern for us because we don’t have the means to have people on the sideline that can take care of kids immediately,” said Mansur.

The Louisiana High School Athletic Association highly recommends that athletic trainers be on hand for both games and practices in any sport, but it is up to individual districts to follow the suggestion.

While some schools in East Baton Rouge Parish have a trainer or medical personnel on hand, with some even volunteering time, many schools do not have one on staff for various reasons.

If there is no trainer around, it falls to coaches to keep players safe. Coaches and officials go through first aid training, and everyone is taught how to spot concussion symptoms. During the heat of the summer, extra steps are taken to keep players cool and hydrated.

However, schools could soon be facing new requirements that raise the bar on safety. LHSAA’s Assistant Executive Director Keith Alexander said because of growing concern over concussions and other serious injuries, the group is working on a new rule that would require trainers for all schools.

“Certainly that is a great concern of ours and it should be a great concern to all of our local school boards and our independent school districts,” said Alexander.

According to Alexander, the LHSAA has been working on the new mandate since last year. Before it is approved, it must go through the LSHAA’s medicine advisory committee as well as its principal’s association and executive board.

If all is approved, Alexander hopes the mandate will be in place by next spring. Then, it will be up to schools to find the funding.

“It all takes money unfortunately,” said Mansur.

Mansur is very familiar with the advanced safety equipment and procedures that help cut down on player injuries, and its costs. Even just refurbishing helmets every two years, which is required, can cost thousands of dollars.

That is why Mansur founded Save the Game, Inc. It is a non-profit that raises money to help schools offset the costs of safety equipment and raises awareness for the needs of athlete safety. But, he said concerns over safety are costing schools more than money.

“There’s a 25 percent participation decrease right now in football and it’s due to concussions. If we can do something to help the high schools fund things, that’s a big step in the right direction,” said Mansur.

Mansur hopes to raise enough funds to help schools across the state and maybe even fund a few trainers. To get involved with Save the Game, Inc. email savethegameinc@gmail.com.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.wafb.com/story/29711438/coach-raises-awareness-for-athlete-safety-needs

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Restrictions in place for football players due to extreme heat

The first high school football games of the season are still weeks away, but practices are underway in the peak of summer’s heat.

At Kennesaw’s Harrison High School, practice began this week for the more than one hundred freshman, junior varsity and varsity football players. The air temperature is in the 90s; on the artificial turf field, it’s even hotter.

“On a day like today, you could easily add an additional 30 degrees to the temperature. There’s no cloud cover it’s direct sunlight,” said Adam Freeman, head athletic trainer for Cobb County Public Schools.

It’s Freeman’s job along with the coaches to monitor the health of the players, especially in these early season practices. Restrictions are in place for the first week helmets only, no pads.

“That’s one of the safeguards we put in place several years ago.  Because of the heat a five day aclimatization period all football players before the season starts,” said Freeman.

Harrison was one of more than twenty schools across the state that participated in a Georgia High School Association (GHSA) and University of Georgia study on how heat affects players.

They looked at “temperature data, injury data all the way down to doing it by position and class,” said Freeman.

Three years ago, new standards went into place that govern whether practice can be held outside, how long practice can last, how many breaks teams must take each hour, and whether players can be in full pads.

It’s not the temperature Freeman monitors, but a combination of the heat and humidity that reveals how efficiently players can cool off. The higher the number, the less room for evaporation and necessary cooling

“What I have is a device that can take all those factors in and give me a number the wet bulb global temperature,” Freeman said.

Freeman monitors that number several times an hour, constantly updating coaches.

It’s all in an effort to keep players safe from the intense summer heat and humidity, “heat illness is the most preventable sports injury out there,” Freeman said.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE;
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/restrictions-place-football-players-due-extreme-he/nm9n3/

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Athletic Trainer Bree Clayton Provides heat illness expertise

Warm weather brings the joys of summer, but also a few additional risks for active children and teens.

Athletic Trainer Bree Clayton from Arkansas Children’s Hospital stopped by THV11 This Morning with tips on how to keep them safe.

Why are young athletes at such risk for heat illness?

-Children and teens don’t get rid of heat through sweat as effectively as adults

-Young athletes often are disciplined enough to make themselves drink

-During practices and games, young athletes are easily distracted and they forget to take breaks and hydrate

Is heat illness still a worry for young athletes, even when we’ve had cooler weather like recently?

– Cooler weather recently means that young athletes are not as acclimatized to warmer temperatures

– Humidity is as important as temperature-with high humidity even temperatures in the 80’s can create dangerous a dangerous heat index

– Full sun exposure can also add as much as 15 degrees to the heat index

– Practice surface, especially artificial turf, also adds radiant heat

– Heat illness can even occur indoors if the temperature is not being controlled.

What are the signs parents/coaches should look for in their young athletes if they suspect heat illness?

– Noticeable Thirst

– Muscle Cramps

– Weakness

– Decreased Performance

– Nausea

– Headache

– Fatigue

– Lightheaded feeling or dizziness

– Difficulty paying attention

What is the best way to prevent it?

– Acclimatization-spending progressively longer times exercising outdoors is very important

– Good night’s sleep

– Well balanced diet consisting of fruits and vegetables

– Plenty of water and sports drinks

–Avoid products that contain lots of sugar and caffeine

–Absolutely no energy drinks! They can actually raise your body temperature.

– Wear as few layers as possible of light weight, moisture wicking material

– Change into dry clothes often

 

Will it help to wear a cooling bandana or other type of cooling towel when they are practicing in pads/helmet and playing games?

– Headbands and cooling towels are only helpful if they stay exposed to the wind.

– If they become wet and stay wet and are under shoulder pads and helmets, they are just going to trap heat in.

– Great for after practice, but probably not good to wear during practice.

What should parents ask of coaches to know that there is a plan in place to address heat illness?

– What type of rest plan does the coach have in place?

– Where can athletes go to cool off during breaks?

– How often are players allowed to drink water during practice?

– What is the school’s plan to treat an athlete that overheats?

– Does the school have an emergency action plan?

– Who monitors the athletes during practice to make sure they are not overheating?

Is water better than sports drinks for preventing heat illness or does it matter?

– Drinking compliance is the key!

– Water is better for overall hydration, but if kids do not like it they won’t drink it.

– Sports drinks have flavor so often times athletes are more likely to drink them.

What role can parents play in keeping their young athletes healthy during the heat?

– Have plenty of their favorite flavor of sports drink at home for before and after practice

– Make sure to have healthy snacks at home.

– Provide well balance meals and make sure your athlete eats-if they are tired they may not feel like, but encourage it

– Allow them to rest indoors in the air conditioning after practice

What should your first steps be if you identify heat illness in your child or another young athlete?

– If minor symptoms like dizziness, lightheadedness, or cramping:

–Rest in a cool place

–Remove wet, constricting clothes

— Give them plenty of water and sports drink

– If they collapse, lose consciousness, or become confuse this is an emergency and could be a heat stroke

–Cool them as rapidly as possible

—Ice bath is preferred method

—Ice packs over as much of body as possible

—Cold shower or ice towels

–Dial 9-1-1

–Remember to cool first and transport second

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

http://www.thv11.com/story/news/health/2015/07/27/keeping-active-teens-children-safe-during-warm-weather/30723431/

 

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David Hamen and Aaron Sage implement New Ohio guidelines

When high school football practice begins for the 2015 season in Ohio on Saturday, coaches and players will be functioning under a new set of national guidelines addressing concussions, which was adopted and introduced by the Ohio High School Athletic Association on July 13.

In a memo to the OHSAA membership of more than 700 high schools, commissioner Dan Ross said the association “has joined dozens of states in adopting recommendations from the National Federation of State High School Associations’ Concussion Summit Task Force, which will reduce the risk in football for concussions and head impact exposure.

Ross has long stated that the top priority of the OHSAA is the safety of its athletes, and the new guidelines are designed to give football coaches some direction in the intended reduction, recognition, and treatment of head injuries in practices and games.

“With the support and leadership from the football coaches association, we have been out in front of concussion awareness and education, and these changes will now bring Ohio up to a place as a national leader in this area,” Ross stated in the memo. “Like many of our regulations, these guidelines are to be followed and monitored by member schools and coaches, but we are fortunate in Ohio that many coaches have already been following these safety measures.

“There will always be a risk for concussion, but football is safer now than it has ever been, and these guidelines will make it even safer.”

According to the OHSAA memo, the three principles that the guidelines reflect include exposure of an individual athlete to full contact in terms of frequency and duration, the cumulative effect of the exposure on an individual athlete, and recovery time for each athlete after contact.

The recommendations adopted include spring, summer and all off-season contact. Already the rule in Ohio, there is no contact permitted except during the season, and pads may not be worn at any time except during the season.

The new guidelines are aimed at preseason practice and practice during the season.

New to preseason practice, full contact will be limited during two-a-day practices.

When more than one practice takes place in a day, full contact is permitted only during one of the practices. Further, if full contact occurs during the second session of two-a-days, full contact will not be permitted during the first session the following day.

Once the season has begun, individual athletes are limited in full contact on consecutive days to 30 minutes in practice per day and to 60 minutes per practice week. An athlete can only be involved in full contact in a maximum of two practices in a seven-day span.

Contact with soft equipment such as bags, shields, sleds, etc., does not count toward full contact limitations.

“These regulations are being put into place for the safety of our student-athletes, and it is incumbent on coaches to monitor the contact in their practices,” Ross said. “Our coaches are educators and leaders. They want what’s best for kids, and these regulations are in line with these safety recommendations.

“These regulations will evolve and may become more restrictive as additional concussion research emerges.”

Adapting to the changes

The changes adopted by the OHSAA will not be viewed as drastic to most Ohio high school football programs, as many coaches had already become more vigilant to the potential for head injuries.

Head coaches at three of the Toledo area’s top football programs from recent seasons each said they have long been aware of the danger of concussions, and that the safety of their players is paramount.

Last season, coach Matt Kregel’s Perrysburg team finished 11-1 and was the top-ranked Division II team in Ohio. Greg Dempsey has coached Central Catholic to three state playoff championships in the past 10 years (2005, 2012, 2014). Whitmer’s Jerry Bell guided his 14-1 Panthers to a Division I state runner-up finish in 2012.

“I think we’ve always done a good job of controlling the hitting,” Kregel said. “We don’t have enough kids to two-platoon, so we have to monitor the hitting ourselves. I don’t think [the new OHSAA rules] will have a huge effect on us and how we coach things.

“We monitor ourselves. It’s a common-sense approach. We’ve always done it this way, and the good coaches in the area that I’ve talked to have said they’ve always done it this way.

“I don’t think this is going to have a huge effect on how guys coach high school football. At least for the guys who do the right thing and are concerned about the kids.”

Safety is first and foremost.

“I definitely think things have to be done to protect the kids that participate in football,” Dempsey said. “And, by doing so, you’re protecting the future of the sport.

“You definitely need to be better educated, and there needs to be some parameters set.

“I’d say 99 percent of the coaches are doing it right. But there’s some people who, for whatever reason, usually cause rules like this to be put into effect.”

Even though they already have the athletes’ safety in mind, there will be extra incentive for coaches to adhere tightly to the full-contact limitations.

“All it takes is one parent who’s unhappy with playing time to say ‘You’re hitting too much throughout the week,’ ” Bell said. “We’re going to monitor that throughout our practice plans and make sure we have it right.

“It’s for the safety of our kids. When you look at the way people are practicing nowadays, I think that we already err on the side of caution with concussions to begin with in making sure that the drills we’re doing are putting safety first, and teaching kids the fundamentals of the game.

“Over the years, we’ve learned how to do that without full contact. We want our kids healthy throughout the season, especially with the schedule we play. When I look at the new rules, it really doesn’t change much in how we practice. We’ve been doing this for years.”

Out with the old

Kregel, Dempsey, and Bell have each been around the game long enough to see the evolution of high school football practice from a more physically demanding and dangerous past to today’s more sensible training methods.

That includes greater awareness of head injuries.

“You can’t beat your kids up,” Kregel said. “There were years in the past when everybody was two tight ends and I-formations when that’s all you did was line up and bang. That’s not the case anymore. The guys who have sense will do it the right way.

“The guys who want to stretch the rules and do it the wrong way, I think that’s who this rule is for — to protect those kids. At the beginning of two-a-days, you’ll still have some kind of one-on-one, man-up kind of drills. You’ll do that for 10 minutes. Everybody bangs, and then you go to the next drill.

“But you do something where you’re not hitting full speed. We never just line up and knock the living crap out of each other for an hour and a half.

“I think that’s the direction football is going in. It’s not blood and guts and knocking the crap out of each other. You have to be smart about how you conduct business.”

Dempsey believes today’s high school football is a much safer version of the game.

“I feel better about kids playing football now than ever because of the awareness and the education and the protocol,” Dempsey said. “We’re much more aware and, when an event happens, the protocol for a kid’s return is much safer.

“If a concussion happens, it’s something we’ve got to watch. If two of them happen, it’s something we’ve really got to watch. Right now, I believe it’s as safe as it can be to play football.

“I think we know more about [recognizing concussions] now. It used to be macho to hide stuff as a player, and coaches used to make remarks about a kid having ‘his eggs scrambled’ and stuff like that. It’s much different now. You might even have some things now that are labeled as a concussion that really aren’t. But it’s better to err on the side of caution than it is to ignore it, which is what used to happen.”

Bell sees current high school coaches as much more enlightened regarding the dangers of the game.

“Overall, our coaching profession is very good at understanding the game and understanding the fundamentals, and how to teach the kids the fundamentals without putting them at risk,” Bell said. “The days of you running drills like ‘bull in the ring’ are long gone at the high school level. “With the research that they have done on concussions, and looking at long-term factors for kids with how it can impact them as adults, us being proactive on this is a step in the right direction.

“We can teach and do our jobs without having to put our kids at risk during the training sessions, and still have them function at a high level and be able to make a sound tackle and a good block with these new procedures in place.”

A watchful eye

According to information provided by the Mayo Clinic, signs and symptoms of a concussion might include headache or a feeling of pressure in the head, temporary loss of consciousness, confusion or feeling as if in a fog, amnesia surrounding the traumatic event, dizziness or ‘seeing stars,’ ringing in the ears, nausea, vomiting, slurred speech, delayed response to questions, appearing dazed, and fatigue.

Coaches might not have the ability to diagnose such symptoms, but they have athletic trainers on hand at nearly all practices and every game, and many high school games are staffed by a team physician.

Perrysburg, Central, and Whitmer have a team doctor on hand at every game.

The coaches rely heavily on their athletic trainers to recognize potential concussions. Whitmer, like many area schools, utilizes athletic trainers provided through Mercy Sports Medicine, a division of Mercy Health.

Athletic trainers David Hamen and Aaron Sage work full-time with Panther athletics.

Hamen has been an athletic trainer since 2003 after earning his bachelor of science degree from Bowling Green State University. He has worked with Whitmer athletes since 2008.

As the 2015 football season approaches, Hamen has been busy utilizing one of the most important tools available to medical personnel in recognizing concussions.

He has been conducting what is called baseline testing for all of Whitmer’s fall season athletes who will be competing in contact sports. Nearly the entire football team has already been tested and placed in the accompanying computer system.

The trainers utilize Mercy Health’s ImPACT evaluation procedure to help diagnose concussions in athletes.

ImPACT, which stands for Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing, utilizes neurocognitive baseline and post-injury testing to evaluate the athlete’s normal cognitive ability (baseline) versus his or her cognitive ability after a head trauma.

Mercy Health touts that this procedure — comparing baseline to post-injury function — as “the most scientifically validated computerized concussion evaluation system.”

In a nutshell, each individual athlete takes an online test to establish his or her normal “baseline” cognitive ability. When a possible head injury has occurred, athletes are retested to see if there has been a measurable dropoff in their cognitive performance.

“It’s a series of different tests,” Hamen said of ImPACT. “Some of it is a memorization of words, some of it is memorization of shapes or patterns. It gives us a baseline for where the kids are [in normal cognitive state].

“If we ever suspect there is a concussion, we’ll have the kid sit down and take the test again. It will give us a readout of where they were initially and where they are now. Depending on the score, it will give us a better idea if there’s a potential concussion there, and to seek further help. It’s a tool for us to help identify concussions, and to protect our kids.”

The high school football season, for most Ohio teams, begins Aug. 28.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

http://www.bcsn.tv/news_article/show/537483

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AT Mike Goforth welcomes new ACC policy for pressbox observer

least three times last football season a Virginia Tech assistant coach stationed in the press box alerted medical personnel on the sideline to an injured player. The instances reminded Mike Goforth that as watchful as he and his staff try to be during a game, they cannot see everything.

That’s why Goforth, the Hokies’ associate athletic director for sports medicine, applauds the ACC for mandating that each conference team place either a physician or athletic trainer in the press box for every game.

Following similar stances by the Big Ten, Southeastern Conference and Pacific 12, ACC commissioner John Swofford announced Monday that league athletic directors had unanimously approved the measure.

“This team-specific medical observer will have the benefit of knowing the medical history of the players,” Swofford said, “because it will be someone who is involved with them on an ongoing and day-to-day basis. They will travel with the team and observe every game, home and away, conference and non-conference.”

The observers will not have stoppage power, in the form of a direct line to the game’s referee, but they will be connected with medical officials on the sideline.

In this time of bigger, stronger and faster athletes, of more violent contact, and of more scientific data on the enduring effects of brain trauma, the more precautions the better. You don’t want to encumber the game, or those who play it, but the harrowing tales of the last 20-plus years, involving athletes at all levels, make clear the sensibility of this measure.

Though a few meaningless weeks behind — it is the offseason, after all — on press box observers, ACC schools have long been on the leading edge of concussion protocol and research, and the University of Noth Carolina’s Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz serves on the NCAA’s concussion committee.

Brain trauma is most studied in Blacksburg, where Stefan Duma heads the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences. From safety ratings for helmets to sensors that warn of high-force collisions to a Department of Defense concussions study designed to aid athletes and military personnel, Tech’s academic research has been invaluable to Goforth and the medical team.

“We’re going to make this as proactive as we can,” Goforth said of the ACC policy, “and I think it will be a big help to us. …
“If you have the right culture around an athletic department, specifically the football program, this kind of thing already occurs. Last year on at least three occasions our coaches called down for me to look at somebody.”

Goforth declined to reveal the players involved but said the injuries involved a knee, concussion and ankle. Trainers on the field had noticed the first two, not the latter.

But coaches, or medical staff, can’t be expected to notice every possible injury. The game is too fast, especially with no-huddle, hurry-up offenses en vogue. Trainers are tending to players on the bench. Coaches are hatching strategy. Medical observers, perched on high and presumably equipped with binoculars and television replay, will be less distracted and more likely to notice anything amiss.

The ACC’s policy is only a week old, but Goforth already has created a one-page, game-day concussion protocol that includes the press-box observer. There’s a photo of Goforth examining the concussed Logan Thomas at the 2013 Sun Bowl and an edict that any player diagnosed with a head injury “is ruled out of the game and their helmet is taken by the equipment manager.”

An integral part of Frank Beamer’s football program since 1998, Goforth has decided that the Hokies’ press box watchdog will be an athletic trainer, since trainers have more frequent interaction with players than physicians and are more familiar with their medical histories. Moreover, Tech’s observer will be armed with not only medical background and insurance information for every player, but also the seat location of players’ parents – cell phone service in a crowded stadium can be spotty.

Such information used to be stashed in a trunk on the sideline. Upstairs it will be more easily accessible.

“You know Coach Beamer,” Goforth said. “Coach Beamer has never, ever put pressure on us about an injury. But he will pressure me about communicating with parents. It’s of utmost importance to him that Mom and Dad know what’s going on with that kid. Practice, game, whatever.”

On game day, Goforth also positions some Tech medical staff on the opponents’ sideline, where they operate an x-ray machine. The more eyes from the more angles the better, he figures, the same premise that inspired the Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12 and ACC — the Big 12 recently limited live contact drill to two days per week, including game day.

Goforth recalled Tech running back Lee Suggs’ torn ACL in 2001. With a clear view of the play, Goforth sensed the injury even before Suggs collapsed into a heap, and that knowledge informed his immediate treatment.

Indeed, for medical personnel, there’s no such thing as too much information

“I think we’ve got a lot of things in place,” Goforth said, “some good mechanisms to help us identify student-athletes that could be injured that we might not have seen. …

“If anybody can see how it happened, that gives us a clue about what might be wrong with them. Just to have another set of eyes that can say, hey I saw this person get rolled up on their right knee, so on and so forth, that’s a big help.”

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

http://www.dailypress.com/sports/virginia-tech/dp-spt-teel-column-acc-medical-observer-20150726-column.html

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Waxahachie’s AT David “Doc” Bowdoin featured in article about heat illness

Temperatures nearing triple digits, seldom cloud coverage, and long days. There isn’t a better time to be outside.

Most kids in high school are probably spending their summers inside where air conditioning is on full blast.

But for athletes on the Waxahachie football team, a typical day consists of morning workouts at the gym followed by conditioning that takes them outside where two-a-days start in a few weeks.

As it stands, football players have a grace period between spring training and the first day of official practices, which is the second Monday in August, per UIL mandate.

Coaches are not allowed to hold practices during the summer, leaving off-season training up to the athletes between May and August.

And although athletes might not like working out in the summer because of the heat, maybe instead they should embrace it, said David “Doc” Bowdoin, Waxahachie’s head athletic trainer.

“When you’re talking about heat, you’re not going to get away from it in Texas unless you get an El Niño season when it’s cooler,” Bowdoin said. “And you’re going to play in it. When we go to Midlothian, we’re going to be sitting in a hole. And on that turf, it’ll probably be 115 degrees at game time. Maybe more.”

Waxahachie opens its season at Midlothian on Aug. 28 and unlike Lumpkins Stadium, the field at Midlothian’s Multi-Purpose Stadium was built beneath the ground, making it hotter during the summertime.

But if the players at Waxahachie become as used to the heat as they should, said Bowdoin, then there won’t be any health issues come game day.

“I truly believe that you have to get those kids exposed out there. Because that’s what they’re going to be playing in,” Bowdoin said. “You have to get them out there in it, but you have to be careful. Have to be real careful.”

Heat illnesses aren’t uncommon for football players, especially those in Texas where temperatures typically reach the high 90s and stay there for the duration of the summer.

That’s why Bowdoin and Indians head coach Jon Kitna take no exception to stressing the importance of heat awareness to athletes and parents.

At a recent parent player meeting, Kitna highlighted three of the four heat related disorders: cramps, syncope, and exhaustion. Heat stroke is the final stage of a disorder and can result in death as the body stops secreting sweat to cool itself down, Bowdoin said.

Waxahachie’s goal is to avoid the final stage at all costs, which is why Kitna and Bowdoin emphasize the other three disorders with the intent to get high school athletes to understand just how vital it is to drink fluids and eat, especially in the summer.

“The heat isn’t going anywhere. It’s not disappearing at all,” Bowdoin said. “The cramps and stuff that you see during games, we can deal with that. What you don’t want is to get them so bad where they’re nauseous, vomiting, in-and-out of consciences, stuff like that because then that tells you they’re so depleted, they’ve lost so much fluid and stuff that their body doesn’t want to do it anymore and that’s when you have to make a decision.”

As severe as some of the symptoms are for heat illnesses, Bowdoin said it’s still difficult to teach athletes the importance of taking precautions and bracing yourself for working out in the heat.

Bowdoin has worked in sports medicine the last 24 years and has been the athletic trainer at Waxahachie for 21 of those years.

He’s seen it all when it comes to high school athletes working out in the summer.

Since beginning his career at Texas Christian University, he’s also seen the changing influence PlayStation’s and Xbox’s have had on students.

“They want to stay inside and play their video games and that’s cool, but when I was growing up we were outside all the time. We were used to it,” Bowdoin said. “The dynamics have changed in society.”

PlayStation, however, isn’t the only thing that’s changed since Bowdoin was a trainer for the Horned Frogs.

He’s also seen technology improve and how different medical practices are more beneficial today.

“In the old days, you fill up an ice tub full of cold water, no matter how cold it is, and you dunk them in it. That’s not good,” Bowdoin said. “We’ve learned now that if we do that with a kid that’s having some problems with heat illness, the later stages maybe or in between stages, you send the body into shock and you drive the heat that’s inside their body further down and it damages their organs. Our answer to that is cool water, not just cold cold cold water.”

In addition to changing treatment methods, Bowdoin also said teams have adjusted their workouts so athletes can respond better to the heat.

“Instead of just running wind sprints back in the old school days where you run 100 yards and turn around and run another 100 yards, the coaches do some things like dynamic stretching and dynamic ballistic stretching,” he said. “They do different types of conditioning. We’ve got a lot smarter with that.”

Given Waxahachie’s new direction on offense and defense, the Indians will rely heavily on their speed, which comes from conditioning, Bowdoin said.

Kitna and the coaching staff have been implementing a spread offense, similar to what Baylor University runs and plan to go without huddling this season.

The increase in pace could be a toll on the player’s, but the goal for the team is to suffocate each of their opponents based on their speed, Bowdoin said.

“You have to be in shape. It’s a necessity based on upon what we want to do,” he said.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

http://www.waxahachietx.com/waxahachietx/bowdoin-get-used-to-heat/article_da6246e3-3381-5b06-ad69-d314efcdfadb.html

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ACC to add athletic trainers to press box

So many of the hurried changes to college sports have that barn-door-after-the-horse-is-gone feeling, a desperate attempt to forestall the wave of lawsuits and other athletic activism that has erupted in recent years.

Giving athletes the same cost-of-attendance benefits as students on academic scholarships was as sensible as it was long overdue, even if the athletic community at large had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century and is still complaining about having to pay for it.

On Monday, the ACC announced it has adopted one improvement that is neither forced or overdue. It’s actually timely, and perhaps even forward-thinking: The conference’s application of the NCAA’s new medical-observer protocol for football.

The NCAA last week adopted an experimental rule allowing conferences to use a medical observer to monitor for injuries, not specifically but obviously potential concussions, with the power to stop play if necessary.

The SEC will use one athletic trainer to monitor both teams, in communication with the referee. The ACC’s athletic directors voted Sunday night to adopt a different protocol, with one member of the medical staff for each team in the press box, in communication not with the referee but his sideline.

The issue isn’t whether this is a good idea. It is. It’s a no-brainer. The issue is whether what the ACC is doing goes far enough.

The SEC – and presumably Big Ten, which co-sponsored the NCAA legislation – will let its observers halt the game if needed. The ACC decided not to give its observers that ability, which leaves a narrow time frame for an observer to identify a potentially injured player, communicate with the sideline and remove that player from the game.

“We didn’t really see the necessity in that,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said. “The medical observer should be able in talking to the sidelines to have a timeout called or pull a player from the game. But this is all experimental. We’ll see how it actually works in real time. If there needs to be some adjustment to that then we’ll see. This is where we felt was appropriate. It’s a little different than what some other conferences are doing.”

It doesn’t happen often that a clearly staggered player returns to the huddle without the medical staff on the sideline noticing, but it happens often enough that conferences have seen the wisdom of adding an extra set of eyes in the press box. And in those situations, it’s a fair question whether the ACC’s process will work quickly enough to help that player, especially in an era of hurry-up offenses and quick tempo.

In their meeting Sunday night to debate and approve the observer protocol, the ACC’s athletic directors decided not to go as far as the NCAA would allow, focusing on a team-based model instead of a neutral, officiating-based model.

“This seems sufficient,” N.C. State athletic director Debbie Yow said. “It’s a common-sense approach.”

North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said there are other benefits to the ACC plan.

“There’s so much chaos on the sidelines that it can be confusing,” Cunningham said. “Someone out of the chaos may have a better perspective, especially if they have a view of a TV.”

The far greater priority was having someone doing the assessments who was aware of each individual player’s medical history, which led them to the two-person, two-team model the Pac-12 used on a limited basis last season and is expanding to all games this season.

“The important thing to us was that our observer was connected to the history of the student-athlete,” Pittsburgh athletic director Scott Barnes said. “We need an observer who’s part of our staff and knows the issues involved. That was our primary concern.”

And while there’s some expense involved in bringing an extra staff member on the road, it’s relatively minor compared to the benefits.

Cunningham said North Carolina typically travels with two or three doctors and may reallocate one to the press box.

“There might be an extra hotel room,” Yow said, “but so what?”

It is a small price to pay for an improved level of player safety and a change that is, for once in college sports, as much proactive as reactive.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/luke-decock/article27944956.html#storylink=cpy

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/luke-decock/article27944956.html