Add North Carolina to the growing list of states that is getting serious about high school sports safety.
During the past school year, five North Carolina student-athletes died, including football players Matt Gfeller, Atlas Fraley, and Jaquan Waller (the last from second impact syndrome), and two basketball players.
In the wake of the deaths, the state is taking four important steps to improve the safety of high school sports.
First, high school athletic directors, meeting at their 38th annual conference, are getting serious about the importance of educating coaches about the signs and symptoms of concussions and preventing second impact syndrome, something I have been pushing for years.
Second, at least one county in the state is considering an upgrade to Xenith football helmets, which could help reduce concussions, especially for players with a history of concussions. Safe, technologically advanced helmets for every child are clearly a must.
Third, schools are working on Emergency Action Plans (EAPs) to make sure they are ready to respond in the face of an emergency. Again, much work needs to be done in this area.
Fourth, a new bill (Senate Bill 864) was introduced last week into the North Carolina legislature funding the hiring of licensed athletic trainers (LATs) for every high school in the state, a step that I have also supported for years. Working under a specific protocol designed in consultation with a supervising licensed physician, LATs coordinate daily, on-site athletic health care for secondary school athletes. Having an LAT in each high school is, I believe, the single best step that can be taken to protect high school athletes from injury and ensure that, when they are injured, they do not return to play before they are physically and psychologically ready.
According to James R. Scifers, ATC, President of the North Carolina Athletic Trainers' Association and Associate Dean of the College of Health & Human Sciences at Western Carolina University, only 42% of the state's 379 high schools have a full-time LAT on staff, a percentage which tracks the national average. "This bill has been on our radar screen for years," says Scifers. "We realize the challenges in getting the bill enacted into law with the economy where it is. But if nothing else we will be educating the public and the legislature on the need for LATs in each high school educated in the prevention, assessment, recognition, management and rehabilitation of sports- related injuries."
It is a tragedy, of course, that any athlete has to die before a state begins to intensify its efforts to take the steps needed to reduce the risk of catastrophic injury or death in high school sports, much less four athletes in a single school year.
That North Carolina, a state with a rich tradition of producing some of the best athletes in the country and one that takes its high school sports very seriously, is taking the lead to make the safety of high school athletes such a priority, especially in tough economic times when funds are scarce, is remarkable and worthy of the support of all parents, coaches, administrators, and trainers.
Here's hoping every state in the country follows its lead.
Brooke, in a perfect world,
Brooke, in a perfect world, many of the things you champion make lots of sense. But we have to deal with reality. Most schools are strapped for every nickel they can come up with, and MANDATING a licensed athletic trainer will either increase cost for the school district/ or eliminate another position within a school, possibly a teaching position. Do you wish to say that a school should lose a teacher in the name of athletic safety.
Your position is rarely challenged because, of course, no one wants to see a high school kid die due to sports. But I'm sure statistics prove that many, many more high school kids die in auto accidents than on the athletic fields / courts, etc.
You see, the main point is, you cannot protect every kid, every day, 24 hours a day. There is inherent risks of everything we do.
Looking at the North Carolina high school athletic web site, in 2007 there were approximately 165,000 athletes that participated in roughly 350 schools. Pardon my callousness, but 5 deaths in 165,000 athletes is about 0.003%. Now again, I'm sure the death rate among high school drivers in North Carolina is much,much more than that.
Now, MOST schools have some type of athletic training presence at their events. Practices, maybe or maybe not. But, again in the big government philosophy in mandating these things, the expenses skyrocket.
Progress
Brooke de Lench
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I feel most school districts
I feel most school districts are doing the right things when it comes to safety. As with anything, there is a threshold where safety and cost come together. Football would be much safer if you weren't allowed to tackle, it was just flag football. But people like tackle football, so you take on risk. If you don't want to take the risk, then don't allow your kid to play football. Baseball and softball would be safer if the ball was a wiffle ball, but people don't like that game, so you take the risk.
Teenage deaths would drop dramatically if you didn't allow kids to get driver's licenses until they were 18. But society has deemed that 16 year olds and effectively drive a car. Yes, some die and it's sad, but we can't protect our kids from everything and anything that could harm them.
Athletic trainers in schools
I do not disagree with the concept of having certified athletic trainers (ATC) in schools but do disagree with the perception that is being put out in the public that having an ATC on the sidelines will save kids lives. As long as sports exist, kids will die. That is a fact. The events are tragic, but bad things happen. If you want to reduce the number of young kids dying, set your attention on the leading killers...driving, alcohol, drugs. In EMS we see the results of those items DAILY. During my time on the sidelines as a school athletic trainer (now called 'first responder') I dealt with several ATC's. Some were good, some were clueless, unrealistic, and down right dangerous. In one instance, in dealing with an opposing team's player, the coach and I overrode the decision of the ATC. The player had been knocked briefly unconscious (by definition a grade 2 concussion by the standard we used) and was complaining of 'tingling all over', headache, and pain in his neck (cervical spine). The ATC wished to walk him to the sidelines for further evaluation. The player was transported on a spine board by ambulance to a local hospital and diagnosed with a mild concussion and sprained ligaments in three cervical vertebrae. I would also like to ask you, how did the 5 athletes mentioned above die? Also you did not mention the college player who died due to heat related problems with two (2) ATC's present with the pt. The issue of students dying on the athletic field will not end with ATC's being on the field and you forget, there are many sports going on on a day to day basis at a high school; to which one will the ATC go?
Well said Mr. Larsen. Many
Well said Mr. Larsen. Many are pursuing a day when no children ever get injured or die playing sports. Absolutely unrealistic. Meanwhile, by mandating athetic trainers, it will increase the cost of these people, and in the long run, cause schools to cut or elimiate sports.