Orig. Post December 9, 2014 by Paul Doyle, Hartford Courant | Re-Post January 5, 2015
In 2014, there might be no bigger issue in high school athletics, and the organization that governs Connecticut’s interscholastic sports is responding.
“This is obviously an important issue,” CIAC executive director Karissa Niehoff said. “It’s absolutely about educating the coaches, parents and kids.”
As the CIAC launched its concussion-focused website (concussioncentral.ciacsports.com) this year, the state was passing legislation that is focused on education, reducing concussions, and maintaining up-to-date data on concussions. The legislation, which became law in May, requires the state board of education to “develop a plan aimed at reducing the number of concussions and addressing the proper procedures following concussions experienced by students during school athletics.”
The CIAC has no formal data on concussions because until this year there was no required reporting of concussions, Niehoff said.
“We will be able to track Connecticut’s data to some degree after this year as the legislation requires public schools to report all concussions to the CSDE [Connecticut State Department of Education) at the end of this school year,” Niehoff said.
Niehoff also said the CIAC will require schools to use “a national injury surveillance system called RIO [Reporting Injuries Online]. Each state association encourages member high school associations to participate in RIO. We will be requiring the use of RIO beginning next year for at least the sport of football. We continue to encourage our schools to use RIO for all sports.”
The law passed in Connecticut also clarifies how coaches handle a concussed athlete and what is required before the athlete can return to competition.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was at Staples High in Westport this fall to commemorate the bill. The legislation was pushed through by three Westport women whose sons experienced concussions.
“This is common-sense legislation that will help protect our children,” Malloy said. “We want our students to achieve the highest levels of physical, behavioral and educational success. This bill will help ensure that parents, coaches and student-athletes will all be better prepared to identify and respond to concussions.”
Claire Consonni Doesn’t Regret Leaving Basketball After Multiple Concussions
Claire Consonni Doesn’t Regret Leaving Basketball After Multiple Concussions
In 2010, Connecticut passed a law that required coaches of interscholastic or intramural sports to complete courses in concussion awareness. Connecticut was just the third state to pass concussion legislation, after Washington and Oregon.
According to Niehoff, the CIAC has been offering concussion education to coaches since 1985. But the 2010 law offered specific guidelines.
“When they passed the law, we had already had the course [for coaches] in place,” Niehoff said. “So it was helpful for the legislature to say the CIAC has training in place. Now with the latest [legislation] that talks about education for student-athletes and parents, there is more. … So now the requirement is that schools provide education to those parents and students, and there will soon be a requirement for an informed consent form. Coaches, in order to maintain certification, they must pass a concussion module.”
That module is a three-hour course, with a refresher course every five years. Each year, coaches are required to review new material.
cComments
Did you get the sad part of the article? Pushed by three mommies whose little johnny was injured. Where are the comments from the people who actually qualify to speak to this issue? A Doctor? A Neurosurgeon? A head trauma specialist? I am not opposed to making sports safer, I would just…
r.u.sh10.me
at 8:16 AM December 09, 2014
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“That’s an opportunity to provide them with any new information that might be out there in the medical community about concussions,” Niehoff said. “There are a lot of layers to it now and things change.”
Said Fred Balsamo, who oversees the CIAC’s coaching education, “I am confident in saying, we are far ahead of most states. Our high school kids are well-protected and our coaches are well-educated. We should never lower our standards and we should never lower our guard. We’ll continue to improve and continue to make things better. But at this point in time, I think we’ve made it as safe as we can.”
The CIAC concussion site includes a concussion education plan for parent and athletes along with details of the state law. The new law requires coaches to immediately remove athletes from games or practices at the first sign of concussion-like symptoms or if an athlete has been diagnosed with a concussion.
New Focus On Concussions: No More ‘Shake It Off’
New Focus On Concussions: No More ‘Shake It Off’
To return to competition, the student must have written clearance from a licensed health care provider “trained in the evaluation and management of concussions.”
According to Malloy’s office, 13.5 percent of Connecticut high school students self-reported receiving concussions while playing sports in 2013. Niehoff said that not all concussions occur from contact, so some athletes might ignore symptoms or not identify symptoms as a concussion.
That’s why it’s important that coaches and parents know more.
“What I can assure you of is our coaching and education program leads the nation,” Niehoff said. “We have the most rigorous criteria for coaching certification and maintenance of a certificate.”
Dr. David Wang of Connecticut Children’s Medical Center specializes in sports medicine and is co-chair of a state task force focused on concussions. Wang said raising awareness among athletes is important, but it’s especially crucial that adults be educated.
“Having coaches aware of signs and symptoms of concussions, as well as parents and even team members … it can only help,” Wang said. “It will capture a good chunk of the people with concussions. It’s not foolproof. There are people who don’t manifest the symptoms until a day or two later and you’ll never catch those people. It’s impossible. It’s not a perfect system, but by all means it’s certainly helpful. The more people that are looking out for it, the better.”
That includes trainers and medical professional assigned to cover specific games. Not all schools have trainers on staff, with many using trainers from outside clinics. That makes monitoring the post-concussion symptoms a challenge, which is all the more reason why educating coaches — the one constant in an athlete’s life — is vital.
“We’re clearly better equipped to identify what puts a student-athlete at risk,” Tolland boys soccer coach Jim Leahy said. “”I’m glad we know more now. You’re risking your life and it is not worth it.”
The CIAC’s concussion website could also be a porthole for parents and coaches of children participating in youth sports. Coaching education and certification tends to vary from community to community across the state.
One focus of the Connecticut Concussion Task Force is to bring more education to youth leagues. Many youth programs have programs in place — West Hartford Youth Football, for instance, requires its coaches to be certified through the Heads Up Football program — but the level of education varies from league to league.
The state task force and the CIAC are hoping to create an education program that will reach all communities and leagues, but Wang admits it’s a daunting task.
“I think our law will be changing,” Wang said. “There certainly is an impetus to go evolve even further in regards to the law, to include groups beyond high school. Junior high, the club sports, the youth leagues … all of those people. They haven’t been addressed nearly as well. But it’s a challenge.”
Niehoff said the CIAC has been in contact with some towns, either through youth sports associations or parks departments. The organization is willing to help educate coaches in concussion procedures, but reaching all coaches in all communities is not easy.
“I think the best way to do it now is certainly through schools and then offering the educational materials to associations that deal with youth sports and assisting them in communicating with parents,” Niehoff said. “But there is no easy solution. It’s hard to find coaches at any level. … We’ll certainly try to help in any way we can.”