SportsLetter

GAO releases report on concussions in high school sports

Last year, the House Education and Labor Committee asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the rise of concussions among high school athletes and the impact such injuries have on student-athlete classroom performance.

Last Thursday the GAO presented its report to a hearing held by the Committee. 

The full statement by GAO's director of health care issues, Linda Kohn, is here:

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-569T

From the report:

GAO identified three national databases that, as part of broader data collection efforts, collect information on the occurrence of concussion in high school sports, but they do not provide an overall national estimate of occurrence. Although the High School Reporting Information Online database provides national estimates of occurrence of concussion, it covers only 20 sports for high schools with certified athletic trainers. It may underestimate occurrence because some athletes may be reluctant to report symptoms of a possible concussion to avoid being removed from a game. The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) National Electronic Injury Surveillance System provides national estimates only on concussions treated in an emergency room. The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research database provides information only on cases of concussion with serious complications and cannot provide national estimates of the occurrence of all concussions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s program, Heads Up: Concussion in High School Sports, which began in September 2005, is the primary federal prevention program directed toward concussion. In addition, CPSC carries out prevention initiatives that include distributing educational materials, but these initiatives are directed more broadly at sports and recreation safety, such as appropriate helmets for football, baseball, and bicycling.

The three key laws regarding the management of concussion in high school sports that were identified by federal officials and experts—those of Oregon, Texas, and Washington—all address concussion education and return to play, but their specific requirements vary. The education requirements vary with respect to who is to receive the education. For example, the Washington law targets coaches, athletes, and parents, while the Oregon law targets coaches only. There is also variation with respect to the content and frequency of education. The return-to-play requirements vary in the conditions under which athletes may return to play and in who may authorize it. For example, the Texas requirements apply specifically to athletes who lose consciousness, which excludes many concussions, and the Washington law requires return-to-play authorizations to be made by health professionals specifically trained in the evaluation and management of concussion.

GAO found five sets of voluntary nationwide guidelines, which were developed by organizations that conduct work in high school athletics or sports medicine, that address the management of concussion in high school sports. All recommend monitoring an athlete with a concussion on the sidelines and assessing cognitive function regularly for signs of deterioration. All guidelines also recommend returning an athlete to play on a gradual basis, tailored to an individual’s recovery and based on symptoms and the results of memory, cognition, and balance tests.

Head and neck injuries, the NFL, and Congress

Members of the NFL's committee on head injuries once again appeared before a House Judiciary Committee panel to discuss concussions and helmets and the study of both.  And Dr. Richard Ellenbogen and Dr. Hunt Batjer, the two new NFL committee co-chairmen, fared about as well as their predecessors, Dr. Ira Casson and Dr. David Viano, who were replaced in March 2010. 

Linda T. Sánchez, Democrat of California, along with Anthony D. Weiner, Democrat of New York, went on the offensive, demanding to know the progress the NFL had made since the round of hearings last fall and accusing the two new co-chairs of sounding "like the same old NFL."  Aside from renaming itself the "Head, Neck and Spine Committee," the NFL group argued that it has redirected itself to the "current goal to make all sports, not just football, safer for athletes of all ages."

New York Times writer Alan Schwarz, who along with his paper has been pressured by the NFL to limit his coverage of concussions in football, reported on yesterday's hearings:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/sports/football/25concussion.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Other coverage can be found here: 

NFL website:  http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8184b450&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true

Associated Press:  http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/gungrey/Article_2010-05-24-FBN-NFL-Concussions/id-28500cba174b4ecb97eefc1f0a0f0dbc

WCBSTV.com: http://wcbstv.com/local/concussions.sports.nfl.2.1712210.html

Dave Pear's Blog; the unofficial blog for independent football veterans:  http://davepear.com/blog/2010/03/george-visgers-letter-dr-ellenbogen/

Brain Injury News and Information Blog: http://braininjury.blogs.com/braininjury/2010/05/questions-that-congress-needs-to-ask-the-nfl-at-tomorrows-house-judicary-committee-hearing-examining.html

Brain Damage Blog: http://www.tbilaw.com/blog/tag/nfl-and-head-injury

London 2012 Mascots

Billy Payne must be thrilled. 

As head of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Payne ultimately was responsible for what was arguably one of the strangest mascots in Olympic history:  Whatizit, or Izzy.

  

Izzy may have met his match.

Meet Wenlock, newly unveiled mascot of the 2012 London Olympic Games, and his friend Mandeville, mascot of the 2012 London Paralympic Games

 

 
 
  

High school sports roundup

High school girls in Florida are playing interscholastic touch football in large numbers.  This has some women’s sports advocate critics upset, according to the New York Times, because the NCAA does not offer touch football. 

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez writes about a high school pole vaulter who was disqualified after an opposing coach made an issue of a string bracelet she wore.  In another story, Times reporter Eric Sondheimer criticizes the growing tendency of private high schools to emulate Division I NCAA football programs.

Another chance for Bliss

Last month SportsLetter told you about the second chance being provided by Basha High School in Chandler, Arizona, to football coach Bernie Busken.  In a disturbing example of “can you top this,” former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss has been hired as Athletic Director, Dean of Students and Varsity Men's Basketball Coach by Allen Academy, Texas’ oldest college preparatory school. 

Bliss, you may recall, was involved in a 2003 cash, lies and audiotape scandal in his capacity as men’s head basketball coach at Baylor.  A 2009 USA Today article sums up the sordid details:

[Baylor] player Patrick Dennehy went missing, then was discovered to have been murdered. A former teammate, Carlton Dotson, later pleaded guilty to killing Dennehy and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

While that was playing out, Baylor officials discovered that Bliss improperly paid up to $40,000 in tuition for Dennehy and another player, and that the coaching staff had not reported players' failed drug tests. And, in an attempt to cover his own misdeeds, Bliss asked players and an assistant coach to lie to investigators by saying Dennehy paid his tuition by dealing drugs; the assistant coach taped that conversation and turned it over to authorities.

For a more in-depth -- and graphic -- recounting of Bliss’ transgressions, check out this Deadspin rant.

Bliss has spent the last seven years coaching, running his Game Plan Ministries coaches program and publicly expressing remorse for his past behavior.

For its part, Allen Academy believes it has found its man.  John Rouse, head of the school, said Bliss was “Allen’s top choice” from a list of candidates.  And the man who accepted Bliss’ resignation at Baylor, former Baylor president Dr. Robert Sloan, had this assessment:

“Dave Bliss has rediscovered why he went into coaching to start with: to help young people be successful adults, people of character and worthy accomplishments. His has been a journey of loss and a slow, painstaking path toward recovery and service. Dave’s experiences of failure are as old as the human race; but his willingness to turn his story into good for others is very inspiring.

“I commend Allen Academy for hiring Dave Bliss. I admire Dave for his desire to help others. The real measure of Dave Bliss’s career will be found not in the scandal of the past, but in the service he has been doing for several years, and the work that he will do in the future, to mold the lives of young men and women toward discipline, character, and moral courage.”

Let’s hope so. 

May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month

The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports would like to remind everyone that May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month.  The PCPFS website has information and a "toolkit" that can help promote activity and movement in the merry month of May.  There is additional information on the US Department of Health & Human services website.

As the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation points out:

Children spend an average of eight hours a day of physical inactivity in front of a computer or TV while $150 billion is being spent every year to treat obesity-related conditions. Something is wrong with this picture.

Don Cherry will not be pleased

Toronto’s Globe and Mail had an article yesterday about the continued growth of non-contact youth hockey in Canada.  The Toronto Non-Contact Hockey League (TNCHL), for example, will be expanding from three teams to eight in two age groups next season. 

Says the Globe of the TNCHL:

The league is part of a growing movement across the country to create a parallel non-contact stream that permits young players to continue playing hockey, at a stage where the dropout rate – early teens – tends to be fairly high …

... Founded last year by a group of downtown parents in response to mounting concerns about head injuries among pre-teens and teens playing in select leagues that allow bodychecking, the TNCHL – and several other fledgling leagues in Southern Ontario – are challenging Canada’s dominant hockey culture and its emphasis on toughness.

Organizers of non-contact leagues also contend that young players will become more skilled by stressing passing, shooting and playmaking, and eliminating what some coaches and parents were calling “goonery” that exists in minor league hockey.

John Smoltz and Sam Bradford support SPORT

Last month SportsLetter wrote about the STOP Sports Injuries campaign initiated by the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM).  The STOP (Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention) campaign was created to highlight and help prevent the growth of preventable youth sports injuries.

Hoping to increase the visibility of the program, STOP has enlisted the help of athletes such as MLB pitcher John Smoltz and Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford.   Stephania Bell, a physical therapist, Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, sat down with both athletes and AOSSM president Dr. James Andrews to discuss the campaign in a piece published on the ESPN website. 

In separate interviews both Bradford and Smoltz decry the emphasis on sport specialization in youth sports:

"I hear kids say all the time, they've played one sport since they were like 8 years old," Bradford said. "I just think they're missing out on so much."

"It's not that we're against playing baseball. We're against playing baseball 12 months out of the year, or even 10 months out of the year," Smoltz said. "By no means am I discouraging kids to play, but there has to be a transition into either another sport or some rest time to allow you to recover from that current sport."

You can read the entire ESPN article here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5137861