NFHS Concussion in Sports Course offered free to coaches, parents, athletes
National Federation of State High School Associations
8/25/2010 9:01:02 PM
INDIANAPOLIS — With the high school
football season underway, coaches, parents, players and officials are encouraged
to complete the Concussion in Sports – What You Need to Know online course
offered free of charge by the Indianapolis-based National Federation of State
High School Associations (NFHS).
To date, more than 47,000 persons have
registered and completed the NFHS Coach Education course available at
www.nfhslearn.com
Concussion in Sports provides a guide
to understanding, recognizing and properly managing concussions in high school
sports. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has endorsed the course and
provided many useful resources.
“Although coaches, parents and players
involved with football will certainly benefit from Concussion in Sports,
research shows that concussions occur in other sports as well,” said Bob
Gardner, NFHS executive director. “With more than 7½ million young people
involved in high school sports, minimizing the risk of injury is extremely
important. The course is a ‘must do’ for anyone associated with high school
sports.”
The 20-minute online course is designed to highlight the
importance of recognizing and responding to sports-related concussions, which
pose a particularly high risk for adolescents. The course is hosted by Michael
Koester, M.D., chair of the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) and
director of the Sports Concussion Program at the Slocum Center for Orthopedics
and Sports Medicine in Eugene, Oregon. Individuals have access to the course and
printable resources, including a parent’s guide to concussion in sports, a
coach’s guide, an athlete fact sheet and materials for schools to implement a
protocol for concussion treatment.
According to the 2009-10 High School
Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, more than 140,000 high school athletes
suffer a concussion each year. The study, conducted by Dawn Comstock, Ph.D.,
director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s
Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, also indicated that the incidence rate for
concussion is highest among football players. The next two highest rates among
boys sports are ice hockey and lacrosse. In girls sports, the incidence rate is
highest in soccer, gymnastics and lacrosse.
In addition to education
courses, the NFHS has been the leader in establishing playing rules to deal with
concussions. In 2008, the SMAC advocated that a concussed athlete must be
removed from play and not allowed to return to play on the same day. In 2009,
the position was adopted by a leading group of sports concussion experts and the
National Football League (NFL).
For 2010-11, the NFHS implemented new
guidelines for the management of a student exhibiting signs, symptoms or
behaviors consistent with a concussion. Based on the SMAC, these guidelines have
been included in all NFHS rules books for the 2010-11 season. The language
reads: “Any athlete who exhibits signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a
concussion, such as loss of consciousness, headaches, dizziness, confusion or
balance problems, shall be immediately removed from the contest and shall not
return to play until cleared by an appropriate health-care
professional.”
The NFHS Coach Education Program began in 2007 with two
core courses – Fundamentals of Coaching and First Aid for Coaches. The core
courses provide coaches with content from all eight domains contained in the
National Standards for Sport Coaches (NASPE 2006). These two courses form the
foundation from which all elective courses and sport-specific courses are
developed specifically for interscholastic coaches. To date, more than 140,000
coaches have completed Fundamentals of Coaching. Forty-five of the 51 NFHS
member associations have adopted or recommended the course. All 14 of the NFHS
coach education courses, including sport-specific courses for football, soccer,
softball, spirit, volleyball and wrestling, are available at
www.nfhslearn.com.
About the National Federation of State High School
Associations (NFHS)
The NFHS, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the
national leadership organization for high school sports and fine arts
activities. Since 1920, the NFHS has led the development of education-based
interscholastic sports and fine arts activities that help students succeed in
their lives. The NFHS sets direction for the future by building awareness and
support, improving the participation experience, establishing consistent
standards and Rules for competition, and helping those who oversee high school
sports and activities. The NFHS writes playing rules for 17 sports for boys and
girls at the high school level. Through its 50 member state associations and the
District of Columbia, the NFHS reaches more than 19,000 high schools and 11
million participants in high school activity programs, including more than 7.5
million in high school sports. As the recognized national authority on
interscholastic activity programs, the NFHS conducts national meetings;
sanctions interstate events; produces publications for high school coaches,
officials and athletic directors; sponsors professional organizations for high
school coaches, officials, spirit coaches, speech and debate coaches and music
adjudicators; serves as the national source for interscholastic coach training;
and serves as a national information resource of interscholastic athletics and
activities. For more information, visit the NFHS Web site at www.nfhs.org.
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