Lawsuit alleges PIAA failed to protect students from concussions
Posted: December 11, 2015 Filed under: Concussions, High School, Lawsuit, Player Safety | Tags: Concussions, high school sports, player safety, Safety Tag Leave a comment »By JASON CATO
Many of Pennsylvania’s 350,000 junior and senior high school athletes likely have experienced severe concussions and the kind of lingering effects three Lawrence County high school athletes had to endure, according to a class-action lawsuit claiming negligence against the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Two former student athletes at Neshannock High School and the father of a senior at Ellwood City sued the PIAA in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court late Thursday alleging the governing body did little to protect them from or help them with concussions suffered while playing high school sports.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages on behalf of Jonathan Hites and Kaela Zingaro, both New Castle residents and 2014 Neshannock graduates, and Domenic Teolis, 17, of Ellwood City.
The head of the state’s governing body over school sports vowed to fight the allegations vigorously, and one legal expert said the PIAA will prevail.
“This lawsuit will lose,” said Hosea Harvey, a Temple University law school professor with expertise in youth sports law. “They are actually undermining the issue of student safety in Pennsylvania.”
Neither Hites nor Zingaro nor their families could be reached for comment. Samuel Teolis, listed as a plaintiff because his son is a minor, declined to comment.
Attorneys for a Texas-based law firm that specializes in class-action lawsuits and which is heading up the litigation against the PIAA did not respond to numerous messages from the Tribune-Review.
Bob Lombardi, the PIAA’s executive director since 1988, said he was blindsided by the lawsuit in light of the measures the organization has implemented in recent years regarding player safety and concussions.
“This blows my mind,” Lombardi said. “All of our schools try to take care of the health of our athletes. I think we have been very responsive in asking our member schools to follow protocols.”
RULES IN PLACE
Since 2009, all 50 states passed laws regarding concussions in youth athletes. Pennsylvania in 2012 enacted its Youth in Sports Safety Act, which outlines responsibilities of schools and coaches.
“We have to have a player removed and evaluated by someone who is trained in the management, care and treatment of concussions. That’s the extent of the law,” said Larry Cooper, head athletic trainer at Penn-Trafford High School and chairman of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Secondary School Athletic Trainers’ Committee.
Many schools go beyond that requirement, implementing preseason baseline assessments for concussions and installing more stringent concussion protocols with the help of brain injury specialists.
“The PIAA was in the forefront, not lagging behind, to try to get something in place as a student safety initiative,” Cooper said. “You have to applaud them for doing that.”
The lawsuit, which alleges negligence before and after Pennsylvania passed its law, describes in detail concussion injuries suffered by the plaintiffs and the failure of coaches and others to recognize and deal with symptoms. No schools or coaches are named in the lawsuit.
Hites suffered a severe concussion in 2011 as a freshman attending a team football camp at Slippery Rock University. It took him more than a year to be medically cleared, but he still experiences learning and social difficulties, the lawsuit states.
Zingaro suffered a concussion in June 2014 while playing in a Neshannock High softball game. Doctors cleared her to return to play two months later, although her attorneys said she continued to experience headaches and trouble with concentration.
Domenic Teolis, now a senior at Ellwood City’s Lincoln High School, suffered multiple concussions in his freshman year during football practices and games, the lawsuit states.
After suffering a concussion in practice in October 2012, Teolis played the next day against Central Valley, his lawyers said. He reported concussive symptoms to a trainer and coaches, but nothing was done until his parents took him to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC that night, the lawsuit states.
CLAIMS AGAINST PIAA
The lawsuit claims the PIAA violated state law by not:
• requiring concussion baseline tests;
• tracking and reporting concussions;
• requiring qualified medical personnel be present at all PIAA-sanctioned practices and events;
• removing athletes with apparent concussions from practices and games;
• taking measures to educate school personnel on how to provide proper medical response to suspected concussions; and
• providing resources for student-athletes in seeking professional medical care at the time of a concussion, during treatment or for post-injury monitoring.
“None of these are required under Pennsylvania law,” said Harvey, the Temple professor. “They just aren’t.”
In addition to paying for its alleged negligence, the lawsuit wants a court to order the PIAA to establish a medical monitoring trust fund to pay for ongoing and long-term expenses of student athletes and former student athletes.
PREVIOUS CASE DISMISSED
Lawyers filed a similar suit last year against the Illinois High School Association, making it the first prep sports governing body in the country to face a class-action concussion lawsuit.
A judge in October dismissed the case, saying the IHSA had worked to improve protections for student athletes and that imposing broader liability on the governing body could reduce participation in high school football or end the sport altogether.
Harvey said the lawsuit filed in Lawrence County “cuts and pastes” whole sections of the failed litigation filed in Illinois.
Instead of frivolously suing the PIAA, the plaintiffs should address their concerns to state lawmakers in an effort to improve Pennsylvania law, the professor said.
“The allegations of what happened are not frivolous, and the solutions aren’t frivolous,” Harvey said. “But these are best addressed through the Legislature.”
Source: Cato, Jason. “Lawsuit Alleges PIAA Failed to Protect Students from Concussions.” TribLIVE.com. N.p., 11 Dec. 2015. Web. 11 Dec. 2015.
Is high school football worth the injury risk?
Posted: November 11, 2015 Filed under: Football, High School, Player Safety | Tags: high school football, player safety, Safety Tag Leave a comment »Everyone knows football is a dangerous sport. No matter how much protective equipment kids strap on or how leagues alter or impose new rules to reinforce player safety, injuries are bound to occur.
While in the past those injuries tended to be reported as things like sprained ankles or the occasional broken arm, lately it seems like more and more young athletes are suffering serious, even life threatening traumas.
From back in the day when players first strapped leather padding to their heads, helmets have been associated as the go-to in football protective gear. More recently, as people began taking serious notice of concussions, tackling and “targeting” rules (specifically prohibiting helmet-to-helmet contact) have been imposed league-wide in an attempt to stave off unnecessary injury.
The problem is that with players now tackling lower on the body, from the knees to shoulders, it has unintentionally opened up a different problem: “liver” hits.
In September 2015 alone, three high school football players died from game related injuries and, according to CBS News, another 16 have died in the past two years. The Denver Post reported that that number jumps to 77 if you take it back to 1995.
In early October, 15-year-old Taylor Haugen died of a massive liver rupture after getting hit simultaneously from the front and the back during a football game in Florida. The week prior, a player in New Jersey died from a lacerated spleen after he was tackled around the midsection.
Both were legal hits.
While cases of head injury are now more documented, enabling players and coaches to take protective measures, body hits typically aren’t.
According to The Denver Post, although 1.1 million kids play high school football across the country every year, over the past five years, that number has dropped by more than 25,00o as schools are disbanding their programs due to injuries or low student interest.
The question remains: Is football too dangerous to be a high school sport? Opinion varies.
Proponents of the game will usually agree that while the sport can have its risks, players know what they’re signing up for and pretty much any sport carries some risk factor in play, which is true. A study commissioned by USA Baseball showed that between 1989 to 2010, 18 children younger than high school age died of injuries from baseball.
A report put forth by the University of North Carolina concluded that high school wrestling has been associated with 63 “direct catastrophic injuries” over the past 30 years.
So it’s not just football.
The problem isn’t that people don’t know that football is dangerous, it’s that the sport is so ingrained upon the culture that the slightest change in a regulation sparks mass outrage — even if the new rule is only meant to protect the players.
So, what’s next? Flag football? Honestly, especially in the Southern states, that will probably never fly. But the situation is well on its way to becoming a more discussed topic.
Football has become an issue of safety versus tradition, but which is more important? And keep in mind that we’re not talking about professional athletes here. These are kids.
Source: “Is High School Football worth the Injury Risk? - Pickens Sentinel - Pickenssentinel.com.” Pickens Sentinel. N.p., 11 Nov. 2015. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.
High Schools Get Ahead Of Concussions
Posted: November 5, 2015 Filed under: Concussions, Football, High School, Player Safety | Tags: high school football, high school sports, player safety, Safety Tag Leave a comment »By ZHAI YUN TAN
Andrew Ciaccia felt disoriented and began laughing uncontrollably at random moments because he couldn’t control his emotions. He later discovered he had a concussion from playing Lacrosse in high school.
Kathryn Thacker got several concussions in her high school soccer games. She said she still has problems remembering things now.
“When you break a leg, you can keep going to school — it doesn’t affect your thinking abilities,” she said.
“But when you have a concussion, it feels like you almost don’t have anything.”
Stories of concussions are often discussed following deaths of high-profile athletes due to concussion injuries. For high school athletes, the risk can be amplified — youths take longer to recover from concussions than adults and can leave the athlete vulnerable to future concussions.
Since the beginning of high school football season two months ago, eight players have died in the United States due to various injuries. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that from 2001 to 2009, sports and recreational-related concussion injuries increased 57 percent among those aged 19 or younger.
Awareness and prevention among high school athletes has improved as casualties dominate headlines.
Ciaccia, now a first-year at the University of Toledo, had his first concussion as a first-year at Richard J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem. The difference in awareness was obvious when he got his second concussion his junior year.
“After my first concussion, the trainer didn’t really make me do many tests,” he said. “After my second one, every day when I was back at school I had to check in with the trainer to perform these tests.”
Concussion education is uniform across the state after the Gfeller-Waller Concussion Awareness Act was passed in 2011. Parents, coaches and students have to sign an information sheet regarding symptoms of concussions and return-to-play protocols annually. Schools that fail to comply are fined.
Additional programs like the concussion baseline tests, access to medically-trained athletic trainers and helmets depend on the school.
Thacker, now a first-year at UNC, got her first concussion in her sophomore year at Riverside High School in Durham, but she didn’t know much about concussions then and continued to play the game. She never did a baseline concussion test so she had no idea how bad her concussion was.
Nick DeFrancesco, a junior soccer player at Panther Creek High School in Cary, said he has access to the baseline testing every two years. Liam Tastet, sophomore soccer player at Apex Friendship High School has to take a concussion test online before the season.
Orange High School works with the Duke Sports Medicine Concussion Clinic to provide student athletes with free online baseline concussion testing, which usually costs $30 per test.
Athletic trainers can follow up on injuries and provide immediate care to student athletes during regular training.
The Youth Sports Safety Alliance reports that only 42 percent of high schools have athletic trainers.
“There is no college or professional game played without an athletic trainer,” said Emily Gaddy, head athletic trainer at Orange High School. “The importance of athletic trainers at the high school level is a battle that we’re still fighting.”
Other schools get weekly free visits from physical therapists. Thacker met with a physical therapist from Duke University twice a week in school after she was concussed.
“The benefit of me being on campus full time is that I know my athletes, I know their personalities, I know if they’re trying to hide something or cover up,” Gaddy said. “So when I give these tests I know that’s not the athlete I had a week ago.”
Gaddy is working to translate research into practice. One of her latest plans is to engage her athletes in neck-strengthening exercises because studies have shown this can reduce concussions.
Orange High School reconditions or buys new football and lacrosse helmets yearly. Middle schools in Orange County recondition football helmets yearly and lacrosse helmets every four years.
Some schools can afford to buy newer, costlier football helmets with more cushion.
Cade Barnhill, a junior football player at Northern High School in Durham, said quarterbacks and those on the varsity team usually get to wear the more expensive helmets.
“We only have so many of those helmets,” Barnhill said.
Thacker said she wishes doctors told the athletes more about what it feels like to have a concussion.
“I think all athletes are very stubborn,” she said. “We had to sign the form before playing (in high school), but it’s just words on paper, you know — we’re just signing this just so I can play. You never think about it seriously.”
Source: Zhai Yun Tan. “High Schools Get Ahead of Concussions.” The Daily Tar Heel, 5 Nov. 2015. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
Concussions In Sports: The Latest On A Deadly Month For High School Football
Posted: October 28, 2015 Filed under: Concussions, Football, High School, Player Safety | Tags: Concussions, high school football, player safety, Safety Tag Leave a comment »By JUSTIN CABA
As more and more parents start to pull their children away from organized football, high school football programs across the country just capped off a deadly start to the 2015 season. The number of deaths associated with high school football rose to seven this past Friday following the tragic death of 17-year-old Andre Smith, who died as a result of “blunt force head injuries due to a football accident.”
Deaths like Smith’s have both parents and health care professionals deciding if the benefits tied to organized contact sports outweigh the sometimes fatal risks. Smith, a senior at Bogan High School in Illinois, was able to walk off the field after sustaining a hit to the head during the game’s final play this past Thursday, but would collapse soon after. He was taken to nearby Advocate Christ Medical Center where he passed away early Friday morning.
Although Smith’s death was the first in Illinois since a player died due to an enlarged heart in 2012, it was also the seventh nationally since the start of the season in early September, according to the Illinois High School Association (IHSA).
“As anyone who has participated in athletics knows, there is a risk of injury any time a player steps on the field of play,” the IHSA said in a statement. “Football, in particular, has been under the microscope over the last decade, and organizations at all levels of play, including high school, have been taking aggressive steps to try and reduce injury over time.”
Other high school football players who have passed away this season, including Kenney Bui from Washington state and Ben Hamm from Oklahoma also suffered traumatic brain injuries that ultimately led to their death. It comes as no surprise that concussions played a role in part of this deadly month for high school football, but they’re not to blame for all or even most of this season’s death toll.
The death of Evan Murray from New Jersey back in September was caused by massive internal bleeding from a lacerated spleen. Roddrick “Rod” Williams from Georgia died as the result of a preexisting medical condition. So in spite of everything we know about the relationship between concussions and football, can we really say contact sports are excessively dangerous?
“These events are incredibly tragic,” Dawn Comstock, an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Public Health, told Fox8. “I would love to never see another high school athlete die while they play their game, but the positive benefits of playing sports in terms of lifelong health are greater.”
According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research survey, at least 12 high school and college football players die each year. Complications caused by a concussion may seem like the safe bet when it comes to leading cause of death among football players, but its actually sudden cardiac arrest — something that could affect a long-distance runner or a baseball player.
Officials on all levels of organized football are doing everything in their power to ensure the safety of athletes. For example, a rule in Wisconsin limiting contact in high school football practices significantly cut down on the number of concussions sustained throughout the season. To help improve player safety among players in the NFL, league officials have started emphasizing how players and coaches address safety in the locker room and out on the field.
No one knows a player’s risk for a sports-related health complication better than that player. It’s up to him or her to speak out if something isn’t right. Covering up injuries is commonplace among athletes in order to keep playing the game they love. It has become the coaches’ and parents’ duty to make players aware of the danger they put themselves in by not reporting an injury.
Risk is everywhere in the world. If it’s going to stop you from getting the recommended amount of exercise or participating in activities that you genuinely enjoy, then stay inside.
Source: Caba, Justin. “The Latest On A Deadly Month For High School Football.” Medical Daily. N.p., 28 Oct. 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
H.S. Football Death Prompts Urge for Injury Awareness
Posted: September 30, 2015 Filed under: Football, High School, Player Safety | Tags: high school football, high school sports, player safety, Safety Tag, Youth Sports Leave a comment »By KRISTINE MELDRUM DENHOLM
At Taylor Haugen’s first game of the 2008 season, the Niceville (Fla.) Eagles were playing their rival. The sophomore wide receiver reached up to catch a pass and was pummeled from the front and back. He tried to join the huddle on the next play, but his coach saw him struggling and called him off the field.
“He lost consciousness in the ambulance and never regained it,” said his mother, Kathy Haugen, her voice trailing off.
Taylor had suffered a massive liver rupture. Their son had died playing the sport he loved.
The Haugens were forced to relive their family tragedy as they heard about the death of Warren Hills (N.J.) Regional quarterback Evan Murray after a game Friday. The Morris County Medical Examiner’s office said Monday that Murray’s death was caused by a massive abdominal hemorrhage and that he had an enlarged spleen. Teammates said he took a helmet to the stomach earlier in the game before he went down and later collapsed on the sideline.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to their family and team in their loss. It reaffirms our facts that abdominal injuries are more common than people suspect,” said Brian Haugen, Taylor’s father. “My thoughts went immediately out to the parents because I can’t wrap my head around what they’re going through.”
The Haugens are on a mission to warn others. They don’t want parents to prevent their children from playing sports, just to equip them. They have formed the Taylor Haugen Foundation and Youth Equipment for Sports Safety (YESS) to raise awareness of abdominal injuries.
The Haugens think these are the “third wave” of injuries brought to the public’s consciousness: after heatstroke and concussions have been acknowledged and treated as serious problems, now abdominal injuries in sports should be considered.
“I believe the issue is here, looking at the way tackling is going,” said retired NFL kicker Matt Stover, an investor in a product the Haugens support called EvoShield, a molded shirt that helps provide protection. “The types of tackles are getting lower, in avoiding hits to the players’ head, players are dropping down. It’s less at the shoulders now.”
Running backs and wide receivers in college and the NFL are wearing rib protectors, back plates and other equipment that used to be reserved for quarterbacks to help absorb hits. Those added pieces are less common in high school and youth football.
“What defensive coaches in the NFL call the ‘strike zone’ or the ‘hit zone’ has been reduced. It’s like a baseball strike zone from the shoulders to the knees. There’s a lot more contact in that area,” said Terry O’Neill, a former NFL executive who founded Practice Like Pros, a program that brings coaching techniques used in college and the NFL to high schools.
Kathy Haugen says she gets calls “all the time” hearing about athletes’ abdominal injuries, including in lacrosse or rugby, and acknowledges the lack of available data on high school athletes’ abdominal injuries.
“Some doctors may report a liver laceration, and some not,” said John Todorovich, department chair for health, leisure and exercise science at the University of West Florida. “The trouble is in getting data, seeking out and figuring out a protocol. When does (the injury) become a reporting issue? For a bruise? For a visit to the ER?”
Safety is at the forefront of the Haugens’ minds. The couple said they paid $150 for Taylor’s cleats. They question why they didn’t know they could’ve also gotten a shirt, too, to help protect Taylor down to his waistline.
“I’d just like to see every secondary school athlete in contact sports protected,” Kathy Haugen said. “That would be a great thing to happen.”
Source: Meldrum Denholm, Kristine. “H.S. Football Death Prompts Urge for Injury Awareness - Athletic Business.” Athletic Business. N.p., 30 Sept. 2015. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
Illinois concussion protocol making a difference on sidelines
Posted: September 16, 2015 Filed under: Concussions, High School, Player Safety, Youth Sports | Tags: Concussions, high school sports, player safety, Safety Tag, Youth Sports Leave a comment »By DYLAN AUSTIN
Over the past year both Illinois lawmakers and athletic officials have made a push to revamp the way concussions are handled in youth and high school football.
Governor Bruce Rauner signed legislation that made medical clearance for athletes mandatory following a brain injury.
The Illinois High School Association also implemented its ‘Play Smart. Play Hard.’ campaign, which pushes coaches and trainers to be more aware and responsible when it comes to noticing the signs and symptoms of concussions and taking immediate action on the sidelines.
Most small schools only have one trainer for upwards of 40-50 players which makes this a difficult task, but now the coaches are to be lending a hand.
Quincy Medical Group helps provide trainers to many schools in the Tri-States, and they’ve noticed a difference.
“The coaches respect us and they know that we know what we’re doing and that we’re knowledgeable about these kinds of things,” said Brianne Guymon, a certified trainer with QMG who spends her Friday’s on the local sidelines. “With the awareness there, we have to make sure everybody’s on the same page and trying to take care of their kids as much as we are.”
Guymon says players also need to recognize their own symptoms and not hide a possible head injury to stay in the game.
“A lot of times they don’t even realize that they have something more going on until later especially with adrenaline on a football field,” said Guymon. “Sometimes we have kids come into our clinic on Monday and they may not remember taking a big hit but they’re dizzy, have a headache, and symptoms that won’t go away.”
Guymon says these situations make it much more important and helpful when coaches keep an eye on players with possible symptoms.
Source: Austin, Dylan. “Illinois Concussion Protocol Making a Difference on Sidelines.” - WGEM.com: Quincy News, Weather, Sports, and Radio. N.p., 18 Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
High school football: rule revisions address player safety
Posted: September 2, 2015 Filed under: Football, High School, Player Safety | Tags: high school football, player safety, Safety Tag Leave a comment »By JOSH ST. CROIX
Player safety and risk minimization are the basis for the major points of emphasis among high school football officials this fall.
The most notable rule revisions enacted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Football Rules Committee involve hits on defenseless players, and re-defining the terms “targeting,” and “spearing.”
“Any way you can clean up this game and prevent some nonsense type of injuries, it’s good for the game,” Carthage coach Sam Millich said.
Protecting defenseless players – examples of which are players behind the ball away from the play, or receivers going across the middle with blind-spots – was handled by re-defining excessive contact on an unnecessary roughness penalty.
The new definition, in the NFHS rule book, is: “No player or non-player shall make any contact with an opponent, including a defenseless player, which is deemed unnecessary or excessive and which incites roughness.”
The definition of spearing was also revised as: “An act by any player who initiates contact against an opponent at the shoulders or below with the crown (top portion) of his/her helmet.”
Brian Finn, entering his 27th season as a Section 3 official with the Watertown Chapter, said the NFHS provided referees with film on the types of hits to be looking for this season. He said the goal is to move the target area for tackling a player below the armpit.
“What’s happening is everyone sees the blow-up tackles on Sundays that are up above the shoulder, around the head area, leading with the helmet, and a real loss of good-form tackling,” he said.
“When we see those hits, without the extension of arms going for a wrapping tackle, we’re going to err on the side of safety and call a targeting foul, which is a 15-yard penalty.”
Rules regarding kickoff formations were also revised in the interest of safety. This year, at least four players from the kicking team must be lined up on each side of the ball at the time of the kick.
The only player allowed to back up more than five yards is the kicker, which eliminates the potential for defenders to get a running start at the standstill receiving team.
The rule adjustments were considered a unanimous winner among area Section 3 coaches.
Sandy Creek coach Mike Stevens, entering his 17th year, said he believes criticism of the new points of emphasis is unfounded.
“I know there was a concern that it’s not old-school football, where it’s rough and tough and you hit hard and all that was what we all grew up with, and change is scary for a lot of people but you have to adjust to it and teach kids better technique,” Stevens said.
“The physicality of football is still going to be there. You’re still going to line up and hit each other hard, you just can’t use your helmet anymore and you can’t attack the head,” he added. “From what we’ve seen from us old guys, that’s not a bad thing.”
Section 3 teams will also be limited to two days per week of “live contact,” during practice in game weeks.
Area coaches said that change will have little impact, as most teams already operate under that schedule.
Source: St. Croix, Josh. “High School Football: Rule Revisions Address Player Safety.” Watertown Daily Times. N.p., 02 Sept. 2015. Web. 02 Sept. 2015.
Football rule changes continue to focus on player safety
Posted: August 28, 2015 Filed under: Football, High School, Player Safety | Tags: high school, high school football, high school sports, player safety, Safety Tag Leave a comment »By MIKE MOREA
Player safety is again at the top of the agenda for football officials this season as a new high school and youth season kicks off.
With the number of players in youth and high school football dwindling every year due to injuries, especially concussions, the National Federation of State High School Associations, the governing body of most public school high school sports, has made it clear that the safety of the players is the top concern.
Therefore, the rule changes that take effect for the 2015 season revolve mainly around risk minimization.
Excessive contact has been added to the unnecessary roughness rule and the definition of spearing has been revised. Rounding out the six rule changes are: the referee has the authority of correcting a down number, the kickoff formation rule has been revised, the roughing the passer foul has been clarified and dead-ball penalty enforcement has been modified.
“Most of the rule changes are really administrative, with the emphasis being on safety,” said Tom DeGraw, director of football for Champion Officials Group. “Fans have to remember that these are 15-, 16- and 17-year old kids out there. They see it on Saturday or Sunday on TV and they want to emulate that. It is not needed at this or the youth level.
With an emphasis on safety, the unnecessary roughness provisions were expanded. No player or nonplayer can make any other contact with an opponent, including a defenseless player, which is deemed unnecessary or excessive. If the foul involves illegal helmet contact and is judged flagrant by an official, the offending player could be ejected and his team assessed a 15-yard penalty.
“The rule changes reflect a trickle-down effect from the pros to college and college to high school. In the pros, the game is full of unnecessary and excessive hits. The NFHS, for safety sake, has said that we have to put a stop to this on the high school level,” DeGraw said. “We’re being told to crack down on these types of hits. Especially using the helmet. People need to remember that when one of these explosive hits occurs, someone who delivers the blow could get injured, as well as the one who receives the hit.”
The definition of spearing was revised to continue the focus on minimizing injury. Spearing is an act by any player who initiates contact against an opponent at or below the shoulders with the top portion of his helmet. Again, if judged flagrant, the offending player could be ejected after a 15-yard penalty is enforced.
The roughing the passer penalty also has been clarified. Now, an automatic first down is not awarded for an incidental face-mask penalty against the passer. The penalty remains five yards.
In a revision of the 2014 rule change regarding kickoff formations, the timing of the foul for not having at least four players on each side of the kicker now occurs when the ball is kicked, as opposed to when the ready-for-play whistle is blown by the referee. This will now allow “muddle-huddles” on the kickoff again.
Starting in 2015, the distance penalties for unsportsmanlike, non-player or dead-ball personal fouls committed by teams can now offset. Equal numbers of 15-yard penalties by both teams will cancel and remaining penalties may be enforced.
Finally, the referee is granted authorization to correct the number of the next down prior to the ball becoming live after a new series of downs has been awarded. The referee can avoid any “fifth down” situations.
With the changes in football and the addition of new offensive and defensive schemes, new blocking and tackling techniques have placed an emphasis on expanding the length and width of each play, resulting in more opportunities for unnecessary or excessive contact to occur between players.
Source: Morea, Mike. “Football Rule Changes Continue to Focus on Player Safety.” Capitalgazette.com. N.p., 28 Aug. 2015. Web. 28 Aug. 2015.
After a blow: Pennsylvania’s rules for treating school athlete concussions
Posted: August 27, 2015 Filed under: Concussions, High School, Player Safety, Youth Sports | Tags: high school sports, player safety, Safety Tag, Youth Sports Leave a comment »By CAROLYN KIMMEL
Pennsylvania’s Act 200, which took effect in 2012, established standards for managing concussions and traumatic brain injuries among school athletes, assigning specific duties to the state departments of health and education and outlining specific protocol for schools to follow.
Coaches must take training courses and schools must hold information meetings on head injuries prior to the start of each athletic season.
Out on the field, the athletic trainer is often the first person who interacts with the injured player.
The trainer will do an assessment using a sideline concussion assessment tool, which includes a neurological assessment, a cognitive test and a balance test.
A very specific protocol for re-entry into playing sports starts with no activity until all symptoms are gone and the player is able to endure the academic challenge of a full day at school, followed by a gradual easing back into play over several days with limited time on the field and gradually escalating exercise.
Before they return to play, students must be cleared by a supervising physician.
Dr. Robert Harbaugh, director of the Penn State Hershey Neuroscience Institute, said coaches have a big role to play in safety. They need to teach the correct techniques for heading the ball and look for any evidence of concussion if someone takes a tumble or gets an elbow to the head.
Players also need to take responsibility for how they play and how they react when injured, he said.
“Don’t try to hide if you feel dizzy or have symptoms,” he said. “If you have a concussion and continue to play, you increase the chances of a second concussion.”
Source: Kimmel, Carolyn. “After a Blow: Pennsylvania’s Rules for Treating School Athlete Concussions.” N.p., 27 Aug. 2015. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.
Football practices potentially could change
Posted: August 27, 2015 Filed under: Football, High School, Player Safety | Tags: high school football, high school sports, player safety, Safety Tag, Youth Sports Leave a comment »By MATTHEW ROY
For most high school football coaches player safety is always of paramount concern. But, even with advances in technology and coaching techniques, injuries are still a part of the game. With that in mind, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Sports Medicine and Football Subcommittee put together a plan in May to change the way practices were structured for the preseason.
Under the MIAA guidelines for the 2015 season — which are the same as those used in recent seasons — football practice began on Monday with teams not allowed to work in full pads before Thursday. Teams also are allowed a total of 10 practice sessions until the Friday before Labor Day. Double sessions count as two practices.
Teams also are not allowed to have a practice session that is more than two hours with scrimmages not permitted until the third day of full-pad practice.
The proposal brought before the MIAA board in May would have brought several changes, including the start date for practices and when contact could begin.
The new plan would have moved the opening of camps from Aug. 24 to Aug. 21 with the same 10 total practices allowed before Labor Day. Teams also would have to conduct five days of practice that involved no contact before being allowed to use full pads.
The proposed plan would mandate a day off during each week of practice and would limit full-contact drills to 60 minutes per day in the preseason.
On June 9, the MIAA’s Board of Directors elected to table the proposal until December, giving schools more time to discuss the proposition and its new rules and effects before the plan comes back up for another vote.
St. Mary’s athletic director Jeff Newhall believes the reasoning behind the proposed changes is sound but that the timetable wasn’t feasible for this season.
“I think that most of the proposed changes were done with player safety in mind and for that the committee should be commended,” Newhall said. “But to think that it was something that could be put into place this quickly wasn’t realistic.”
Marblehead athletic director Mark Tarmey is one of those who was not in favor of the proposal being implemented, largely because the high school football season already is the longest one of any sport in the state.
“With football, you start in the heat of the summer and end in the freezing cold of November and December in some cases,” Tarmey said. “I just don’t see the value to starting the season three days early. You have a lot of kids that go away to camps in the summer and have jobs that they’d have to leave early to begin football. There’s a lot of issues that people don’t see that are part of it.”
Former Swampscott and current Milton High head coach Steve Dembowski is the president of the Massachusetts Football Coaches Association. The MFCA was not in favor of implementing the proposal for this season because of the timing involved and for financial reasons. For example, many teams had already made monetary commitments for summer camps and practice sites that were nonrefundable.
Going forward, though, Dembowski believes the proposal should be implemented.
“The high school season has the least amount of prep time at all levels of football,” Dembowski said. “That limited amount of time puts a lot of stress on coaches because you have to install your offensive and defensive systems and take care of special teams. And then you add drills about tackling and blocking and that takes time. Most coaches would be in favor of getting rid of double sessions if it meant they could start earlier.”
Like most coaches, Revere’s Lou Cicatelli is all for improving the safety of his players. The logistics of implementing those improvements, however, concerns him.
“It’s something that’s been a long time coming,” Cicatelli said. “The worry is how much of a change it’s going to make. It’s kind of a double-edged sword. The more you practice tackling, the better the kids are going to get it. But you also want to make sure they do it right and safely. That’s what it’s about.”
Chris Carroll, who is entering his first season as coach at Lynn English, understands the reasons behind the proposed changes.
“You always want to make sure that the kids are ready for the contact,” Carroll said. “And that’s your responsibility as a coach. Player safety is a priority at all levels.”
Dembowski has seen changes in the way teams prepare now compared to just five years ago.
“A lot of teams have less contact,” Dembowski said. “You’re on the field four days a week but this year you’re only allowed to hit for two hours (per week during regular season practice). It forces you to be a better coach and more efficient.”
Although the proposal was tabled for this season, that does not preclude coaches from changing their practice format for this year. However, most say they will follow the current guidelines.
Source: Roy, Matthew. “Football Practices Potentially Could Change.” Itemlive.com. N.p., 27 Aug. 2015. Web. 27 Aug. 2015.
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