Prevention Progression
June 28, 2015
The starting point for concussion care is prevention; and when we talk about prevention of concussions we must include education, equipment and enforcement.
Education is a shared responsibility of all who conduct and coach athletic programs; and the vital information about prevention, recognition, after-care and recovery needs to reach every player, their parents and all coaches.
Equipment is mainly the responsibility of those who make the protective gear and of those who make the rules specifications for that gear, but there are important responsibilities at more local levels. For example, to make sure what schools purchase and provide to players meets rules requirements, gets reconditioned as needed and fits properly. In football, for example, the fit of the helmet is much more important than its price ... fit at the start of the season and checked throughout the season.
As with education and equipment, enforcement is also a shared responsibility. In football it includes local enforcement of the 2014 football practice rules that have reduced collision practices; and in contests it means contest officials’ enforcement of the strongest set of safety rules in the game’s history.
In all sports, officials are to err on the side of safety; and when they do, the MHSAA will have their backs. Local school administrators and coaches should too.
My Privilege
June 29, 2018
The National Federation of State High School Associations is at this moment conducting its 99th Annual Summer Meeting in Chicago, the city where the organization was born almost a century ago.
For all but seven months of the past 62 of these 99 years, there has been a John Roberts as one of the NFHS member state association executives – my dad in Wisconsin for nearly 30 years, and I in Michigan for 32.
I attended my first NFHS Summer Meeting when I was eight years old. Five of us in an un-air-conditioned family sedan drove nearly the full length of US Highway 41 from Wisconsin to Miami Beach at the southern tip of Florida.
My younger sister learned to swim there. My older sister found a boyfriend there. And I guess I discovered my life’s work there.
A life’s work from which I will retire this summer.
Including those on the job today, there have been just 324 individuals who have ever served as full-time chief executives of the NFHS member high school associations. Just 324 who appreciate the pressures and the opportunities of this work the way my dad and I have.
These jobs are precious gifts and a rich blessing ... unusually rare opportunities to serve and influence students, schools and society.
For years I’ve concluded most of my correspondence with the phrase, “It’s a privilege to serve you.” I’ve meant it.