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Staying Alive

June 9, 2015

It has been said by others more clever with a phrase than I am, “Travel has its dangers, but routine can be deadly.” 
World travel is something I'm passionate about and it has added adventure and perspective that have enriched my existence; but I do not dare pontificate on how other people choose to live their personal lives. That's each person's personal business and none of mine.  
However, at this stage in my career, I do feel comfortable suggesting that this travel metaphor is a healthy way to think about one's professional life, and a productive way to nurture the life of organizations. Many executives and their boards may get too comfortable with routine, emphasizing risk management more than innovation, reducing the chances of failure and criticism rather than seeking the adventure of new ways of thinking and acting that could lead to new ways of serving.  
I say, with massive respect for the traditional core values of school sports, that fear of doing big, untested things – risky adventures – has caused school sports organizations to miss opportunities for so many years that they have become close to irrelevant in the youth sports experience of this country. We have failed to travel, or taken such safe trips that we are dying rather than thriving on behalf of students, their schools and our society.
For the past half-dozen years, and especially in 2015-16, the MHSAA is in a traveling mode. In doing so, we add some danger to our lives, but at least we stay alive. In fact, we may never, ever have been as vibrant as we are right now.

Girls, Boys and Concussions

September 13, 2016

On Monday the Michigan High School Athletic Association announced the major findings from the first year that member high schools were required to report all suspected concussions in the practices and competitions conducted in the 28 sports served by the MHSAA.

It surprises no one that 11-player and 8-player football ranked first and third, with 49 and 34 head injuries per thousand participants, respectively.

And while I’m told it’s not surprising to the experts that girls report more head injuries than boys, it is stunning to me how very many more head injuries are reported for girls than boys.

In sports with identical playing rules, girls reported head injuries with approximately twice the frequency that boys did.

In soccer, girls reported 30 head injuries per 1,000 participants, compared to 18 per 1,000 for boys.

In basketball, girls reported 29 head injuries per 1,000 participants, compared to only 11 per 1,000 for boys.

Girls reported concussions at the rate of 11 per 1,000 participants in softball, while boys reported just 4 per 1,000 in baseball.

Only a small percentage of either girls or boys were cleared by licensed medical personnel to return to activity in less than six days, and more than half were withheld between six and 15 days in soccer and basketball. The data suggests that clearance for girls to be returned to activity was slightly more gradual than it was for boys.

Researchers and reporters may find dozens of other observations and curiosities from the summary of 4,452 confirmed head injury reports submitted by the MHSAA’s 755 member high schools for MHSAA-supported sports in 2015-16; but what has the MHSAA’s attention is this giant gender difference.

Is this gender difference accurate, and if so, what are the physiological factors involved that make it so?

Is there a tendency for over-reporting by females, or under-reporting by males, and if so, what are the social and/or psychological factors that may cause this?

Regardless, what does this mean for how coaches work with boys and girls; and what does that mean for how we prepare coaches through the MHSAA Coaches Advancement Program?

The MHSAA will take to an even deeper level its nearly 30-year partnership with the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University to explore the issues related to coaches education that have emerged as a result of the first year of mandated concussion reporting for Michigan high schools.

The 2015-16 school year was only a start; it identified some initial themes. The more important value will be realized after the 2016-17 school year, and subsequent school years, when year-over-year comparisons will be made and trends will become apparent that will demand action to further promote the welfare of participants in school-sponsored sports.