Straight Talk on Head Trauma
May 6, 2013
Bill Heinz is the handsome square-jawed, plain-speaking medical orthopedist from Maine who chairs the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee of the National Federation of State High school Associations. Here, in my words, is what Dr. Heinz had to say about concussions last month in Indianapolis in a ballroom full of staff members and attorneys for statewide athletic associations from across the United States.
About Prevention –
-
No equipment can prevent concussions in any sport. What can reduce such head trauma is to diminish the frequency and severity of contact to the head.
-
In football, that requires officials’ strict enforcement of current rules, coaches’ teaching of blocking and tackling consistent with those rules, and rules makers’ continuing search for ways to reduce the frequency of the game’s most dangerous situations.
About Aftercare –
-
No pharmaceutical remedy exists for concussions. The remedy is time. Only complete rest – from both academic and athletic activity – begins the recovery process; and then return to such activity must be gradual, and under the care of trained health care professionals.
That has been and will continue to be our message to our constituents in Michigan.
(Click here for our recent communication reinforcing the state laws that take effect in Michigan on June 30, 2013.)
Partners in Promotion
March 28, 2017
The Michigan High School Athletic Association and State Champs Sports Network are joining forces during the coming school year to define what school sports are, defend what they stand for, and distribute that message on a collective platform across the state every weekend, 12 months a year.
Beginning this fall, State Champs Metro Detroit-based high school football show “Extra Point” will move to Fox Sports Detroit on Saturday mornings and become the “MHSAA Extra Point.” Throughout the entire football season, this 30-minute show will feature a variety of statewide football highlights utilizing the expansive bank of State Champs Sports Network camera crews. This will also give a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students to have specially selected highlights reaching as many as 3.5 million homes. But only those MHSAA member schools participating in the School Broadcast Program will have that exclusive opportunity.
The longest running all-sports high school sports show in state history, “State Champs High School Sports Show” on Fox Sports Detroit, airs Sunday morning, nearly 40 times a year. Now, every episode will feature the MHSAA Minute – talking everything in the life of the association from coaches education to health and safety, officiating, breaking news and more.
We’ll also have special programming where we dig into the MHSAA vaults to bring old games, coaches and players back to life on State Champs Legends. We’ll also tackle important topics and issues in school sports, with the first special coming this August when “Concussions and the Modern Athlete” will focus on head injury and its impact in high school sports.
Every football Friday night, “State Champs Scoreboard” radio show airs on the number one ranked 97.1 – The Ticket in Detroit. Now, in partnership with the expansive MHSAA Network, affiliate stations across the state will jump on board to simulcast. During the winter we’ll take it all online for a Friday night statewide basketball show on Facebook live.
Finally, plans are in the works to further grow the next generation of sports media and production professionals. Working in conjunction with PlayOn Sports, a State Champs Sports Network crew will work hand in hand with high school students, conducting live demonstrations of the MHSAA School Broadcast Program by live streaming an event from their school.
In an era where high school sports coverage is at its lowest point in state history, a new team will continue to spotlight the life lessons school sports teach our children. This partnership between the State Champs Network and the MHSAA will do more than ever to champion that message.