Coaches Get U-M Concussion Training
July 24, 2012
Already administering a strong set of protocols addressing the removal and return to play of young athletes suspected of sustaining concussions in competition, the Michigan High School Athletic Association is further ramping up its concussion education efforts of coaches, student-athletes and parents as the 2012-13 school year approaches.
In partnership with the University of Michigan’s NeuroSport and the Pediatric Trauma Program at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, required online rules meetings for coaches and officials will include an education component illustrating the serious nature of concussions; recognition of the signs and symptoms; a review of return to play protocols; applicable MHSAA regulations; and downloadable co-branded resources from NeuroSport, as well as materials produced by a joint effort of the Brian Injury Association of Michigan, the Detroit Lions, the Center for Disease Control and the MHSAA.
This is the second year the MHSAA has included concussion education in its online rules meetings, which are annually viewed by nearly 20,000 coaches and game officials. This year, the Michigan NeuroSport Concussion Education - High School Coach edition, endorsed by the American Academy of Neurology last fall, has been modified for the MHSAA audience. The MHSAA will also promote the availability of the NeuroSport concussion education modules offered specifically for parents and coaches.
“These educational efforts, coupled with protocols addressing concussions when they take place on the field of play, put our schools in the best possible position to minimize the risk to young people,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. “We’re pleased to have our new partnership with University of Michigan NeuroSport and our ongoing partnership with the Brian Injury Association of Michigan which put our state at the forefront of addressing the critical health issue for interscholastic athletes.”
Roberts added that the same educational materials the Association has co-branded with its partners will also be used to help raise concussion awareness in other youth sports by other sponsors in the state.
“We are proud to partner with MHSAA and bring the most up-to-date concussion education to those on the frontline of athletics. Education is a vital component to improving player safety,” says Amy Teddy, injury prevention program manager at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. “We believe that ‘It takes a team to keep concussions on the sidelines.’ Parents, coaches, teammates, officials and athletic trainers all have a role in protecting athletes from serious injury.
“In addition to our coach modules, we recently launched our parent edition to help another member of the ‘team’ better recognize and understand concussion.” added Teddy, who also is director of education for Michigan Neurosport.
The NeuroSport online programs for parents, high school coaches and youth sports coaches is now available at http://www.MichiganNeuroSport.com. An online program for athletes will be available soon.
NeuroSport has also produced a 60-second public service announcement in which one of the state’s all-time winningest football coaches – John Herrington of Farmington Hills Harrison – talks about concussions. This video, along with a 30-second PSA recently updated by the MHSAA, “No Such Thing As Just Getting Your Bell Rung,” will be made available to media outlets in time for the coming sports season, and will be shown during MHSAA programming online and on cable television.
Survey Shows Multi-Sport Participation Holding Steady, Led by Consistent High Achievers
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
December 14, 2023
The MHSAA's fifth Multi-Sport Participation Survey, conducted this spring for the 2022-23 school year, showed for the second-consecutive year that 44 percent of athletes at member high schools participated in more than one sport, and with several schools retaining high rankings in their respective Classes for the percentage of their athletes playing multiple sports.
Early and intense sport specialization has become one of the most serious issues related to health and safety at all levels of youth sports, as overuse injuries and burnout among athletes have been tied to chronic injuries and health-related problems later in life.
This past year’s survey showed 44.7 percent of athletes at MHSAA member high schools participating in two or more sports, a slight increase from the 44.3 percent who were multi-sport athletes in 2021-22 – and 1.9 percent higher than the percentage measured with the first survey in 2017-18.
For 2022-23, 47.5 percent of male athletes and 41.2 percent of female athletes played multiple sports. Class D has enjoyed the highest percentage of multi-sport athletes over all five years of surveys, this time at 62.5 percent, followed by Class C (59.0), Class B (49.6) and Class A (36.9).
Similar results for overall sport participation and multi-sport participation relative to enrollment size were seen by further breaking down Class A into schools of fewer than 1,000 students, 1,000-1,500 students, 1,501-2,000 students and more than 2,000 students. For both sport participation as a whole and multi-sport participation specifically, the smallest Class A schools continued to enjoy the highest percentages, while percentages then decreased for every larger size group of schools. This has remained consistent over the last five surveys.
Since 2018-19, the survey also has shown a slight increase in three-sport athletes across all four Classes and overall with 12.6 percent of athletes at MHSAA member high schools playing at least that many in 2022-23.
In early 2016, the MHSAA appointed a Task Force on Multi-Sport Participation as part of a continued effort to promote and protect participant health and address the issues leading to early sport specialization. The annual Multi-Sport Participation Survey was among results of the task force’s work. The 2022-23 Multi-Sport Participation Survey received responses from 85.2 percent of member high schools, a few tenths more than in 2021-22 in setting a survey response record for the second-straight year. (No survey was conducted for 2019-20 as spring sports were canceled due to COVID-19.)
The MHSAA Task Force also recommended measuring multi-sport participation in MHSAA member schools to recognize “achievers” – that is, schools that surpass the norm given their enrollment and other factors that affect school sports participation.
Battle Creek Harper Creek, Detroit Cody and Grand Rapids Northview have appeared among the top 10 percent of their respective Classes four of the five years the survey has been conducted. Several more have appeared among the top 10 percent of their Classes three of the five years: Athens, Decatur, Detroit Douglass, East Grand Rapids, Gibraltar Carlson, Hamtramck, Hillsdale Academy, Holland Calvary, Kinross Maplewood Baptist, Livonia Franklin, Manton, Marquette, New Baltimore Anchor Bay, Ovid-Elsie, Parma Western, Warren Fitzgerald, Warren Lincoln and Warren Michigan Collegiate.
In Class A, Sterling Heights (85.7 percent) and Grand Rapids Union (84.0) posted the highest percentages of multi-sport athletes in 2022-23, with Livonia Franklin (73.1) and Battle Creek Harper Creek (71.3) also reaching 70 percent. In Class B, three schools achieved at least 80 percent multi-sport participation –Warren Michigan Collegiate (85.2), Detroit Cody (84.2) and Battle Creek Pennfield (81.5).
Class C saw eight schools reach 80 percent – Jackson Lumen Christi (92.5), Delton Kellogg (92.3), Decatur (86.2), Muskegon Western Michigan Christian (84.0), Indian River Inland Lakes (83.3), Detroit Crockett Midtown Science & Medicine (82.4), Martin (80.6) and LeRoy Pine River (80.0). Two Class D schools responded at higher than 90 percent multi-sport participation – Coldwater Pansophia Academy with 100 percent for the second-straight year and Carney-Nadeau (94.0) – followed by Brighton Livingston Christian (88.9), Carsonville-Port Sanilac (88.6) and Holland Calvary (87.0).
The full summary report on the Multi-Sport Participation Survey is available on the Multi-Sports Benefits page of MHSAA.com