2017-18 Report Shows Fewer Concussions
August 8, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Concussions are down, according to data compiled by the Michigan High School Athletic Association during its third year of collecting head injury reports from member high schools.
The work is not done – but this year’s data reinforces trends that emerged during the first two years of reporting and will assist the MHSAA as it explores solutions to continue reducing the incidence of head injuries in school sports.
The 2017-18 concussion report found a 9.6-percent decrease in the number of confirmed concussions from the previous year. Student-athletes at MHSAA member high schools encountered during 2017-18 a total of 3,580 head injuries – or 4.8 per member school, compared to the 2016-17 average of 5.2. Total participation in MHSAA sports for 2017-18 was 284,920 – with students counted once for each sport he or she played – and only 1.3 percent of participants experienced a head injury, down from 1.4 in 2016-17 and 1.6 percent the first year of the study.
As first mandated in 2015-16, member schools are required to report head injuries to the MHSAA identifying the sport that each student-athlete was participating in and whether the injury was sustained during practice or competition. Schools also are required to designate at which level – varsity, junior varsity or freshman – the injury occurred.
The full report of all head injuries experienced during 2017-18 by student-athletes at MHSAA member high schools – including percentages by sport (per 1,000 participants), gender and team level, as well as data tracking when athletes returned to play – is available by clicking here.
Consistent with the first two years of the study, the MHSAA received data from more than 99 percent of its member high schools after the fall, winter and spring seasons and continued to track each injury report through its conclusion this summer. Member junior high and middle schools also were allowed, although not mandated, to report their potential head injuries; and those findings are not part of the published report.
The decrease in overall head injury reports collected for 2017-18 follows a similar reduction from 2015-16 to 2016-17 – and brings the total decrease to 19.6 percent fewer reports since the first year of the study.
MHSAA Executive Director John E. “Jack” Roberts noted that the decreases in reports, both year to year and since the first year of the survey, likely have some relation to year-to-year fluctuation, refinement of the follow-up reporting process and a better understanding by schools of what is not to be included for the survey – including head injuries not diagnosed as concussions and head injuries that did not take place during MHSAA-sponsored activities.
However, the findings of this year’s study – and their similarities to the findings from the first two surveys – has begun to clarify the identification and understanding of trends. Continuing to emerge perhaps most prominently is the higher incidence of concussion reports from girls sports – and pertinent questions about physiological and social causes behind those results.
“With three years of reporting by virtually 100 percent of our high schools, what we’re learning is no longer anecdotal; the results are beginning to identify valid trends and genuine issues that need to be addressed,” Roberts said. “For example, it’s even clearer than before that girls are reporting three times the number of concussions as boys when comparing similar sports – soccer, basketball and baseball versus softball. As a result, we’ve already begun to incorporate these gender differences into our coaches education, and the writers of high school playing rules are obligated to focus on these gender differences as well.”
Although the total number of confirmed concussions was significantly lower again in 2017-18, a number of findings detailing those injuries fell in line with results of the first two surveys.
Boys experienced 2,373– or 66 percent – of those injuries, the same ratio as 2016-17, and not surprisingly as boys have a much higher participation in contact sports. More than half of head injuries – 56 percent – were experienced by varsity athletes, which for the second year also fell within a percent difference of the previous year’s findings.
A total of 2,330 head injuries – or 65 percent – came in competition as opposed to practice. More than half took place during either the middle of practice or middle of competition as opposed to the start or end, and 52 percent of injuries were a result of person-to-person contact. The MHSAA also asked schools to report the number of days between the head injury and the athlete’s return to activity – and the two largest groups, both at 24 percent, returned to activity after either 6 to 10 days of rest or 11 to 15. All of these findings were within 1-3 percent of those discovered from the 2016-17 data.
Contact sports again revealed the most head injuries. Ranking first was football, 11 and 8-player combined, with 41 head injuries per 1,000 participants – a decrease for the second straight year, this time from 44 head injuries per 1,000 participants in 2016-17 and down from 49 head injuries per 1,000 football participants shown by the first study in 2015-16.
Ice hockey repeated with the second-most injuries per 1,000, with 32 (down from 36 injuries per 1,000 from 2016-17 and 38 per 1,000 in 2015-16), and girls soccer and wrestling tied for third with 25 head injuries per 1,000 participants – girls soccer down from 28 head injuries per 1,000 participants and wrestling down from 26 per 1,000 in 2016-17.
Also consistent with 2016-17, the next five sports (after football and hockey) to show the highest incidences of head injuries were girls sports – girls soccer followed by girls basketball (22 per 1,000), girls competitive cheer (20) and girls lacrosse (20). Boys lacrosse (17), girls gymnastics (16) and boys soccer (12) were the only other sports to show double-digit head injuries per 1,000 participants.
Females again reported significantly more concussions than males playing the same or similar sports – soccer, basketball and baseball/softball. Female soccer players reported more than double the concussions per 1,000 participants as male soccer players (25 to 12), while female basketball players also reported more than double the number of concussions per 1,000 participants (22 to 9). Softball players reported seven concussions per 1,000 participants, and baseball players reported three per 1,000. Although the percentage differences vary from year to year, the results of all three comparisons remained consistent with what the survey found in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
The MHSAA in 2018-19 is directing its sport committees to focus on a pair of questions – how to increase participation and how to make their specific sports safer – the latter aiming to put some of what has been learned from concussion reporting into practice. The MHSAA also is continuing to invite Michigan’s universities, health care systems and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) to take part in analyzing the data and resulting questions that have arisen during the past three years.
“Regrettably, I do not see a nationwide head injury reporting effort likely,” Roberts said. “First, it’s hard to coordinate 50 states’ efforts. And second, if left to medical professionals, the survey tool might become so cumbersome that schools would be reluctant to participate – and certainly, it would not get the 99.9 percent cooperation that we’ve enjoyed from schools over these three years.”
Schools report possible concussions online via the MHSAA Website. Reports are then examined by members of the MHSAA staff, who follow up with school administrators as those student-athletes continue to receive care and eventually return to play. Student privacy is protected.
The reporting of possible concussions is part of a three-pronged advance by the MHSAA in concussion care begun during the 2015-16 school year. The MHSAA completed in spring 2017 the largest-ever state high school association sideline concussion testing pilot program, with a sample of schools from across the state over two years using one of two screening tests designed to detect concussions. The MHSAA also was the first state association to provide all participants at every member high school and junior high/middle school with insurance intended to pay accident medical expense benefits – covering deductibles and co-pays left unpaid by other policies – resulting from head injuries sustained during school practices or competitions and at no cost to either schools or families.
Previously, the MHSAA also was among the first state associations to adopt a return-to-play protocol that keeps an athlete out of activity until at least the next day after a suspected concussion, and allows that athlete to return to play only after he or she has been cleared unconditionally for activity by a doctor (M.D. or D.O.), physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner.
In addition, the MHSAA’s Coaches Advancement Program – which includes courses that must be completed by all varsity head coaches hired for the first time at a member school – provides substantial instruction on concussion care. Separately, rules meetings that are required viewing for high school varsity and subvarsity head and assistant coaches at the start of each season include detailed training on caring for athletes with possible head injuries.
Rep Council Approves New Hockey Classification Procedure, Wrestling Weights at Spring Meeting
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
May 6, 2022
The selection of a restructured classification procedure for ice hockey and the approval of new boys wrestling weight classes were among the most notable actions taken by the Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association during its annual Spring Meeting, May 1-2 in Gaylord.
The Spring Meeting of the 19-member legislative body of the Association’s more than 1,500 member schools is generally the busiest of its sessions each year. The Council considered 33 committee proposals and dealt with a variety of eligibility rule, postseason tournament and operational issues.
The Council approved an Ice Hockey Committee proposal to continue classifying teams by enrollment, but with consideration to whether those teams are standalone (one school) or cooperative (multi-school) programs. Approximately half of MHSAA member hockey programs are cooperatives. Beginning with the 2022-23 season, standalone and cooperative programs will be ranked by enrollment but on separate lists, with the top one-third from each list put into Division 1, the second thirds into Division 2 and the lowest thirds into Division 3. This change is expected to rebalance the divisions; in the recent past, Division 1 has been made up mostly of cooperative programs because the combined enrollments of schools involved in co-ops pushed them to the top of the overall classification list for the sport. However, cooperatives generally have not derived an advantage by having more schools involved; instead, cooperatives primarily have allowed schools to continue providing opportunities to athletes who wanted to play hockey when a school doesn’t have enough for a full team.
The Council also approved a switch from current boys wrestling weight classes to those determined by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS): 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 144, 150, 157, 165, 175, 190, 215 and 285 pounds. The NFHS will begin use of those weights nationally in 2023-24, but MHSAA member schools will make the switch beginning with 2022-23. The Council also approved a change to one girls weight, from 255 pounds to 235, aligning all MHSAA girls weight classes with those determined by the NFHS.
A pair of new opportunities to utilize video replay beginning with the 2022-23 school year will provide further support for game officials as they make split-second calls during competition, while assuring the correct outcome of some of the most controversial plays. The Council approved an Officials Review Committee recommendation to provide MHSAA staff the ability to review video of an ejection and modify subsequent penalties in three instances – when there is a clear misidentification and the incorrect athlete is ejected, when that participant is ejected as the direct result of a rules misapplication, or when incontrovertible video evidence shows an ejection or suspension for flagrant contact with an opponent or official was in error. Officials have continued to support the use of replay at MHSAA events where possible, and game officials make up more than half of the Officials Review Committee.
Also concerning video review, replay will be expanded at the 11-Player Football Finals to allow head coaches one challenge during the game. The challenge will cost that team a timeout if the original outcome is confirmed. Coaches will be allowed to challenge the following: complete/incomplete passes, if a runner/receiver was in/out of bounds, a runner who is ruled not down, the forward progress spot as it relates to the yard to gain, which player first touched a kick, the recovery of a ball in/out of bounds, if a pass was forward or backward, and penalties for illegal forward pass, targeting or illegal helmet contact, and pass interference only as it relates to the pass being previously tipped. All potential scores and turnovers will remain automatically reviewed by replay booth officials. This was a proposal by the MHSAA Football Committee.
The Council took multiple actions concerning the “fifth quarter” regulation that allows athletes to play both at the subvarsity and varsity levels on the same day (or same competition week for football) to help programs that are otherwise lacking enough participants to field teams at both levels. The Council approved a Soccer Committee recommendation to allow athletes to play in no more than three halves on a day not followed by a school day. The Council also approved an enhanced penalty stating that violators of the fifth quarter rule must forfeit the contest during which the violation took place (either varsity of subvarsity), and that head coach in violation will be ineligible for the next day of competition. Additionally, the Council approved a Junior High/Middle School Committee recommendation allowing leagues and conferences to request from the MHSAA staff the opportunity to use the fifth quarter rule for basketball.
Here is a summary of other notable actions taken by the Representative Council at the Spring Meeting, which will take effect during the 2022-23 school year unless noted:
Regulations
• Minnesota has been added as a “border state” for all out-of-state competition purposes. MHSAA member schools will be allowed to play opponents from anywhere in Minnesota regardless of the 300-mile travel limit rule, as is also allowed for opponents in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Ontario and Wisconsin.
Sport Matters
• For baseball and softball, the Council approved the creation of separate site selection committees to determine where District and Regional rounds of those tournaments will be played.
• In bowling, the Council approved a Bowling Committee proposal to make the Team Regional qualifying block format the same as the Team Final format. Teams will play eight Baker games and two regular games at both levels of the MHSAA Tournament beginning with the 2022-23 season. Previously, teams bowled six Baker games and three regular games at Regionals.
• In competitive cheer, the Council approved a Girls Competitive Cheer Committee recommendation to, beginning with the 2023-24 season, adopt a new choreography chart that awards points based on tumbling, one-leg extensions, vertical twists/360s and release skills which cannot supersede a 10-point maximum of points earned.
• Also in cheer, the Council approved a Committee recommendation adjusting the penalty for going over the time limit in each round to one penalty point for every second over the time limit, not to exceed 15 points.
• In football, the Council approved a Football Committee recommendation to allow players to wear shoulder pads at college camps sponsored and conducted directly by NCAA or NAIA institutions.
• In golf, the Council approved a pair of Golf Committee recommendations concerning MHSAA Tournament play. Beginning with the 2022-23 school year, teams will be allowed two “school-approved” coaches to be present and actively coaching during postseason competition. Also, the Council approved a reduction in the maximum number of strokes allowed per hole during MHSAA Tournament play from 12 to 10.
• Two more Council actions on Hockey Committee recommendations will affect MHSAA Tournament play in that sport. Beginning with the 2022-23 season, Michigan Power Ratings (MPR) will be used to seed the entire Regional round (which is the first round of postseason play in hockey; there is no District round). Also, teams will be reseeded prior to the start of the Semifinals by a seeding committee, with the top seed in each division then facing the No. 4 seed, and the No. 2 seed facing No. 3 in the other Semifinal.
• In soccer, the Council approved a Soccer Committee recommendation allowing the two seeded teams at the District level to host their games if they are not to be played at a prearranged host site. For these Districts, the No. 1 seed gets hosting priority, followed by the No. 2 seed, followed by the team on the top line of the bracket.
• For diving, the Council approved a Swimming & Diving Committee proposal reorganizing how many Finals qualifiers will advance from each Diving Regional. In each of the three divisions, each Regional will be guaranteed 10 qualifiers for the Finals; the remaining six qualifying spots per division will be distributed to the Regionals that have one of the previous year’s top six returning Finals divers in their fields.
• In tennis, the Council approved a Tennis Committee recommendation allowing for seeding at No. 1 singles of up to seven players if there are between 21-23 in the field, and seeding of up to eight players if the field includes 24 or more. No. 1 singles is the only flight where participants may qualify for the Finals separately from their full team.
Junior High/Middle School
• In track & field, the Council approved a Junior High/Middle School Committee recommendation to begin conducting Regionals beginning with the 2022-23 school year.
• In wrestling, the Council approved a Junior High/Middle School Committee recommendation to add weights of 215 pounds, 245 pounds and heavyweight, with the heavyweight class not to exceed 285 pounds.
• In competitive cheer, the Council approved a Girls Competitive Cheer Committee recommendation allowing junior high/middle school teams to perform a one-leg extension as part of a pyramid with one bracer. A liberty flair is the only flair allowed, and this pyramid requires two points of contact from the bracer.
Calendar
• The Council approved the seven-year calendar of MHSAA Tournament events, with notable basketball changes for two years. For the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, the Boys Basketball Tournament will be completed first, followed by the Girls Basketball Tournament – a switch from the traditional order of the girls tournament Finals followed by the boys Finals. This will allow for flexibility in the event Michigan State University is selected to host NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament first and second-round games at the Breslin Center.
The Council also reviewed reports on membership, with 750 senior high schools and 759 junior high/middle schools in 2021-22 plus 62 elementary schools with 6th-grader participation; cooperative programs, with 378 high school programs for 699 teams during 2021-22; eligibility advancement applications, which totaled zero for the second-straight school year; the use of Educational Transfer Forms, of which there were 142; school violations, attendance at athletic director in-service workshops and Coaches Advancement Program sessions; officials’ registrations, rules meetings attendance and officials reports submitted for the past three sports seasons. The Association’s $12.8 million budget for the 2022-23 school year also was approved.
The Representative Council is the 19-member legislative body of the MHSAA. All but five are elected by member schools. Four members are appointed by the Council to facilitate representation of females and minorities, and the 19th position is occupied by the Superintendent of Public Instruction or designee.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.