MHSAA Announces 2015-16 Concussion Data
September 12, 2016
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Michigan High School Athletic Association has completed an unprecedented yearlong collection of head injury reports from its member schools, mandated in 2015-16 for the first time as part of an effort to identify and reduce the incidence of those types of injuries in educational athletics.
The MHSAA requested that member schools report, by sport, possible concussions by their student-athletes during both practice and competition. Reporting for the 2016-17 school year is underway, and schools again are required to designate if potential concussions occurred during competition or practice and at which level – varsity, junior varsity or freshman.
The full report of all head injuries experienced during 2015-16 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 on the Health & Safety page of the MHSAA Website.
The MHSAA received data from more than 99 percent of its member high schools after the end of 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; those findings are not part of the published report.
It is the hope that universities, health care systems and the National Federation of State High School Associations will take part in analyzing the data. The MHSAA will work, in particular, with Michigan State University’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports to explore these findings and their relation to possible changes and additions in coaches education.
“We know that school sports are safer than they’ve ever been, thanks to advances in equipment, increased and more complete coaches education and rules designed to bring higher levels of safety to both practices and competition,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. “However, this unprecedented effort will allow us for the first time to set a baseline by which we can determine year-to-year progress as we work to reduce the incidence of head injuries in school sports, while providing questions we will seek to answer with assistance from our research partners.”
Student-athletes at MHSAA member high schools encountered during 2015-16 a total of 4,452 head injuries – or 5.9 per member school. Total participation in MHSAA sports for 2015-16 was 284,227 – with students counted once for each sport he or she played – and only 1.6 percent of participants experienced a head injury. Boys experienced 3,003 – or 67 percent – of those injuries, although boys participation in sports, especially contact sports, also was higher than girls.
More than half of head injuries – 54 percent – were experienced by varsity athletes. A total of 2,973 – or 67 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 nearly 56 percent of injuries were a result of person-to-person contact. The largest percentage of athletes – 28 percent – returned to activity after 6 to 10 days, while 20 percent of those who suffered head injuries returned after 11-15 days of rest.
Not surprisingly, contact sports revealed the most head injuries. Ranking first was 11-player football with 49 head injuries per 1,000 participants, followed by ice hockey with 38 and 8-player football with 34. However, girls soccer was just behind with 30 injuries per 1,000 participants, and girls basketball ranked fifth with 29 injuries per 1,000.
A startling disparity in the number of reported head injuries suffered by girls and boys playing the same sports was the most significant finding revealed by the concussion reporting. Soccer, basketball and baseball/softball are played under identical or nearly identical rules, and in those sports females reported significantly more concussions than males playing the same or similar sport.
Female soccer players reported 30 concussions per 1,000 participants. Male soccer players, meanwhile, reported only 18 concussions per 1,000 participants. Female basketball players reported 29 concussions per 1,000 participants; male players reported 11. Softball players reported 11 concussions per 1,000 participants, and baseball players reported four per 1,000.
“Experts tell us that it’s not surprising that girls report more head injuries than boys. But we found it stunning how many more head injuries were reported for girls than boys,” Roberts said. “As we delve deeper into the data, we hope to identify what physiological, social and psychological factors may contribute to this disparity – and how we can better prepare school personnel and especially coaches to watch for over- or under-reporting.”
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 which is producing data related to the frequency and severity of head injuries. The MHSAA in fall 2015 launched the largest-ever state high school association sideline concussion testing pilot program, with 62 schools taking part by using one of two screening tests designed to detect concussions. One of the objectives of the pilot was to increase awareness of concussions and improve sideline detection, and results indicated that the average number of possible concussions reported by pilot schools exceeded the average reported by schools outside the pilot group. For the 2016-17 school year, 34 schools are taking part in one of the two pilot programs as the project was concentrated to include schools which were diverse in size and location and able to best conduct the pilots to completion. The pilots will focus on sports for which most concussions occur, according to the mandated reporting by all schools during the 2015-16 school year.
The MHSAA also is 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. During 2015-16, a total of 159 claims were made – with more than half coming in football (55) or girls basketball (29).
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.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,400 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.
MHSAA Provides Reopening Guidelines
May 29, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Michigan High School Athletic Association today submitted to its member schools a series of updated timelines and recommendations to guide the return of sports, which have been suspended since mid-March to alleviate the potential spread of COVID-19.
The state’s current “Safer-at-Home” order runs through Friday, June 12. There can be no use of any school facilities (indoor and outdoor) and there can be no organized on-site athletic activity, including conditioning or competition, until the current stay-at-home order expires or is lifted by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. When the “Safer-at-Home” order expires or is lifted, the return-to-activity recommendations may be implemented locally by school district leadership, provided the district declares its facilities open to students and staff and the 2019-20 school year has ended for that district (based on its last originally-scheduled school day).
The “MHSAA/NFHS Guidance for Re-Opening School Sports” is based primarily on direction provided by the MHSAA and National Federation of State High School Associations’ (NFHS) Sports Medicine Advisory Committees, in addition to reopening plans provided by the Michigan and federal governments and recommendations from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Concepts from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee also were consulted.
The MHSAA/NFHS plan recommends a three-step process to returning to full athletic participation, and for each step outlines actions to be taken in five major areas: pre-workout/contest screening of athletes and coaches for sickness, limitations of the number of participants who may be involved in a gathering, proper cleaning for facilities, the use of equipment during activity and best practices for keeping participants safely hydrated. The plan also places sports into categories based on risk for transmitting the virus (low/moderate/high), with adjusted return-to-activity steps based on that level of risk.
The MHSAA serves more than 1,500 public and private schools, including 750 high schools.
“The MHSAA and its Representative Council believe restarting school sports is essential to the physical and mental well-being of students, and the guidelines outlined for schools today provide the ‘How’ for schools to return to athletics when they’ve received the go-ahead from state and county health officials,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said. “We are thankful for our state government, state education and health departments, our medical partners and the NFHS for their guidance these last few months, and we will continue to follow and pass on their recommendations as we prepare our schools to bring back this part of student life that’s been sorely missed.”
At the present time, the only activity allowed continues to be individual, outdoor recreational activity including walking, hiking, running, etc. (as announced in Executive Order 2020-96). If this type of conditioning activity takes place with more than one person present, it must be in groups of fewer than 10 people with social distancing followed, and the activity cannot involve school coaches, be school sponsored or occur at any school facility (indoor or outdoor) until at least June 13.
Voluntary virtual (not in-person) communication and instruction from coaches to any number of students is permitted under MHSAA rules in all sports during the summer.
“The concept is that students can continue to individually condition themselves (by walking, hiking, running), but there should be no organized, group activity by any person until at least June 13. We must all continue do our part to flatten the curve in hopes of increased activity over the coming weeks,” Uyl said. “Again, it is important to note that this document addresses ‘How’ schools can return to activity; the decision on ‘When’ schools can return to activity will be done under the direction of state government and health department officials. As government actions impact this timeline, the MHSAA will continue to update all involved.”
The return-to-activity guidelines are aimed to provide direction for schools as they continue to limit potential exposure to respiratory droplets, the primary avenue for transferring COVID-19. Specifically, the MHSAA/NFHS plan addresses social distancing, use of cloth and other face coverings, event scheduling and transportation, and the possibility that schools may have to break from or completely discontinue activity including competition during the fall or winter because of recurrent outbreaks of the coronavirus.
School district administrators will determine at which step in the MHSAA/NFHS plan their schools are operating based on the number of people allowed to gather by state medical officials.
The document in full is available from the MHSAA Website. Further guidance will be provided over the weeks ahead as new information is available and the prevalence of COVID-19 changes. Updates to the MHSAA/NFHS guidelines will continue to be in accordance with those published by the Governor’s office.
The MHSAA has remained in regular contact with the Governor’s office, Michigan Department of Health & Human Services and Michigan Department of Education throughout the pandemic, in addition to leadership from the state’s superintendents, school principals, athletic administrators and school boards associations.
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.