NFHS Voice: Emphasis on Education
January 20, 2020
By Karissa Niehoff
NFHS Executive Director
Sometimes, numbers or statistics in sports can be misleading or perhaps even meaningless. Often, they simply do not tell the whole story.
Such was not the case, however, with the massive number of 10,000,000 announced last week by the NFHS. As in 10 million online education courses that have been taken by high school coaches, administrators, officials, students, parents, performing arts educators and others since the inception of the NFHS Learning Center in 2007.
When we talk about the difference between education-based sports within our nation’s high schools versus out-of-school club sports, this says it all. And the quest for more continues to rise each year.
After starting with 15,000 courses in 2007, more and more people have utilized the Learning Center (www.NFHSLearn.com) on computers, tablets and smartphones. The number of courses jumped to 200,000 by 2010 and 1,071,000 by 2015 and almost two million (1,975,000) last year.
While there are now more than 70 courses available through the NFHS Learning Center, including more than 35 that are offered at no cost, the runaway success story has been the free Concussion in Sports course that was launched in 2010 and updated in 2018.
With more than five million Concussion in Sports courses delivered in almost 10 years, the NFHS has been the leader in concussion recognition and management. This course teaches how to recognize a suspected concussion. It provides protocols to manage a suspected concussion. It provides steps to help players return to play safely after a concussion.
As a result of educational initiatives such as the Concussion in Sports course, and NFHS playing rules in all high school sports that contain guidelines for management of an athlete who exhibits signs and symptoms of a concussion, to the creation of concussion laws in every state, there are positive trends in concussion rates.
And that leads to some more meaningful numbers.
Data from the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study released late last year indicated that concussion rates during football practices dropped from 5.47 to 4.44 concussions per 10,000 athletic exposures between the 2013-14 and 2017-18 seasons. Repeat concussion rates across all sports declined from 0.47 to 0.28 per 10,000 exposures during the same time period.
The annual increase in the number of individuals taking education courses on the Learning Center, which also includes the popular free courses Heat Illness Prevention and Sudden Cardiac Arrest, indicates – at least in part – the insatiable desire on the part of parents to determine the actual risk of playing contact sports.
And more and more when it comes to football – this country’s most popular contact sport – we believe the inherent risk has never been lower.
From the youth level where USA Football has created the Football Development Model to reduce contact and teach fundamentals in a progressive manner, to the educational initiatives of the NFHS to reduce injury risk in high school sports, the focus on player safety has never been higher.
And one more important number. We believe this continual rise in the number of people taking online education courses will have an additional benefit – a growing number of high school students competing in education-based sports and activity programs.
Dr. Karissa L. Niehoff is in her second year as executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is the first female to head the national leadership organization for high school athletics and performing arts activities and the sixth full-time executive director of the NFHS, which celebrated its 100th year of service during the 2018-19 school year. She previously was executive director of the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference for seven years.
NFHS Voice: Amateurism Benefits
October 9, 2019
By Karissa Niehoff
NFHS Executive Director
While we addressed a number of important issues with our member state associations at section meetings the past month, perhaps none of the topics are as significant as the tremor that occurred in California on September 30 – the signing of the “Fair Pay to Play Act” by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Although there are more questions than answers at this point, this ruling would allow college athletes in the state of California to make money from their name, image and likeness through endorsement deals, sponsorships, autograph signings and other opportunities. The legislation is due to take effect in 2023.
Obviously, the NCAA opposes this legislation and is working through its governance structure to address the issue. As Mark Emmert, NCAA president, told the Indianapolis Star, “for all intents and purposes, athletes become employees of the schools. This is just a new form of professionalism and a different way of converting students into employees.”
And since it would not work for athletes in one state to be receiving money legally while athletes in the other 49 could not, a national bill similar to California’s is already being considered by U. S. Representative Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio.
Needless to say, the NFHS and its member state associations oppose the California ruling as it could further erode the concept of amateurism in the United States. At the high school level, current issues with parents pushing their kids into specialization in the fight for scholarships would only be exacerbated as they considered the “best offer” from colleges.
In the aforementioned Indianapolis Star article, Emmert noted the following: “Under the California law, there would be complete elimination of all of those rules (regulations related to shoe companies). It would also include the use of agents in that process and the agent could represent high school students.”
There is nothing more sacred and fundamental to the past – and future – history of high school sports in the United States than the concept of amateurism. While this California ruling addresses college sports directly, it undoubtedly would have an impact on sports at the high school level as well.
The signing of the “Fair Pay to Play Act” comes on the heels of the Alston v. NCAA case earlier this year in which a federal judge in California found the NCAA’s scholarship rules to be illegal – to a point. The NFHS filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the NCAA noting the following:
“Amateurism in athletics is not only valuable for its own sake, but also is a key aspect of a well-rounded education. The NFHS is concerned that the district court’s opinion does not fully appreciate either the concept of amateurism or the many benefits it brings to college and high school sports – and to American sports in general.
“... If amateurism were to give way to professionalism at the collegiate level ... high schools would struggle to fulfill their ultimate goal of preparing large numbers of well-rounded individuals for futures beyond athletics. … The NCAA should be afforded the freedom to define amateurism in a way that preserves the ideal of the student-athlete in higher education which would protect important values of education-based sports at all levels.”
The NFHS will continue to support the NCAA in its efforts to preserve amateurism as it is our belief that paying student-athletes – whether it is in the form of selling one’s name, image or likeness, or whether it eventually becomes a paycheck – will erode the spirit of sport at all levels in this country.
Dr. Karissa L. Niehoff is in her second year as executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is the first female to head the national leadership organization for high school athletics and performing arts activities and the sixth full-time executive director of the NFHS, which celebrated its 100th year of service during the 2018-19 school year. She previously was executive director of the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference for seven years.