Injury guidelines in place for high school football athletes
Many high schools across mid-Missouri battled it out on the gridiron Friday night for the first game of the football season.
Since 2011, high school football has had the highest number of head injuries reported than all other high school sports in the state. According to the Missouri State High School Activities Association(MSHSAA), 1,332 football head injuries were reported in the 2014-2015 school year. That contributed to nearly half of the total number of concussions from all high schools sports combined.
“The schools are doing a much better job in educating not only the players, but the coaches are on top of everything, and they’re also getting the information out to the parents,” said Jason West, MSHSAA’s Communication Director.
MSHSAA requires school districts to have an Emergency Action Plan in place to be prepared if an athlete were to suffer a serious injury on the field. West said each school’s action plan is different based on the resources available to them.
For example, not all school districts are able to have an ambulance at each home game.
“That’s one of the obstacles when making it required to have an ambulance,” West said. “There are a number of schools in different counties where the county may only have 2 or 3 ambulances to service the whole county. And if one of those is at a football game and has to be there, that doesn’t really serve the rest of the residency in that county.”
According to MSHSAA’s 2014-2015InterscholasticYouth Sports Brain Injury Report, 90 percent of reporting school district’s said they have and Emergency Action Plan in place for home games. 37% of football-playing schools said they have an ambulance at the home varsity games. 159 schools reported not having an athletic trainer on staff.
Resident physicians at MU Health Care who specialize in sports medicine go to those school districts on Friday nights that may not have a full-time athletic trainer.
“We try to cover the ones that are the far reaching places that may not have the resources as the ones in the Columbia Public Schools,” said Dr. Seth Sherman.
The Missouri Orthopaedic Institute is offering its “Friday Night Lights” sports walk in clinic every Friday night from 10 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. to treat athletes with minor injuries like sprains.
Dr. Sherman said the goal of the clinic is to give the athletes an early diagnosis and help them heal before the next game.
“If we respect injuries and their early recovery pathways, people get back to sports sooner,” he said. “If we fight recovery through pain and we don’t let the athlete heal that’s when it may burn them down the line.”
The walk-in clinic will go through the end of October and is free of charge.
