State’s New Concussion Law Aims to Protect Student-Athletes

De Smet football coach Pat Mahoney has seen an average of 10 concussions per season the last two years on his team.

A coach who remembers a time when players returned to the field when they said the headache had passed, Mahoney has seen first hand how long it can take a concussed athlete to return to the field.

But he also knows it’s in the best interest of the athlete. 

“It’s a much longer process,” said Mahoney, who hasn’t had a player report a concussion this season. “We had a kid last year that had a concussion in Week 6 and he hasn’t returned yet this year. It’s a much slower processes, but it’s the right thing to do because they’re not ready until the doctor sees them as healthy.”

Today, an estimated 300,000 sport-related brain injuries that occur annually in America according to the Brain Injury Resource Center. This year, Missouri lawmakers made the Show Me State one of 30 with a law aimed at protecting youth athletes from further brain injuries by returning to play too soon.

The Interscholastic Youth Sports Brain Injury Prevention Act, which became law in August, requires the Missouri State High School Activities Association sends informational packets about concussions to athletes and parents alike.

Additionally, concussed athletes are required to sit out for at least 24 hours from practice and/or games. An athlete may return after an evaluation by a liscensed health care provider trained in concussion management. 

Recognizing the problem before this summer, MSHSAA had implemented concussions programs more than two years ago.

“We’ve been doing almost exactly what we’re doing now for the last two-and-a-half years,” MSHSAA Associate Executive Director Harvey Richards said. “We’ve already sent out concussion material; we’ve been educating coaches. It’s just that now because of its popularity – and I hate to use that word, but – because of the forefront of the NFL making its presence, making it on all the TV stations, and because other state’s had passed bills, you see the other state’s follow in line.”

Indeed, another 13 states have legislation pending.

Richards said MSHSAA was providing these services because of a sports medicine advisory committee with which the association is affiliated. 

“They had already been keeping up with the fact that concussions were becoming more of a serious issue,” he said. “And the fact that research was starting to show the long-term negative effects of concussions at an early age, that’s when they really started to look at what we had to do in practices and at games.”

The challenge Richards is facing now returns to the law itself.

“We now have to go through paragraph by paragraph, word by word, of what the law says and put out the regulations and procedures that would be in place,” Richards said.

For example, Richards is among those determining the definition of a concussed athlete.

“We have to put all those things in place, and who has to take care of it, and what organizations have to be in charge of those things,” Richards said. “We’ve met twice and we have a third meeting coming up soon, and we hope to have these rules taken care of by December 31. So even though the bill is passed and the law is in effect, the guidelines for everything, we’re still working on that.”

MSHSAA is also working on collecting data on concussions at the high school level, as required by the law. Richards cautions the data will only reflect the number of concussions reported.

“What everyone should be asking is how many reported concussions are there versus how many concussions, because we know for sure that some concussions go unreported,” he said.

Thursday: Education and awareness are essential to protect young athletes.