In the past few months, 2 players from the east coast have died from helmet-to-helmet hits. One player, Damon Jones, 16, a junior running back from Brocton, New York died from a helmet-to-helmet hit.
DeAntre Truman , from Georgia’s College Park’s Creekside High School died in an August scrimmage after suffering a broken neck and fractured cervical vertebra.
After talking this week to several coaches from around the state of Washington, I am totally convinced that the sport of football is in great hands and that the coaches at the A & B levels are some of the best coaches in the state. They are teaching the proper fundamentals and techniques of tackling and are proactive in findings ways to make this great game safe.
On May 14th 2009, Gov. Christine Gregoire signed the nation’s toughest youth athlete return-to-play law.
The law, (House Bill 1824), known as the Zachary Lystedt Law, requires medical clearance of youth athletes suspected of sustaining a concussion, before sending them back in the game, practice or training.
Some key provisions of the law include:
Youth athletes who are suspected of sustaining a concussion or head injury be removed from play. “When in doubt, sit out.”
School districts work with the WIAA to develop info and policies on educating coaches, athletes and parents about the risk of concussion including the dangers of returning to practice after a concussion or head injury.
All student-athletes and parents sign an information sheet about concussion or head injury prior to practice at the start of each season.
Athletes who have been removed from play receive written medical clearance prior to returning to play from a licensed health-care provider trained in the evaluation and management of concussion.
Though the laws are in place, Lind-Ritzville-Sprague coach and AD Greg Whitmore is still concerned about the state of the game.
“I believe that our game as we know it is in peril,” said Whitmore. “We must change and that starts with us thinking outside the box to make this game safer.”
A couple of ideas that Whitmore suggested would be to reduce the current schedule of 10 games to 9. And that all teams begin their season with a jamboree.
“In fact I would like to see all sports schedules be reduced by 10 percent. Basketball from 20 games to 18 games, and so on.” Whitmore said. “We must become the leaders in the movement.”
Waitsburg-Prescott coach Jeff Bartlow agrees with going to a 9-game schedule and a jamboree to begin the season.
“I think if you are looking at safety in our sport, one of the options we have to look at is going back to the 9-game schedule as well as the jamboree.” said Bartlow.
One factor that might hinder the approval of Whitmore’s and Bartlow’s suggestions is the fact that football is the cash-cow for high school athletic budgets. A loss of a home contest could cost a school thousands of dollars.
Another suggestion that has been mentioned is that we could “limit” contact during the week of practice.
“If we begin to limit contact during the week, aren’t we compromising our players?”, said Tom Sanchez, Head Football Coach and Athletic Director at South Bend High School. “If we limit the time we get to teach our players proper form and technique, we are doing our players a disservice.”
One suggestion that Sanchez brings up is during the off-season, eliminate the scrimmages between other schools. That includes scrimmages during team camp.
“I know that during scrimmages with my team, I can control the hitting between my team,” said Sanchez. “But between my team and another, I have less control.”
One of the major concerns is the next count for re-classification. Athletic Directors are hearing that the numbers for reclassifying the 2B’s or B-11’s will be around 84-243. If those numbers are true, it will mean that the small 2B’s could be playing schools three-times their size.
Teams like Montesano, Cascade Christian, Zillah, Okanogan, Cascade (Leavenworth) could be in the 2B classification. Seriously? That would not be healthy for the state of the game.
In chatting with several members of the Northeast 1B/2B, they will be proposing an amendment to the WIAA that 0-to-100 will be classified as 1B or B-8, 101-200 will be 2B or B-11, 1A—4A 25 % each of schools 201 and above.
“You shouldn’t be playing someone that is more than twice your size.” said the 1B/2B members. “Benefits would be safety, stability for the 1B and 2B schools, competitiveness is more important at the B level than an equal number of teams, especially since many 1B teams do not have the full offering of sports, etc.”
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