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It’s budget season in Montgomery County, and at least one local parent wants to know what county leadership is doing to protect students—protection that can’t come from armed guards and locked doors.
Football season has recently concluded, hockey season is underway and sporting concussions continue to pose health risks to high school, college and pro athletes across the country. While state and county lawmakers have made strides in requiring concussion-training for high school coaches, local advocate and Patch blogger Tom Hearn says it’s not enough.
Hearn, whose own son sustained a concussion playing JV football at Whitman High School in 2011, urges the county school board to include $500,000 in funding for high school athletic trainers in the fiscal 2014 operating budget request. County schools Superintendent Joshua Starr has already requested $75,000 in the new budget go to district-wide baseline concussion testing.
“The lack of certified athletic trainers at MCPS high schools represents a serious public safety issue,” Hearn said in testimony to the school board on Jan. 17. “Some concussion professionals say that if you can’t afford to have athletic trainers, maybe you can’t afford to have a sports program."
Hearn argues that certified athletic trainers have four years of study at an accredited college and national certification, giving them a deeper knowledge about concussions and other sports injuries than coaches typically have. Having a certified trainer on staff to maintain detailed records of student injuries and health needs would also allow coaches to get back to what they do best – coaching, Hearn said.
Research found 60,000 high school and college athletes suffer concussions each year from contact sports, according to a WBAL-TV report. The injury isn’t just a simple bump on the head and can be fatal.
Kristen Sheely, of Germantown, lost her 22-year-old son Derek after he sustained a head injury during football practice at Frostburg State University in August 2011.
Nine Montgomery County high schools—Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Montgomery Blair, Winston Churchill, Damascus, Walter Johnson, Quince Orchard, Richard Montgomery, Walt Whitman and Thomas S. Wootton—offer baseline testing to at least some of their student athletes, MCPS spokesperson Dana Tofig told Patch in September.
The computerized tests measure things like memory and reaction times before and after an injury, and help determine whether it is safe for athletes to return to their sports.
Coaches are required to take a 20-minute online concussion training class each year, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School athletic director Jim Tapley, told Patch in August.
Districts surrounding Montgomery County have certified trainers on staff for schools, while Montgomery County has none, Hearn said.
Should the Montgomery County budget include funding for athletic trainers in schools? Tell us in the comments.
Rawlo Lawson
12:16 pm on Friday, February 8, 2013
This is why this stupid county is broke and has to put up speed cameras to collect money
G p
9:20 am on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
I don't understand your comment.
Phil Dennie
6:53 am on Saturday, February 9, 2013
I hope that this passes and allows the kids to have access to a qualified medical professional that can protect the players from themselves. One thing that needs to be reminded is that although the computerized tests are a great tool, they should not be used as a stand alone assesment to allow a student-athlete to return to participation but rather should be used in conjunction with symptom checklists and other balance and neuropsychological assesments. And in the long run this could end up saving money.
mike wykes
10:02 pm on Monday, February 11, 2013
Yes. Safety and proper care for student athletes is critical. Overall, athletics help lead toward better, more healthful lives in the future, beyond High School. Athletic Trainers are professionals who can keep student athletes in top shape. They can also help lessen incidence of injury and decrease rehab time.
dv
11:44 pm on Monday, February 11, 2013
Would you ever open a swimming pool or Beach without lifeguards???
Educating coaches is a waste of money. They are in no mindset nor do they have the training to properly assess an athlete for concussions or other medical issue. They have one goal ... to win ... And that goal poses a conflict of interest during medical decision making.
Larry Cooper
7:48 am on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
This is an important part of a schools responsibility for the health and safety of their students and student athletes. It will help to improve the overall health of the students as well as the classroom and athletic performance of all involved.
G p
9:18 am on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Athletic trainers are health care professionals who collaborate with physicians to
optimize patient and client activity and participation in athletics, work and life. The
practice of athletic training encompasses the prevention, examination and
diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of emergent, acute, subacute, and
chronic neuromusculoskeletal conditions and certain medical conditions in order
to minimize subsequent impairments, functional limitations, disability, and
societal limitations.
Every athlete deserves an athletic trainer. Some plain facts for you out of the 24 counties in Maryland only 8 have 1 athletic trainer per HS! MoCo, PgCo, and Baltimore city have the largest amount of schools and only 2 ATs (MoCo)! This is absured. Would you send your child to a school without a school nurse? Then why put them on the field without a certified athletic trainer. MoCo is one the richest county in MD and 3rd in the nation, yet they still have only 2 PART-TIME athletic trainers at their schools.