April 2011 Archives

If you thought all you had on Sunday was a date with Game 1 of the Miami Heat-Boston Celtics playoff series, think again. National Physical Education and Sport Week launches that day, in honor of National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, with more than 3 million students expected to participate.

The theme for this year's National Physical Education and Sport Week is Let's Move in School, which is the "comprehensive school physical activity program of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. (NASPE is part of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.) NASPE's Let's Move in School plan calls for all students to engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity on a daily basis, and revolves around five key components: staff involvement, physical activity during school, family and community involvement, physical activity before and after school, and the centerpiece of the whole plan, physical education. Let's Move in School is a nod to first lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign.

"Research shows that quality physical education programs can contribute to students' regular participation in physical activity and can increase moderate to vigorous physical activity. The challenge is to help students identify a sport or activity that he or she enjoys as much as watching television or playing computer games," said NASPE President Lynn Couturier in a press release. "As part of our Let's Move in School initiative, our goal is to urge every school in the country to coordinate a physical activity event during National Physical Education and Sport Week which will help motivate students to jump start or stimulate their personal physical activity routine."

What will students be doing to celebrate Let's Move in School week? The festivities kick off on Sunday, May 1, when the Parkway school district in Ballwin, Mo., hosts a health and wellness expo called Shape Up to Live Fit. An estimated 148,000 Philadelphia students will participate in the Beyoncé "Let's Move! Flash Workout" on Monday, and approximately 32,000 Miami-Dade County public school students will do the Beyoncé workout on Tuesday. (Beyoncé released the video this past week as part of Mrs. Obama's Let's Move! campaign.) Port Matilda Elementary School in Port Matilda, Pa., will host a community walk-a-thon on Thursday, and more 3,000 students will participate in the annual Kansas Kids Fitness Day on Friday, May 6.

"Although it has been established by research that a minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity a day is essential for student health and academic performance, we are challenged with how to offer adequate physical education and physical activity in the face of other education demands," said Brad Strand, AAHPERD president, in a press release. "Let's Move in School provides a cohesive message along with tools and resources to implement a comprehensive school physical activity program."

Seeing as youth obesity was recently linked to higher risk of heart disease and that a recent poll found parents wanting more exercise for their children in school, National Physical Education and Sport Week seems to be a healthy step in the right direction.

UPDATE, 5/4: Yesterday, Beyoncé surprised a group of New York middle schoolers doing her Let's Move! Flash Workout by joining in during the middle of their routine. The event took place at PS 161 Pedro Albizu Campos in Harlem. Check the video out below:

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The National Federation of State High School Associations approved an upward shift in high school wrestling weight classes, starting with the 103-pound class, which the organization is calling "the most significant" change in weight classes in 23 years.

The NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee initially approved the change in weight classes at its April 4-6 meeting in Indianapolis, and the board of directors subsequently accepted the shift. Ten of the 14 weight classes now have new weights.

According to a press release on the NFHS' website:

The 14 weight classes approved by the committee for 2011-12 are as follows: 106 (pounds), 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220, and 285. Three middle-weight classes—145, 152, and 160—were retained, although they are 7-8-9 in order now rather than 8-9-10. The largest weight class (285 pounds) remains unchanged as well.

"The change in weight classes resulted from a three-to-four year process utilizing data from the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Optimal Performance Calculator," said Dale Pleimann, chair of the Wrestling Rules Committee, in the press release. "The rules committee was able to analyze data from almost 200,000 wrestlers across the country, with the goal to create weight classes that have approximately 7 percent of the wrestlers in each weight class."

The last major shift in weight classes happened in 1988, according to the NFHS, when the lowest weight class increased from 98 to 103 pounds. Since then, the only other changes occurred in 2002, when the number of weight classes expanded from 13 to 14, and in 2006, when the 275-pound weight class was turned into the 285-pound weight class.

A total of 272,890 high school boys participated in wrestling during the 2009-10 season, according to the NFHS Athletics Participation Survey , making it the sixth-most-popular sport for high school boys. More than 6,000 girls in 1,009 high schools also competed in wrestling in the 2009-10 season. (Remember Cassy Herkleman, who became the first female to win a state tournament wrestling match in Iowa history in February?)

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Former President Bill Clinton announced a partnership with Mexican mogul Carlos Slim last week on a youth-sports project in Mexico intended to draw teenagers and young adults back to school.

The project, named A Ganar ("to win" and "to earn" in Spanish), will receive funding and support for its implementation in Chihuahua, Mexico, from the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative and Fundación Carlos Slim. Both foundations will provide A Ganar with an undisclosed amount of money and will use a local organization in the drug-war-ravaged Ciudad Juarez to monitor the program's development, according to the Associated Press.

A Ganar is a four-phase program that uses soccer and other team sports to teach youths ages 16-24 how to apply sport lessons to personal skill development necessary for jobs. In the first phase, youths receive sports-based employment training, in which the core values of respect, teamwork, discipline, communication, focus on results, and continued self-improvement are stressed. The program then gives the young people targeted vocational training, internship experience, and a web of alumni support.

The implementation of A Ganar in Chihuahua is expected to enroll 900 youths, and based on its success, Clinton and Slim may consider expanding the program to other parts of the country.

A Ganar has already trained more than 5,000 youths in nine Latin American countries, according to a press release from the Clinton fundation's website. More than 70 percent of participants end up graduating from the program, and the majority of graduates either return to school, obtain formal employment, or start their own business within a year of graduation, according to A Ganar's website.

"We are delighted to participate in a project that uses sports to encourage young people to seek better opportunities," said Mr. Clinton in the press release.

The CGSGI is a partnership among the William J. Clinton Foundation, the private sector, and governments, that seeks to reduce poverty through social-development projects.

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A New York Times review released today found that Division I colleges across the U.S. are finagling their way around Title IX rules by counting male athletes on women's rosters, trimming male rosters, or adding female student-athletes to team rosters without the students' knowledge.

The Times reviewed the public records of more than 20 colleges and universities, along with the federal participation statistics of all 345 Division I institutions, and found that many of the reported gains in female student-athlete participation had been doctored. The paper didn't give an exact number of how many schools manipulated rosters to comply with Title IX regulations, but did say that "double- and triple-counting women [on rosters] has allowed four dozen Division I universities to mask the fact that they have fewer female athletes."

The Times report wasn't shy about naming programs allegedly exploiting some of the federal Title IX loopholes. More than half the 71 women on the University of South Florida's cross-country team didn't run a race in 2009, according to the Times, and when the newspaper inquired about it, "a few laughed and said they did not know they were on the team."

According to the paper, "Female runners can be a bonanza because a single athlete can be counted up to three times, as a member of the cross-country and the indoor and outdoor track teams."

Quinnipiac University got in trouble last year for a similar practice, as a judge determined that the school required its female cross-country runners to register for both indoor and outdoor track (along with cross-country) to boost participation numbers.

Congress passed Title IX in 1972, which prohibits gender discrimination in federally financed education programs. According to the Times, the law sparked a cultural transformation, as the number of women participating in college sports jumped from fewer than 30,000 per year in 1972 to 186,000 per year now. High school sports have seen a similar jump in female participation in the past 40 years, according to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations. Slightly under 300,000 females participated in high school sports nationwide in the 1971-72 school year; that figure rose to nearly 3.2 million female high school athletes in 2009-10.

A 2010 report from the American Council on Education found that 57 percent of enrolled college students in the U.S. are female. The Times reported that women make up 53 percent of the student body at Division I schools but only 46 percent of student-athletes, according to the most current federal numbers.

Schools can demonstrate their Title IX compliance in one of three ways: 1) show that female athletic participation is in proportion to total female enrollment on campus; 2) demonstrate a history of expanding athletic opportunities for females; or 3) prove that they are meeting the athletic interests and abilities of female students.

USF and Quinnipiac weren't the only schools playing with funny math in terms of Title IX rules, according to the Times. Marshall's women's tennis team took on three freshman walk-ons this year to satisfy the athletic department's 10-athlete minimum, even though "they weren't good enough to practice, let alone compete." Fifteen of the 34 athletes on the Cornell women's fencing team are actually men. And the women's basketball teams at Texas A&M and Duke also count male practice players as female participants, according to the newspaper.

The Times reached out to the U.S. Department of Education about the practice of counting men who practice with women's teams as female participants, and received a somewhat stunning response. David A. Bergeron, the deputy assistant secretary in the office of postsecondary education, said "men should be counted on women's teams if they receive coaching and practice with women."

Russlynn H. Ali is the assistant secretary at the Department of Education who leads the Office for Civil Rights, which is responsible for enforcing Title IX. When contacted by the Times, she said "universities investigated by her office would never get away with counting men as women, but acknowledged that a formal inquiry is rare."

"I would hope, as someone who cares about these issues, that that data is accurate and that institutions would not try and game it," Ali told the paper.

The fact that schools are likely manipulating their female student-athlete participation figures isn't that shocking. The fact that many of the involved coaches and school officials would openly discuss their rule-bending tactics could be seen as a bit more surprising. For instance, Todd Kennett, a coach for the Cornell men's rowing team, admitted that the five female coxswains on his roster count as women, which allows him to put more men on his roster.

In conjunction with the report, the Times and CBS News issued a Title IX poll completed by a total of 1,266 participants during the first week of March—629 men and 637 women.

Respondents were asked over the phone about their views on the athletic opportunities presented to males and females in both high schools and colleges. More than 70 percent of those surveyed believe that it's important for girls to have the same athletic opportunities as boys in high schools; however, 47 percent said that they believe girls have fewer opportunities than boys to play high school sports.

The poll found that 64 percent of those surveyed knew "not much" or "nothing at all" about Title IX. But, of those who did know about Title IX, men were more likely than women to say that the law had been beneficial. Eighty-four percent of men believe Title IX has been mostly positive for women, compared to 72 percent of women; more surprisingly, 62 percent of men believe Title IX has also had a mainly positive impact on men's sports, while only 55 percent of women believe the same.

The margin of sampling error for the poll is plus or minus 3 percentage points for all adults and plus or minus 4 points for the subgroups of men and women. (Read more about the methodology of the survey here.)

One university that may be happy to hear this Title IX news: the University of Delaware. Just this past weekend, news broke that the Dept. of Ed. is reviewing the school's decision to drop its men's cross-country and track teams, after members of the men's teams complained to the Office for Civil Rights. The University of Delaware cited Title IX concerns when the end of the male track program was announced in January (as the women's cross-country and track teams were retained), according to The News Journal in Delaware. The male runners allege that the university is now depriving men of the same athletic opportunities.

UPDATE (7/29): For all of the Belorussian readers of Schooled in Sports out there, a reader was kind enough to translate this entry for you. Check it out here.

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Out of 2,083 student-athletes tested for steroids in Texas last fall, only one returned a positive result, according to findings released late last week.

In announcing the results of its anabolic-steroid tests, the Texas University Interscholastic League noted that along with the one confirmed positive result, another student-athlete violated protocol by not reporting for testing.

The league conducted the steroid tests at 135 schools across the state, choosing student-athletes to test at random. A total of 750 females and 1,333 males were tested between September and December. The sports with the most tested student-athletes were football for males (469) and soccer for females (125).

As I reported back in January, Texas lawmakers are debating whether to continue the steroid-testing program, as it has turned up less than 30 positive results in more than 50,000 tests. Opponents of the program cite its cost as a reason to end it; proponents suggest that the program acts as a deterrent to would-be steroid users, even if it hasn't shown many positive results.

Once Texas figures out whether or not the steroid-testing program is worthwhile, the state should contact the Pearl River County School District in Mississippi, as they're due to discuss the possibility of drug testing student-athletes next month, according to the Picayune Item.

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ESPN's J.A. Adande wrote a heart-warming piece on Friday night about New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul. He reached out to a 14-year-old high school basketball player who now shares a special bond with him.

Brad Rhodes, a freshman from New Hampshire, lost his 46-year-old mother in a snowmobile accident back on Feb. 27. Two days later, he made it his goal to score 46 points in his school's next basketball game—one point for every year his mom lived.

He scored his 46th point with two minutes left in the third quarter, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. When Brad scored on the three-pointer that gave him 46 for the game:

The officials stopped the game. Players on both teams started to clap. The crowd came to its collective feet and gave the kid and his dad a standing ovation. Brad hugged his teammates. More tears were shed.

How does this tie to Paul, the NBA All-Star? Back in Paul's high school years, his 61-year-old grandfather died the day after Paul signed his letter of intent to play at Wake Forest. In Paul's next game, he dropped 61 points—just like Brad, one for every year of his loved one's life.

Once Paul heard about Brad's tribute to his mother, he decided to fly Brad and his father down to New Orleans for Game 3 of the Hornets' playoff series against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. Paul gave Brad a signed pair of his own Jordan Brand shoes, his jersey, and let him dribble around on the court while both teams warmed up.

"We can't thank them enough for what they've done for us and my family here today," Frank Rhoades [Brad's father] said. "It's awesome."

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A poll released this week found that one-third of parents believe their children don't get enough physical activity in school.

The University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health asked parents of children ages 6 to 11 about their views on physical activity in schools. The survey found parents in near-unanimous agreement (94%) about the importance of physical activity for elementary-school students during the day, but it found that parents were more divided about whether or not students were receiving the appropriate amount of exercise at school.

Thirty-five percent of the surveyed parents felt that their children's elementary schools didn't dedicate enough time for gym class, 26 percent didn't think their children's schools had enough playground equipment, and 22 percent wanted to carve out more time for recess.

"Academic and budget pressures threaten schools' ability to provide outlets and opportunities for children's physical activity. Many parents are noticing that something is missing," said Sarah Clark, associate director of the poll and associate director of the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the University of Michigan Medical School, in a press release.

It's no secret that schools have been facing tough financial times, and, often, physical education and after-school sports are among the first things to be put on the chopping block. As the report says, "More recently, emphasis on academic achievement, coupled with budget cuts, has prompted many schools to cut back on both recess and gym class."

One key finding from the survey: Overweight and obese parents were more likely than in-shape parents to say their kids didn't have enough exercise in schools. While 31 percent of parents of normal weight wanted more time in gym class for their children, 39 percent of overweight parents wanted the same thing. Fourteen percent of normal weight parents wanted more recess time for their students, while 30 percent of overweight parents did.

"This is a new insight at the national level, indicating that parents with their own weight challenges are even more likely to see schools as a key partner in addressing the risks of obesity for their own kids," Clark said in the press release.

These findings regarding overweight parents are encouraging, considering that a recent study found overweight teens to be nearly seven times more at-risk for heart disease than normal-weight teens, regardless of their adult weight.

The poll, conducted by Knowledge Networks Inc., used a questionnaire administered to 718 parents with children age 6-11 (taken from a nationally selected sample) in January 2011. It had a 54 percent response rate. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 2 to 6 percentage points.

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A study released today suggests that a proposed 1-cent-per-ounce tax added to sodas and other sweetened drinks in California would raise $1.7 billion statewide every year, which would all go toward the creation of childhood-obesity-prevention programs.

The study, "Helping Cash-Strapped Communities Protect Children's Health," predicts that the proposed soda tax would raise $233 per student in California each year. The state board of equalization released the total $1.7 billion/year estimate two weeks ago.

The proposed tax bill would create a "Children's Health Promotion Fund," which would distribute all the tax revenues to four different types of youth-obesity-prevention programs. According to the bill, 35 percent of the soda taxes would be allocated to community-based childhood-obesity programs; 35 percent would go to elementary and secondary schools for physical education and programs that promote nutrition; 20 percent would go toward coordinating statewide childhood-obesity-prevention activities; and the remaining 10 percent would fund medically based obesity-prevention and -monitoring programs.

"The science linking sugary drinks to the obesity epidemic is rock solid," said study author Harold Goldstein, the executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, according to the Contra Costa Times. "It's time to make sure that the cost of these beverages includes the social cost of the harm they are doing." According to a 2007 study cited in Goldstein's report, Americans have increased their daily calorie intake by 222 calories per person over the past few decades, largely due to "calorically sweetened beverages."

As I reported last week, childhood obesity is particularly concerning because overweight teens are at a much higher risk of contracting heart disease, regardless of their adult weight.

How did the study arrive at the $233 per-student figure? California has a state constitutional amendment known as Proposition 98, which guarantees a certain percentage of all new state tax revenue goes to K-12 schools and community colleges (based on a complex formula). Goldstein's study assumed that 50 percent of the revenues from the soda tax—a total of $850 million—would go directly to classrooms to satisfy the Proposition 98 guarantee of funding. The remaining $850 million would be divided and distributed into the four percentages laid out above.

Overall, according to Goldstein's study, $850 million of the soda tax revenue would go directly into California classrooms, roughly $300 million would go toward the improvement of schools' physical education and healthy-lunch programs, and another roughly $300 million would go toward youth-sports and after-school programs. That's a total of approximately $1.45 billion—or 85 percent of the total soda tax revenue—heading directly into the budgets of schools and local community programs, distributed based on population. The other 15 percent of the tax revenues would fund statewide obesity prevention efforts and medically-based obesity prevention and intervention programs.

It's also important to note that while the bill is frequently referred to as a "soda tax," it actually targets all sweetened beverages that contain any added caloric sweeteners. So, not only is the bill after your Coke and Pepsi, it's also after any fruit or vegetable beverage containing 10 percent or less of natural-fruit or natural-vegetable juice as well. Coffee, tea, infant formula, and any product containing milk or milk products would not be taxed under this bill.

The California Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee will hear the proposed soda tax bill this coming Monday, April 25.

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If you ever wanted your very own authentic World Series championship ring, you can thank the San Francisco Giants for giving you a chance to win one.

The baseball team is raffling off a World Series ring to benefit the Giants Community Fund and the Celebrities for Charity Foundation. Fans have until 11:59 p.m. EDT on July 26 to purchase raffle tickets.

According to the raffle site, the Giants Community Fund "works to enrich the lives of underserved youth through the Junior Giants program and other community initiatives. Junior Giants is a free, non-competitive, co-ed baseball program for more than 17,000 youth ages 5-18." The Junior Giants site says the program provides at-risk kids with an alternative to drugs, gangs, and crime, and gives them a meaningful partnership with community-based organizations. Junior Giants also emphasizes development of players' character (confidence, integrity, leadership, and teamwork) more so than baseball fundamentals.

The winner of the raffle will have his or her last name engraved on the side of the ring and will receive the prize at a ceremony before the Aug. 27 Giants game against the Houston Astros. The team will pay for the airfare, hotel room, and game tickets for the winner and one guest, not to mention a cash prize of nearly $5,000 to cover the winner's tax liability. (The team will withhold the cash prize and pay it directly to the IRS and to the state of Massachusetts, although it's not clear why the taxes would go to Massachusetts.)

If this "auction-a-championship-ring-for-a-good-cause" movement sounds familiar, it's probably because Ron Artest auctioned off his 2010 NBA championship ring to benefit mental-health charities in December.

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With concussions in student-athletes only gaining more attention across the U.S., Schooled in Sports will occasionally be giving you quick-hit updates on some of the latest concussion news.

Leading off...In Pennsylvania: A former high school football player who still suffers from post-concussion symptoms sued his old school district this month, "alleging that his coach and trainer improperly sent him back into games after violent, damaging collisions," according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The student, Zachary Alt (now 19), alleges that he sustained two serious hits to his head during games on Oct. 12, 2007, and Nov. 2, 2007, but his coaches and training staff did not examine him. Then, on Nov. 9 of that year, Alt collided helmet-to-helmet with a player on the opposing team, leaving him "clearly disoriented," according to the legal complaint. Instead of being removed from the game, Alt alleges that his coach told him to face off against the opposing team's middle linebacker and "blow him up." Alt's lawyer, Robert Peirce III, told local Pittsburgh media that Alt's teammates knew something was wrong with Alt after that hit; one teammate of Alt's allegedly told the team trainer, "Zach isn't right. He is walking around like he is drunk."

After the game on Nov. 9, Alt was taken to a hospital and diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury. Since then, Alt has continued to struggle with memory lapses, has trouble processing information, and endures nausea and sleeping problems, his mother told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Alt's lawsuit also alleges that the head injuries caused him to miss much of the spring semester of the 2007-08 school year, yet he received nearly straight A's that year. The lawsuit claims that the district changed his grades and allowed him to graduate without actually trying to provide him with an education.

In North Dakota: Lawmakers approved a bill on Tuesday that would prevent student-athletes who display symptoms of a concussion from returning to competition until they've received medical clearance. The rules only apply to school sports, not all youth sports, although a provision in the bill suggests that N.D. lawmakers should study whether to extend the bill in 2013. The bill now heads to Gov. Jack Dalrymple for a signature.

In Minnesota: There's bipartisan support in the state legislature for a similar bill to North Dakota's, where student-athletes suspected of having a concussion would be pulled from competition and wouldn't be allowed to return until obtaining medical clearance, the St. Paul Pioneer Press recently reported. Unlike North Dakota's bill, Minnesota's legislation would extend to many community and independent leagues.

The "poster child" of the Minnesota bill is Kayla Mayer, a freshman whose hockey career was cut short after she was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury. According to the Pioneer Press, Kayla and her doctors believe that she suffered a concussion while playing hockey in 2009, continued playing for 10 days because she and her coaches were unaware of the symptoms, then suffered another head injury in practice after being knocked down and hitting her head against the ice. During testimony in front of the state legislature, Kayla said that ever since the injury, she has a headache "every second of every minute of every hour of every day."

In Missouri: The Missouri House passed legislation last week requiring student-athletes to be removed from competition if they display signs of a concussion or brain injury. Like the other states, Missouri student-athletes would need clearance from a medical professional before returning to practice or games.

What's different about Missouri's legislation: The medical professional may be a volunteer, and volunteers who authorize student-athletes' return to play won't be liable for "civil damages resulting from any act or omission in the rendering of such care" (other than gross negligence). Opponents to the bill cite this clause as troubling, saying there's less incentive for medical professionals to make good decisions, according to the Associated Press.

In Texas: The state House of Representatives passed a bill on April 5 that would ban school districts from using football helmets that are 16 years old or older. The districts would also be required to recondition helmets that are 10 years or older at least once every two years, under the legislation. The bill is now under consideration in the state senate.

And finally, in Illinois: The Illinois High School Association adopted new concussion guidelines for student-athletes on Tuesday. The old policy required student-athletes suspected of concussions to obtain medical clearance if they attempted to return to play on the same day they sustained the concussion, but included no language about the days after. Now, under the new guidelines, if a student-athlete who suffers a possible head injury isn't medically cleared to return to play on the same day he/she is removed from a game, the student-athlete must obtain medical clearance before returning to competition.

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With social media—most notably Twitter and Facebook—only growing more pervasive with the under-25 crowd, many schools will likely be confronting a sticky situation regarding student-athlete social-media usage in the near future.

As The News & Observer reported last month, schools around North Carolina are grappling with that very question: Should schools restrict student-athletes' social-media access?

According to writer Tim Stevens, "Legal experts say school systems probably have the authority to discipline students for public posts, but there have been few rulings around the country that would set a clear precedent."

Most schools' student-athlete codes of conduct don't extend to cover online speech. For example: Despite the fact that the Wake County board of education banned vulgar and obscene language for student-athletes, the conduct policy for Wake schools doesn't specifically address social-media policies, according to Stevens.

The News & Observer article spoke directly of the difficulties that schools face when hoping to restrict student-athletes' access to social media:

The authority of school officials to discipline athletes—and other students—for things posted on social media sites pits the schools' ability to maintain discipline and regulate the people representing schools against students' freedom of expression.

"Because social media is so new, the law is scrambling to keep up. It is especially true in law dealing with social media and technology in general," said [Barbra] Osborne, a UNC-Chapel Hill associate professor who teaches a course on legal aspects of sports.

Courts have ruled that schools can restrict uncontrolled speech that could disrupt the school and its education mission.

Blocking student-athletes' social-media access wouldn't be unprecedented at this point, especially at the collegiate level. Villanova University reportedly banned its' male basketball players from Twitter this past season, as did the University of Miami with its football team. A January 2011 editorial in Georgetown University's student paper, The Hoya, also proposed implementing a Twitter ban on the men's basketball team, suggesting "it is in the best interest of the program and would help to keep players' minds on things that matter."

What's the solution? Whether schools decide to ban their student-athletes from posting on social-media sites, all schools have a responsibility to teach students about responsible social-media usage and digital citizenship. Having graduated from high school right when the Facebook craze was kicking off among college students (remember, it was only limited to college students in its early days), I can safely say I never received a single lesson about maintaining a respectable online persona.

And in a world that's only becoming more social media-inclined, that's a huge problem for schools. Over 7.5 million students participated in U.S. high school sports in 2009-10, according to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations. With only roughly 400,000 of those high school student-athletes continuing their athletic careers at the collegiate level, those other 7 million high school student-athletes would be once again free to use social media as they please once they graduate. What happens to those student-athletes when they haven't learned and practiced responsible social media use, however?

Back in 2007, MSNBC.com covered the growing number of job applicants being rejected due to content on their Facebook pages (according to one survey from 2007, 35 percent looked up candidates on Google and 23 percent scoped out their social networking profiles). Now, according to a recent poll by career site ExecuNet, 77 percent of hiring managers now use social media to examine job applicants.

As Stevens touched upon in the News & Observer article, many social media posts from high school student-athletes "cannot be printed in a family newspaper." Schools may worry about what the student-athlete posts on his/her social media account during the season, but when those student-athletes eventually apply for jobs, a hiring manager won't disregard an explicit post on Twitter or Facebook because it occurred during a student-athlete's offseason. Hiring managers won't care when it was posted—they'll care that it was posted at all.

If schools don't teach student-athletes how to responsibly use the vast number of social -media tools at their fingertips, the schools could ultimately be doing them a huge disservice by banning them from Facebook and Twitter. Because once they're done with their season and/or graduate, those same student-athletes will flock back to social-media, whether or not they know how to maintain a positive digital persona.

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Colorado passed the nation's most-sweeping youth concussion law two weeks ago, inspired by Jake Snakenberg, a high school football player who died from Second Impact Syndrome.

As sportsconcussions.org recently reported, naming the concussion law in Snakenberg's honor was only one of the ways that his tragic death ultimately shaped a concussion-fighting community.

Snakenberg, a freshman fullback, had been hit hard during a game a week before his death. He was back on the football field on Sept. 18, 2004, when he was hit again—twice. He collapsed after the second hit and died the following day.

After his death, Dr. Karen McAvoy, then the school psychologist at his school, Grandview High, brought together medical professionals, teachers, counselors, coaches, and athletic trainers to create a team dedicated to future concussion management at the school.

Dr. McAvoy also created the REAP (Reduce, Educate, Accommodate, Pace) program, a community-based model for concussion management. REAP was inspired by a 2004 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study which found that effective concussion management depended upon education and collaboration between school officials, athletic trainers, coaches, parents, and students. (The CDC has continued to recommend collaboration among school staff as a key tool for concussion management.)

As Dr. McAvoy told sportsconcussions.org:

"REAP was not a scientific design piloted in a high school. It was a labor of love that blossomed out of necessity and in reaction to a tragedy. This humble beginning proves that REAP does not take money to implement, it takes heart. ... I would like to say that we carefully designed the template of REAP, but the reality is that after Jake died, we pulled together, and this act naturally morphed into the creation of the multi-disciplinary team.

"The athletic trainer, the nurse, and myself, as the school psychologist, consulted on each and every concussion from that point forward. We found that teachers eventually learned how to help. Parents began to spread the word to other parents in the neighborhood—and parents of non-athletes demanded the same coordination and collaboration for their child who may have suffered a concussion in a motor vehicle accident or a snowboarding accident."

REAP also includes a five-step Graduated Return-to-Play model, based on recommendations from the 2008 Zurich Consensus Statement on Concussion in Sport. Once a student-athlete is 100 percent symptom-free for 24 hours, he or she would be allowed to begin light aerobic activity. The student-athlete would have to stay symptom-free for 24 hours to move between each of the remaining four steps: sport-specific exercise, non-contact training drills, full-contact practice, and finally, return to play. (The New York State Public High School Athletic Association also recommended this five-step graduated return process.

Today, Dr. McAvoy is the director of the Center for Concussion at the Rocky Mountain Youth Sports Medicine Institute. She's intent on spreading the message of REAP to other school districts—namely, the premise that concussions are best managed by a multi-disciplinary team that includes the student-athlete, his or her family, school officials, and medical professionals.

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A 16-year-old female soccer player won't be playing for her high school soccer team in North Carolina for fear of being held back by what she considers to be inferior competition, according to Yahoo! Sports' "Prep Rally" blog.

Let's add some context: The girl, Indi Cowie, was recently profiled in the New York Times for her prolific freestyle soccer skills (the art of performing tricks with a soccer ball). Dan Magness, who holds a freestyle soccer Guinness World Record, told the Times that Cowie is "the most advanced female freestyler in the world." (Again, she's 16.)

Those prolific soccer skills allowed her to once score all seven goals in a co-ed game when she was 10. But, because she's so advanced, she's decided to train with a boys' club soccer team instead of playing with her high school's girls' soccer team.

As Prep Rally reported:

For Cowie, the impetus to ignore high school soccer comes not only from the lack of competition she gets from other girls, but also from the insistence placed on playing the game in a cooperative, American way. Cowie often sees no need to pass or incorporate other teammates because she's simply better than them, and all the girls she plays against. Usually, she's right.

It's tough to take sides in Cowie's situation. On the one hand, if she's talented enough to score at will, that's only going to help her team win games. Then again, aren't youth sports meant to teach young athletes the values of sport, especially teamwork? The Times article described an incident from when Cowie was 10, when a coach benched her for not passing the ball to a teammate, despite the fact that Cowie beat three girls to score a goal. While Cowie cites the story as an example of why she prefers freestyle to regular soccer ("I don't have any teammates to worry about," she told the Times), who can fault her coach for trying to instill the values of cooperation and selflessness in her game?

A girls' soccer coach e-mailed the Varsity Kansas blog in response to the story about Cowie recently, explaining why high school and club sports can and should work in tandem, especially for elite athletes.

Early on, they (as freshman), are able to play with girls that are 3-4 years their senior. Some of these players are better and some aren't, but the fact that they are girls playing against young women says something. Physically, they are definitely out-sized most of the time. One of the most important aspects of the high school game is that they (the elite player) have to develop into a more independent player.

Finally, and probably most important, the high school season is a grind! We play 17 games in a little over 2 months. At times we play three games a week and practice every day in between. It is an exhausting season. It challenges these girls (like college ball will) to prepare their bodies so that they are mentally and physically ready for an intense 3 month period with no breaks.

Luckily for Cowie, she'll be headed to college at the University of North Carolina—also known as Mia Hamm's alma mater. The UNC Tar Heels have won 20 of the 29 women's soccer national championships (according to NCAA.com), and UNC girls' soccer coach Anson Dorrance "is known to celebrate selfishness in his players," according to the Times.

Check out some of Cowie's freestyle tricks below:

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For those who believe the youth-obesity epidemic won't have long-term implications, think again.

A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that overweight teens were nearly seven times more likely than in-shape teens to get heart disease in their mid-30s, regardless of their adult weight, according to Health.com.

The study found that "an elevated BMI [body mass index] in adolescence—one that is well within the range currently considered to be normal—constitutes a substantial risk factor for obesity-related disorders in midlife." BMI is a rough estimate of body fat based on height and weight (see a BMI calculator here), and a normal BMI falls between 18.5 and 24.9. (This blog author appears to be in the danger zone, with a BMI of 23.7.)

Worse yet, damage done to the arteries, which often characterizes heart disease, is "gradual and difficult to reverse, even with weight loss," according to the study.

On the bright side, adolescent obesity didn't appear to be nearly as predictive for type 2 diabetes as it is for heart disease. The study found the risk of diabetes to be linked to increased BMI close to the time of diagnosis, meaning that obese adolescents can decrease their chance of developing the disease by improving their diet and exercising as they enter adulthood. That said, the study does find elevated adolescent BMI to be a predictor of diabetes as well.

Daniel Marks, M.D., told Health.com that being overweight isn't the sole cause for heart disease or diabetes—nutrition and exercise have a "much greater impact." Marks called BMI a "proxy marker for poor lifestyle choices," adding that two people with similar BMIs could have very different risk levels if one exercised regularly and one didn't.

The study followed more than 37,000 "apparently healthy" Israeli soldiers who were drafted at age 17, and tracked their height and weight in regular intervals for roughly 17 years.

Given these findings—that nutrition and exercise have a much greater impact on the risks of diabetes and heart disease—schools might want to think twice before cutting phys. ed., sports, and recess, wouldn't you think?

A group called Raise Your Hand is trying to persuade the Chicago district to do exactly that. Last week, Raise Your Hand gathered representatives from 35 Chicago elementary schools to urge them to reinstate recess in their schools, according to the Chicago Tribune. The group cited concerns about a lack of recess and physical activity contributing to childhood obesity.

Hawaiian health officials also launched a program targeting childhood obesity this week, recommending that children get the following on a daily basis: five fruits, roots, and vegetables; two hours or less of TV or computer time; at least an hour of physical activity, and zero or almost no sugary drinks.

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A youth-football coach in San Diego set an example of exactly what not to do for youth coaches locked in recruiting battles.

"A youth football coach was arrested after a confrontation with a parent—apparently stemming from a dispute over recruitment of a top player—in which the parent was kicked and punched, then knocked unconscious when he tripped and hit the ground, police said."

The confrontation began after [the coach] reportedly thought he overheard [the parent] trying to recruit one of his best players, Police Lt. Dan Christman told the San Diego Union Tribune.

Keep in mind, the two men were dealing with 9-, 10-, and 11-year-old athletes.

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What does it take for a district to change its "mercy rule" for youth baseball teams? Two high school baseball teams in Texas found out the answer the hard way.

Lake Highlands High School blew out Dallas Samuell High School by more than 50 runs back on March 8, bringing back memories of the 100-0 girls' basketball game between two Texas schools in 2009.

Except, according to accounts from people at the game, Lake Highlands coach Jay Higgins quickly called off his horses after jumping out to an early lead. He pulled his starters, let his reserves play, and told his hitters not to move more than one base on a given play.

But, as Higgins told the Dallas Morning News after the game, his hands were tied by the rulebooks.

"We did everything possible," Higgins said. "The national federation, which is the rule book we go by, says you have to play five innings before the game is considered official. That's what I was worried about—if you stop after three innings and somebody comes back and says, 'Well, you guys didn't play an official game.' "

Texas baseball coaches have a mercy rule in place that ends any game when a team is up by 10 or more runs after five innings; however, Lake Highlands' blowout began long before the fifth inning. Since the game, the Richardson Independent School District modified its mercy rule to say that games can now be ended if there's a 15-run margin after three innings, according to the Associated Press.

Mark Cousins, interim athletic director for the University Interscholastic League (which oversees public high school sports in Texas), told the AP there's a provision in the National Federation of Baseball Rule Book that allows for a game to be called early if both coaches and the umpire agree. However, Cousins said that the rule had "not ever been used to [his] knowledge."

Be sure to read the AP's entire story about this, if for no other reason than to see how the parents and players of both teams handled the situation with grace and dignity. (Lake Highlands parents began cheering for the Samuell players once it became obvious that the rout was on.)

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Remember those Nike commercials from a few years back, where LeBron James would pull a "Nutty Professor" and play four different sides of himself? Well, Business LeBron, Wise LeBron, Kid LeBron, and Athlete LeBron have officially been revived—in cartoon form, at least.

James debuted his new Web miniseries 'The LeBrons' this week, where the four sides of LeBron will provide positive messages to youngsters in a 10-episode arc. The New York Times called the miniseries "a latter-day 'Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.' "

"I'm mostly a kid at heart," James told the Times back in January, "and I'm the athlete, of course, that everyone sees. But I also have a business side, a cool side, and I love antique stuff and classical music. I guess that's the old man side of me."

Dan Goodman and Bill Masterson, who helped create and finance the show, believe that James' expansive presence on social media will help get the show's messages out (the basketball star's Facebook account has more than 5.7 million fans and his Twitter account has in excess of 1.5 million followers). James is also showing "The LeBrons" on his personal website, lebronjames.com.

James' popularity has been attractive to advertisers, as HP and Intel are both signed on as the show's main sponsors. But both of the show's financers stressed in various interviews that the show's content and messages ultimately shine through the various brand placement throughout each episode.

"The number-one thing is content," Masterson told Mashable earlier this week. "If consumers think it's just one big commercial, then that wouldn't be effective [for the show]. The brands don't want that either."

"I think we just have to strike a balance," Goodman told the Times. "[In] that first episode, there happen to be a couple close-ups, but I think that if you watch the content, the general takeaway is content and not brand marketing."

A portion of the proceeds from the show will be used to purchase computers for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, an organization that James has long supported. James' "The Decision" special on ESPN last summer raised more than $3 million for the Boys & Girls Club.

Here's the first episode:

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Did you know? Today, April 6, is National Student-Athlete Day across the United States. (It's also the 115th anniversary of the first modern Olympic games, according to the History Channel website.)

The National Consortium for Academics and Sports and Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society created National Student-Athlete Day in 1987 to recognize and celebrate the academic and athletic achievements of high school and college student-athletes nationwide. To be recognized, a student-athlete must have a minimum 3.0 GPA, and must be involved in some sort of community outreach or community service. Both the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations have since aligned themselves with the student-athlete-themed day (the NCAA's involvement began in 1994).

The National Consortium for Academics and Sports developed the Giant Steps Awards in conjunction with National Student-Athlete Day for "student-athletes, professional athletes, athletics administrators, civic leaders, coaches, parents, organizations, and other individuals who exemplify the ideals of balancing academics, athletics, life pursuits, and giving back to the community through the spirit of athletics." The NCAA provides colleges and universities with nomination forms for the Giant Steps Awards, and encourages its member schools to recognize the achievements of exemplary student-athletes on April 6.

This year, the Giant Steps Awards winners are as follows: Angelica Mealing, Courageous Student-Athlete, University of Central Florida; Nate Winters, Courageous Student-Athlete, Winter Park High School (Winter Park, FL); Chris Creighton, Coach, Drake University; Jeremy Bloom, Civic Leader; and Leroy Walker, Barrier Breaker.

So, how should schools celebrate their student-athletes on this day? The NCAS offers planning recommendations (such as luncheons, game-day celebrations, and proclamations from a city mayor or state governor) and publicity ideas for schools on its website.

The NCAA also offers a few specific suggestions/examples on its website:

College and university Student-Athlete Advisory Committees (SAACs) have created a variety of programs for National Student-Athlete Day. Some SAACs do community outreach by visiting patients at local hospitals, while other SAACs speak to elementary or middle school students about the importance of education. Some SAACs have hosted luncheons to recognize the accomplishments of their peers, while other SAACs have hosted interactive assemblies at their campuses for local students.

How many of you out there are taking the NCAS's advice and celebrating your student-athletes today?

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Anyone who's been following this blog on a semi-regular basis knows that student-athlete safety has been one of the biggest focuses here, especially when it comes to head injuries and concussions. Fourteen states now have youth concussion laws on the books (according to sportsconcussions.org), and many more have legislation pending.

The National Athletic Trainers' Association, however, believes that states aren't moving quickly enough to get student-athlete safety bills turned into laws.

According to the organization, 75 bills regarding young athlete safety have been introduced in state legislatures this year, yet only five have become law. (Many more are still pending—only two of the 75 safety bills had actually been killed as of March 31.) Because of that, NATA released a statement last week encouraging states to pass pending safety legislation, in spite of state budget concerns.

"It is disappointing that so much legislation been introduced, yet so little has been passed," said NATA President Marjorie J. Albohm, a certified athletic trainer. "What makes this even more concerning is that state budgets are in crisis, so legislators are cutting programs that keep kids safe. In many cases athletic trainer positions are at risk of being terminated—eliminating the very people who protect and provide medical services to physically active children. And, we know that many of the current bills are specific to concussion and that there are other health conditions including sudden cardiac arrest and heat illness that require legislative attention."

As it turns out, Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Press wrote an article this week touching on the last topic Albohm brought up: whether or not schools should give EKG tests to all student-athletes. The inspiration of the article, in part, was Wes Leonard, a 16-year-old basketball player from Michigan who died of a heart attack on the court last month. As Neergaard wrote, the goal of routine EKGs would be "to find those at risk because of underlying heart conditions before strenuous exertion triggers trouble."

Neergaard cited a new study from University of Washington researchers which found that one in every 44,000 NCAA student-athletes suffers a heart-related death every year. But, as Neergaard points out, mandating the $25 to $100 EKGs for millions of student-athletes simply isn't feasible in this economic climate, especially due to a recent study that found 16 percent of routine EKGs result in false positives.

What's a school to do? Neergaard provided one suggestion that University of Georgia Director of Sports Medicine Ron Courson called "the most important thing":

The American Heart Association recommends a thorough physical exam and detailed family and personal medical history for every athlete, but not an automatic EKG. The idea is to look for red flags—like fainting episodes, a heart murmur or whether a relative died young of a heart problem—that would prompt the doctor to order further cardiac testing.

There's no doubt that a detailed medical history for all student-athletes should be schools' logical, low-cost first step. And as Albohm said in the NATA press release, schools with athletic trainer positions on the chopping block due to budgetary concerns should try to preserve them at all costs—after all, ensuring student-athlete safety should be schools' highest priority in athletics.

Time will tell whether states pass the 60+ safety bills for young athletes that are currently pending, many of which are related to brain injuries. At this point, though, there's little reason for states to delay action on youth concussion legislation, given the wave of support for these types of bills across the United States in the past year.

And barring exorbitant costs, lawmakers should be doing their part to ensure that other safety measures for student-athletes aren't far behind.

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

As the NHL continues discussing its rising concussion epidemic, one former NHL player has changed his tune about the necessity of increasing player-safety measures.

"Mad" Mike Milbury, the 12-year veteran of the Boston Bruins who gained notoriety for once beating a fan with his own shoe, recently expressed his concern about head injuries for hockey players of all ages. In other words, this turnaround was about as unlikely as Ron Artest becoming the NBA's de-facto mental-health spokesman. (And in the spirit of full disclosure, Milbury is the father-in-law of a former EdWeek employee.)

"I have 11- and 12-year-old boys," Milbury said last month, according to The Globe and Mail. "Even at that level they're going at each other. I see some of the kids go underground when they play because they don't want to get wasted. At that age, their heads and necks are not developed. They're more susceptible to concussions and the after-effects, and, duh, does it take more than that? They should take hitting out till kids are in bantam."

To the NHL's credit, the league did enact new concussion policies in mid-March, requiring teams to take any players suspected of having a concussion to a quiet place for examination. Before the new rules, teams would have doctors examine players with potential concussions in their bench area.

But, as Pittsburgh Penguins General Manager Ray Shero told NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen, the new concussion policy still has room for improvement. Shero told Rosen that his teenage son suffered a concussion playing hockey recently, and didn't display symptoms until days later.

"Sometimes you get hit and you are ready to go," Nashville Predators GM David Poile said to NHL.com. "Sometimes symptoms don't come for a long time. A lot of times symptoms might not be there until after 15 minutes. But once again, it's an effort to take care for the player and try to put him in an environment that is safe and do the right thing. We're not going to be 100 percent when we do these things, but I think it's a big step to help."

With more than a dozen U.S. states now having youth-concussion laws on the books, and three of the four major U.S. professional sports organizations (MLB, NFL, and NHL) sinking their teeth into concussion safety issues, one can hope it's only a matter of time before all sports groups adopt new policies regarding concussions and head injuries.

"People have to understand that it's not succumbing to something different," said Keith Primeau, who retired from hockey in 2006 because of concussions, to The Globe and Mail. "It's not to be feared. I understand that now."

Besides, remember what the potential alternative is: a whole slew of athletes suffering from tragic deaths brought on by head injuries, concussions, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

One other famous sports figure who's gotten the message on concussions: John Madden. The NFL legend, whose Madden football games have sold nearly 100 million copies worldwide in 22 years, announced that all future Madden games will not display helmet-to-helmet tackles or "dangerous headfirst tackling," according to The New York Times. Furthermore, any player who suffers a concussion in Madden 2012 will not be allowed to return to the field during that game. (In previous versions, concussed players could return to the field the quarter after sustaining a concussion.)

"Concussions are such a big thing, it has to be a big thing in the video game," Madden said in a telephone interview with the Times. "It starts with young kids—they start in video games. I think the osmosis is if you get a concussion, that's a serious thing, and you shouldn't play. Or leading with the head that you want to eliminate. We want that message to be strong."

Phil Frazier, executive producer of Madden 12, called the game "a means to educate" and "a teaching tool."

Chris Nowinski, co-director of the Sports Legacy Institute, threw his support behind the move when contacted by the newspaper: "Considering how hard it is to reach young kids and expose them early, this is brilliant. You're training kids from the cradle to play sports more safely. If you get a concussion, come out of the game. You can't unteach that."

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

So ... it turns out that I owe ProPublica and the Butler University Bulldogs an apology.

A few weeks back, I wrote about ProPublica's academics-based NCAA bracket, where it predicted an NCAA tournament champion based on whose student-athletes were most successful academically. ProPublica's bracket had Butler, with an Academic Progress Rate of 1000, winning the entire tournament. (It referred to Butler as "a somewhat unlikely champion.")

"Somewhat unlikely" didn't even begin to describe Butler's would-be run to the title back in mid-March. The eighth-seeded Bulldogs were fighting to become just the second team in NCAA history to make the national championship game as an 8-seed (Villanova won the tournament in 1985 as an 8-seed), and had a date with the top-seeded Pittsburgh Panthers just to get to the Sweet 16. Meanwhile, Butler's best player from its magical run last season, Gordon Hayward, is busy making an NBA career for himself out with the Utah Jazz.

So, naturally, I included a hint of skepticism in my post addressing Butler's championship chances, seeing as academics would have no influence on teams in the real NCAA tournament.

And, naturally, I've been served a massive helping of humble pie, as Butler managed to make ProPublica's champion choice look retroactively prophetic.

As someone who didn't accurately predict a single Final Four team this year, allow me to express my sincerest apologies for doubting Butler's chances. The Bulldogs' ridiculous run this year is a welcome reminder that there's no limit to the beautiful chaos that unfolds every year during the NCAA tournament.

In case you were wondering, the other school contending for the national championship tonight, the University of Connecticut, posted an APR of 930. UConn graduates 25 percent of its African-American basketball players, 50 percent of its white basketball players, and 31 percent of its overall basketball players. (Contrast that with Butler, which graduates 50 percent of its African-American basketball players, 100 percent of its white basketball players, and 83 percent of its overall basketball players.)

So, if your rooting interests for tonight's game are still undecided ... it's simply academic to root for Butler.

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Colorado's governor signed the nation's most sweeping youth-concussion law this week, requiring coaches to bench players as young as 11 when they're suspected of having a concussion. (See my previous coverage of the bill here.)

The new law, known as either SB 40 or the Jake Snakenberg Act, also requires annual concussion-recognition training for volunteer Little League and Pop Warner coaches, along with coaches in public and private schools. The concussion training will be made available to all coaches online for free.

This is where the Colorado law begins to differentiate itself from other states' youth-concussion measures. Most states only limit their concussion rules to school sports, but Colorado also includes all volunteer coaches for youth athletic activities.

That's not all: When a student-athlete is removed from a game because of a suspected concussion, the coach must contact the student's parents and cannot permit the student to return to any supervised team activities involving physical exertion until receiving clearance from a doctor. Once a doctor clears a student-athlete to return to competition, "a registered athletic trainer with specific knowledge of the athlete's condition" will manage the student-athlete's "graduated return to play."

It's that last part that may truly pave the way for the future of youth-concussion policies, as I alluded to in a previous post about new concussion legislation in New York state. The New York State Public High School Athletic Association recommended a five-day weaning period to return concussed athletes back to competition after they've received a doctor's clearance, yet the proposed New York legislation does not include this condition.

Snakenberg, the namesake of the Colorado law, was a freshman football player who died in 2004 from second-impact syndrome, which can occur when someone sustains a second concussion before fully healing from the first. While requiring student-athletes to obtain a doctor's clearance theoretically prevents all future risk of second-impact syndrome, gradually returning the concussed student-athletes back to the playing field after they've been cleared by doctors would only help keep them safer.

The new Colorado law takes effect Jan. 1, 2012.

In other concussion news: South Dakota's governor also recently signed concussion legislation into law, although it's nowhere near as strict as Colorado's new law. The South Dakota law has all the basics: Concussed student-athletes can't return to competition until receiving doctor's clearance; student-athletes and parents must sign a "concussion information form" before participating in sports; and any coach participating in South Dakota High School Activities Association-sanctioned activities must take an annual concussion-training course online.

And Major League Baseball joined the trend of professional athletic organizations enacting stricter concussion rules, as it announced the creation of a new seven-day disabled list for concussed MLB players. (Remember, the NFL has encouraged all 50 states to pass youth-concussion legislation.)

According to the joint statement from the MLB and its players' union, the new concussion policy includes four key components: 1) mandatory baseline neuropsychological testing for players and umpires during spring training (or when a player is added to a team); 2) protocols for evaluating players and umpires suspected of a concussion, especially during high-risk scenarios such as a player being hit in the head with a pitch; 3) the new seven-day disabled list being created; and 4) protocols for clearing players and umpires before having them return to competition.

Under the new rules, each team must now designate a "mild traumatic brain injury" specialist in its home city, and must submit a "return to play" form to Dr. Gary Green, the MLB's medical director, regardless of whether the player in question was placed on the DL.

How does this affect school-aged baseball players? Well, it doesn't—yet. But the MLB established a new concussion-treatment precedent with these rules, which schools can now point back to when developing their own policies.

As Dr. Robert Cantu of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy once told NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, the NCAA and high schools will likely follow the lead of professional sports organizations, especially in terms of player safety.

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