IHSA concussion rule should only be start

Updated: April 26, 2011 7:48PM

Finally, after much debate and too much delay, the Illinois High School Association is getting serious about head injuries.

A medical professional will make the call on when someone is allowed to return to practice and play.

To the uninitiated on the topic, that probably seems to be the minimum that should be done. And it is.

However, the IHSA had no policy on concussions until this school year. None.

The IHSA’s policy on eligibility goes on forever. That includes rules prohibiting athletes from participating in non-IHSA contests during a season — which is why Lukas Verzbicas, the best high school distance runner in the country and beating the world as an amateur — can’t run track for Sandburg this year.

But guidelines regarding the health of injured athletes? Well, not so fast. The IHSA, around since 1900, had no rules and barely had guidelines. You could play unless a bone was sticking out of your leg and your mother had fainted in the bleachers.

Thankfully, individual schools were more sensible, especially when it came to football, with a trainer and doctor on hand for games.

The concussion rule implemented by the IHSA for 2010-11 was implemented because the national high school federation came up with it. It was as bare-bones as possible, stating someone with concussion symptoms couldn’t return to the game until cleared by “an appropriate health care professional.”

That only applied to game day. If someone got concussed in a Friday night football game and was benched for the remainder, he was technically clear to play or practice — and to get another concussion — at midnight.

But it was a start, and the IHSA’s Sports Medicine Committee revved up to create a policy with some teeth. It will keep athletes inactive until cleared by a doctor or a certified athletic trainer working with a doctor, no matter how long it takes. This is what virtually all area schools do now, but many throughout the state, especially in smaller communities, do not.

Now they will have to, which is great news. The greatest danger to concussed teens is a second concussion before the first concussion completely heals.

“High schools with athletic trainers have been doing this for years,” said Joe Cunnane, Lockport’s certified athletic trainer and a national leader in implementing concussion testing. “It forces other schools to become more responsible. It’s definitely a step in the right direction.”

What the IHSA must do next is take another step: Mandate the implementation of baseline testing programs, such as the ImPACT program used by many schools, colleges and professional teams now, across the board. Every school. Every sport. Every kid.

To do anything else is to continue to pay lip service to the concept of safety and injury prevention.

The cost remains a bargain. It’s $500 for the software and baseline tests on 300 athletes, plus 45 post-injury tests the first year.

As we’ve noted before, that’s $1.67 per kid. It’s even less for a larger school that buys the $750 or $1,000 package. For the latter, $1 per kid.

And we’ve noted this as well: “We’ve never been an association to mandate a program, even if it would cost $10 a player,” Kurt Gibson, the IHSA’s official who oversees the Sports Medicine Committee, composed largely of medical professionals, told us last year.

That stance must change. Such a mandate, which would create a file of symptom-free tests to be used for comparison when a player is concussed, has to be the IHSA’s next step.

There has been no better way yet created to determine when a player is really ready to play.

The wording of the policy might also be clarified to ensure no return to the same game for a potentially concussed player, no matter what. The IHSA found 24 percent of players with possible concussions were allowed to return to the same game. Knowing it takes days to heal even a mild brain injury, the committee was “surprised” by the percentage.

You just know that some players who returned to play weren’t ready to return, but fooled their coach or trainer or doctor somehow. Kids can do that.

Here’s what Dave Bolland, the Blackhawks forward who missed a month of play because of a concussion, said after his return in Game 4 of the playoff series with Vancouver: “ I knew I was ready once I did the test and the doctor said I was OK. You never want to get in too quick with these things, because you never know what’s going to happen.”

If a player eager to chase hockey’s greatest prize is careful about returning, shouldn’t coaches and all others associated with high school athletics be equally reticent?

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