Concussion bill details knocked out

Players would need clearance to return to field

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011

House Economic Matters Committee Chairman Dereck E. Davis was watching a practice last summer of the 75-pound Marlboro Mustangs youth football team that he helps coach when he had an epiphany shared by others around the country.

Thanks in large part to the National Football League's highly publicized campaign to boost awareness of concussions and their risks, several states, Maryland among them, have or are considering implementing concussion programs for youth sports leagues.

Davis (D-Prince George's), of Upper Marlboro, remembers how when he was a young player concussions often were referred to as "getting your bell rung" and would go untreated. But public awareness has risen mightily in recent years, as NFL fans have become accustomed to seeing their favorite players, per league policy, sit out of games with post-concussion symptoms.

There are 3.9 million sports- and recreation-related concussions in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I know how serious concussions are, as does everybody," Davis said. "We just want to protect our young people."

Toward that end, Davis is sponsoring a bill requiring that youth athletes suspected of suffering a concussion during a game or practice be removed and barred from returning until they are cleared by a physician.

Davis modeled his bill after a 2009 Washington state law named after a 13-year-old football player who lapsed into a coma for months after continuing to play in a game in which he suffered a concussion.

The bill would require each youth athlete and their parents to sign a form detailing concussion risks and the new guidelines before participating in a sport. It also would grant legal immunity to physicians who approve an athlete for competition.

But the bill requires the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association and county education boards to implement the program, which could pose a logistical problem, MPSSAA Executive Director Ned Sparks said.

Overseeing the guidelines for the state's public schools is not an issue — the MPSSAA adopted similar provisions last summer, including a nearly identical remove-and-return policy. But managing the program for the hundreds of private school, recreation, club and amateur leagues across the state would overburden the association and school systems, said Sparks, who agrees with the intent of the bill but believes some aspects need to be reworked.

"The devil is in the details," he said. "We're doing about everything in the bill to start with." The MPSSAA also began requiring coaches to take concussion training before the 2010-2011 school year and has placed concussion information on its website.

School athletics officials are confused about whether the bill would require them to administer concussion training to recreation leagues or if leagues would run their own programs and simply report back to the school system, said Kevin Hook, supervisor of transportation and athletics for Calvert County Public Schools.

"We're kind of in a holding pattern until someone gives us more guidance," Hook said. "As far as concussions go, the MPSSAA has actually been ahead of the curve."

All Calvert County school coaches have completed a free online concussion training course provided by the National Federation of State High School Associations, and following its first concussion awareness week last fall, CCPS is planning to stage a second this spring, Hook said.

Hook did not know how many student-athletes suffered concussions at Calvert schools last year, but said there were "quite a few. People don't realize it." Football players suffer the most concussions, but girls soccer players are not far behind in the rankings, he added.

While worried about the bill's specifics, athletic directors favor its purpose.

"The intent we're all for, absolutely," Hook said. "Just give us some kind of, ‘hey, here is what you've got to do.'"

Though the Calvert County Department of Parks and Recreation does not have a specific concussions policy for its youth sports programs, the certification, which all of its coaches must complete, does review concussions and recommends that athletes be removed from play and go to the emergency room if they suffer one, Sports Coordinator Phil D'Agostino said. The department keeps record of all accidents in its youth leagues but received no reports of concussions last year, he added.

D'Agostino agreed with Sparks and Hook that it would be better for recreation leagues to oversee their own concussion programs.

"The schools virtually have nothing to do with our sports programs right now," D'Agostino said, adding that the department sometimes seeks advice from Hook, school administrators and athletic directors. "But I think it would be a lot better for us if we handled our own program in-house. That way we could keep a better tab on things."

Davis said his bill is far from a finished product — he is working on it with Dels. Sheila E. Hixson (D-Montgomery) of Silver Spring and Del. Jeffrey D. Waldstreicher (D-Montgomery) of Kensington.

But he hopes it is more successful than an unrelated concussion bill that passed the Senate unanimously last session before dying in the House when supporters ran out of time to tighten some of its language, said Julia Worcester, a lobbyist for the Maryland Athletic Trainers Association and Maryland Psychological Association, which both jumped on board in support after the legislation was proposed by the Brain Injury Association of Maryland.

Although many states are considering concussion-related laws, Maryland could be among the first to pass legislation, Worcester said.

"We're so thrilled that Chairman Davis has made this a special interest for himself," she said. "We're all really looking forward to working together."

jnewman@somdnews.com