Athletic Trainers Key to Concussion Education and Safety

The Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors will meet March 22-23 in Rocky  Hill.  Among the tenets of the organization's mission statement is a commitment to "disseminate appropriate and pertinent information on national and state athletic issues specific to the administration of high school athletics."   Among the speakers will be former NFL official Jim Tunney, who spent three decades in the NFL, working four Super Bowls and some of the league's best-remembered classics. One of the conference sessions, "Obtaining and Maintaining an Athletic Trainer," takes on greater importance with the increased attention being paid to the ramifications of concussions among  athletes, from youth to pros.  A 2011 studyof U.S. high schools with at least one athletic trainer on staff found that concussions accounted for nearly 15% of all sports-related injuries reported to ATs and which resulted in a loss of at least one day of play.

Connecticut was among the first states to approve concussion education and prevention legislation, in 2010.