Call To Action

Summit on the Youth Sports Safety Crisis in America

The Youth Sports Safety Alliance Commits to:

• Ensure that youth athletes have access to health care professionals who are qualified to make assessments and decisions.


• Educate parents, athletes, coaches, teachers and others about the signs and symptoms of sports injuries and conditions (e.g., brain injury, heat illness and exertional sickling).


• Assure pre-participation exams before play begins and, where appropriate, conduct baseline testing.


• Ensure that sports equipment, uniforms, playing surfaces and environmental conditions are checked for safety and best conditions.


• Write to state legislators and members of Congress, expressing concerns.


• Insist that research into youth sports injuries and their effects be undertaken immediately and be supported by tax dollars.


• Support a national registry of sport-related catastrophic injuries and fatalities to improve safety and participation.


• Demand that appropriate emergency action plans and safety and medical protocols and procedures are in place at every sporting event and facility.


• Educate players and others that there’s a difference between pain and injury, and work to eliminate the culture of “playing through pain” without assessment.
• Ensure that both general and sport-specific safety education be a priority for every administrator, coach, parent and player.