NATA is planning a follow up to the hugely successful Summit on Youth Sports Safety held in Sacramento this past January. This event will be held on December 7, 2010.
Washington, DC, has been chosen as a locale likely to draw more state legislators. We plan to arrange the agenda in a way that will allow attendees to hear from experts on four topics and then to have plenty of time for facilitated networking that will result in local, statewide or regional coalitions. The four topics are:
Sudden Cardiac Arrest
Brain Injury/Concussion
Heat Illness
Sickle Cell Trait
Nationally recognized experts on these topics have agreed to make presentations. We hope to have 200 attendees representing state legislatures, parent activist groups, sports organizations and health care professions.
The public’s attention on youth athlete safety continues to grow. NOW is the time to make positive changes in the way injuries are prevented and managed for these youngsters.
Please let us know if you have an interest in attending. We’ll send you details and lodging information as soon as they are finalized.
Michael West, MS, ATC, is an athletic trainer and assistant principal at Patriot High School in Riverside, Calif. He has worked in education since 1994 as an athletic trainer as well as teaching high school and college courses in sports medicine and physical education. Formerly the athletic director at Chino Hills High School, West was responsible for the development of athletic programs, hiring coaches and supervising field and facility construction. As the current president of the California Athletic Trainers’ Association, West has spearheaded legislation calling for a defined scope of practice for athletic trainers in California.
Legislators
Assembly member Mary Hayashi was elected to the California State Assembly in November 2006, representing the 18th District. She is an award-winning author and an accomplished advocate for expanding the delivery and coverage of health care. Since her election, health care has been Mary’s top priority. She has authored a number of bills focused on health care reform. Mary is a member of the Assembly leadership team, serving as Chair of the Assembly Business and Professions Committee.
Rep. Elaine Smith is a five-term member of the Idaho House of Representatives and represents the 30th District. She is a native Idahoan and serves on the State Affairs Committee; Business Committee; and the Environment, Energy & Technology Committee. An educator, Elaine’s legislative service has demonstrated a strong commitment to protecting Idaho’s “most valuable resource, our children.” She has been named a Friend of Education by the Idaho Education Association, and has been honored by the Boy Scouts of America.
American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine
Robert S. Burger, MD, is a Sacramento-based orthopaedic surgeon and orthopaedic sports medicine specialist with Kaiser Permanente. He is a volunteer safety consultant to the local-area Little League Baseball and a volunteer physician to the Special Olympics Northern California chapter. As a member of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, he has served on its Little League Safety Committee and Sports Trauma and Overuse Prevention (STOP) Steering Committee, and co-authored AOSSM’s book, Prevention and Emergency Management of Youth Baseball and Softball Injuries. He is also a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Sudden Cardiac Arrest and Need for Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs)
Cindy J. Chang, MD, was formerly the head team physician for the University of California’s 27 athletic teams from 1995 to 2008, and continues to work at UC Berkeley as a sports medicine specialist and team physician. She also serves as assistant clinical professor at UC Davis and UC San Francisco. She is board certified in family medicine and fellowship trained in sports medicine. Chang was elected to the board of directors for the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) (2000-04) and currently serves as second vice president. She is a member of the California Interscholastic Federation’s Sports Medicine Committee and serves on the editorial board of several sports medicine journals. Chang was the 2003 recipient of the AMSSM Founders Award, given to a sports medicine physician who demonstrates outstanding professional achievement and service to the community.
Diane Claerbout is on the board of directors for Parent Heart Watch (PHW), the national voice solely dedicated to protecting youth from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and preventable sudden cardiac death (SCD). She became active with PHW after losing her son Johannes (Jos) to SCA. She describes him as a seemingly healthy athlete who participated in track and field, was an avid cyclist, worked out regularly at the gym and who took great care of himself. After experiencing a few fainting episodes, and consulting a doctor who said he was alright, he continued with his regular routine. On August 20, 1999, Jos died instantly. Claerbout is an advocate of early detection with heart screening for youth, emergency preparedness at schools and other youth-serving facilities and mandatory reporting of SCD in youth to a national database. She currently works as a librarian in northern California.
Exertional Heat Illness
Rebecca A. Demorest, MD, is associate medical director of pediatric and young adult sports medicine at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, Calif., where she specializes in non-operative management of musculoskeletal and medical conditions affecting pediatric and young adult athletes. Demorest is board certified in pediatrics and fellowship trained in sports medicine. She is currently one of fewer than 150 pediatricians in the nation who is also trained in sports medicine. She is an elected member of the executive committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. Demorest is also team physician for USA Rowing, the Oakland Strokes Rowing Club (high school team) and Piedmont (Calif.) High School. She has published numerous articles and chapters on sports medicine topics, and she speaks regularly on sports medicine issues at the local and regional level.
Brendon P. McDermott, PhD, ATC, is an athletic trainer and assistant professor in the graduate athletic training program in the department of health and human performance at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He recently completed his doctorate in exercise physiology from the University of Connecticut with a research emphasis on thermal physiology, heat illness and exercise dehydration. He oversees clinical education for athletic training students, teaches classes, supervises student research, directs the applied physiology laboratory and performs thermal-physiology research and publication. McDermott was formerly assistant clinical professor and assistant athletic trainer at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Concussion/Brain Injuries
Leigh Steinberg is widely recognized as the country's leading sports attorney and the inspiration for the popular film, “Jerry Maguire.” During his remarkable 30-year career, Steinberg has represented more than 150 professional athletes in football, baseball, basketball, boxing and Olympic sports. An accomplished speaker, Steinberg has traveled the world addressing topics ranging from sports and entertainment, to political and economic issues. One topic that Steinberg has been very passionate about is concussion management. He works with team doctors and athletic trainers to ensure that athletes of all levels, not just professionals, get the best possible care when it comes to concussion management. He has been an active proponent of advancing scientific research that benefits everyone. According to Steinberg, “The specter of concussions in collision sports continues to be a largely undiagnosed health epidemic for which baseline neurocognitive testing is the best antidote.”
Kevin M. Guskiewicz, PhD, ATC, FACSM, is an athletic trainer and the Kenan distinguished professor and chairman of the department of exercise and sport science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is director of the university’s sports-related traumatic brain injury research center. Over the past ten years, Guskiewicz’s research has focused on sports-related concussion. He has been the recipient of 16 funded research grants and has published more than 60 journal articles and four textbook chapters related to mild head injury in sport. He now serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Athletic Training, and is on the editorial boards of three other journals. Guskiewicz was awarded fellowships in the American College of Sports Medicine (2003), the American Academy of Kinesiology (2006) and National Athletic Trainers’ Association (2007).
Case History
Beth Mallon, mother of Tommy who broke his neck while playing high school lacrosse, has become an advocate on the youth sports safety front. As a result of her son’s injury, which has sidelined him from ever competing in sports again, Mallon turned her passion into founding a nonprofit organization called Advocates for Injured Athletes. The mission of AIA is two-fold: to provide a support network for injured athletes and to help families navigate the complicated world of health care. Mallon credits her son’s athletic trainer for saving his life and is an advocate of stringent athletic trainer certification.
Tommy Mallon was playing in his final high school lacrosse game for Santa Fe Christian in San Diego just seven months ago. He was heading downfield at full speed after a ground ball. A player from the opposing team was going for it too and the two players collided. It didn’t look like anything out of the ordinary until Beth Mallon noticed that her son was down with an injury. He was experiencing numbness and was treated by his athletic trainer, Riki Kirchhoff, ATC, who would not let him get up despite his request to do so. The young athlete was spine boarded and taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital. He was told his neck was fractured and he would never play sports again. Today, he is his mother’s inspiration to champion youth sports safety policies and support groups.
Contacts:
Robin Waxenberg 212-489-8006 (o); 917-301-1350 (c) robin@robwax.com
Ellen Satlof, NATA
214-637-6282, ext. 159 ellen@nata.org
