By Staff Writer
Cordelia Anderson

Practice Season Begins
with Tragedies

In the third week of August this year, a time of anticipation and excitement, high school athletes flocked to their schools to begin practice for the fall season. However, when two student-athletes in Kansas collapsed and died during their first week of practice, the two similar incidents raised the question: Are high school athletic programs allowing student-athletes with serious health risks to slip through their health screening procedures?

According to USA Today, "between 30 and 50 student-athletes die every year from medical conditions that aren't related to playing injuries" and The Wall Street Journal says that one in 200,000 student-athletes will lose their lives suddenly. Many of these deaths are preventable, but for those that aren't, having a Crisis Management Plan in place that includes Trauma Counseling for the students, faculty and community would help the school cope with the aftermath of such a tragedy.

Study Reveals Deficient Screening Programs

Both of the articles mentioned above were based on a study released this June – two months before the deaths in Kansas. The study, found in the Journal of the American Medical Association, revealed severe deficiencies in the preparticipation health screening of high school athletes. It revealed that few state programs gather sufficient information about family health history, and that the majority of states do not screen for the presence of cardiac abnormalities, a leading cause of sudden athlete death. Other deficiencies in the screening process include inquiries about past sports injuries, prescription drug and vitamin use, respiratory problems, sleep disorders, food allergies, and eating disorders.

This vital medical information would enable coaches and parents to be more aware of potential health risks, and to alter the athlete's activities accordingly. However, in those states that do have screening procedures, health questionnaires and those who administer them sometimes overlook the health problems listed above.

Looking for Possible Solutions

Sports Media Challenge specializes in crisis management, and we know that the best way to handle a crisis is to try to prevent it. This means that you have to be a Vigilant Thinker. Of the three essential elements in crisis management – prediction, preparation and practice – prediction is the key to this issue. The prediction process involves anticipating possible crises, such as sudden athlete death, before they happen. And, if such a crisis occurs despite your efforts, an established Crisis Management Plan and Trauma Counseling are vital.

One way to keep a potentially dangerous health problem from becoming a crisis is to have a reliable health screening process in place. Gordon O. Matheson, M.D., Ph.D., of Stanford University School of Medicine, cites an example of an effective screening program at Stanford that uses the Internet as a resource. Student-athletes complete a 22-page questionnaire they can access from a remote computer on the World Wide Web. A screening process like this is one possible solution for high schools, as increasing numbers of students are using the Internet and schools are becoming more computer friendly.

An ideal screening process would be thorough and efficient, effectively assessing the health status of student-athletes –prior to participation – without interfering with the overall progress of their teams. Without such screening, student-athletes will continue to be in danger as they take to the field with undiagnosed and potentially fatal health conditions.