We are excited to develop stopconcussions.com for you as you are the first line of defence when it comes to injuries of our players but most importantly in the battle against concussions. As we create the most comprhensive resource centre for you, we look forward to your comments and ideas. These pages are yet to be complete and there will much more information for you here in the next few weeks. Also Keith Primeau and Kerry Goulet are available 24/7 at goulet29@stopconcussions.com  or 416-828-2929.

This is why you are key:

• A certified athletic trainer is the #1 healthcare provider trained and educated to work with athletes on all types of injuries and concussions are no exception.
• A certified athletic trainer is trained to handle emergencies whether it’s a broken arm, a neck injury, cardiopulmonary, concussion or a catastrophic injury. All athletic trainers are trained in life-saving skills such as CPR and AED use.
• Athletic trainers are one of the best-educated professionals to recognize and manage concussions.
• Athletic trainers are proactive and have spent a lot of time trying to prevent injury.
• Athletic trainers have hundreds of hours of related experience before they ever step foot into a full-time job.
• Athletic trainers set aside the score and make decisions based on what is best for that athlete.
• Athletic trainers are nationally certified and regulated by most provinces.
• Athletic trainers are a part of the team and work in conjunction with the coaches, management, medical professionals and athletes.
• Athletic trainers understand the drive for an athlete to compete and want to work to help that athlete to succeed!
• Most teams have one; if not they are creating a liability!

This is what we need of you:

• Educate your owners, management, coaches, athletes and parents
  about concussions. Continually update your knowledge.
• Align yourself with a proper clinic or specialist trained in
  assessing and managing concussions.
• Insist that safety comes first; err on the side of caution.
• Take the player (the human) in consideration FIRST!
• Prevent long-term problems by managing the concussion effectively and immediately.

News clipping from ZACH KYLE Idaho State Journal

There is NO magic pill to solve this issue: Certified athletic trainers key to diagnosing and treating concussions

For the past few years, there has been increasing awareness within the media of the problem of concussions in
sports. This awareness has raised the level of concern by parents, coaches and
administrators, but the awareness hasn’t raised the collective knowledge level.
Proper recognition and treatment of concussions is still a problem.

Concussions will always be a reality in high school sports.

There’s no antidote.

The key for all of us then, becomes preventing athletes with concussions from returning to the playing field, where a second concussion may cause more devastating – and long-term – consequences, like Second Impact Syndrome.

First, concussions exist and will always be a part of life (not just sports). We do all we can to prevent them,
but we won’t prevent all of them. Secondly, proper management is the key to minimizing most of the long term problems we see with concussions. He goes on to write:

Coaches must rely on their athletic trainers, especially during games when the sideline is chaotic.

In order to be as close to 100 percent accurate, you have to have (an athletic) trainer