At the start of our season this year, we had a speaker come out to the planning meeting and he shared some statistics with us about TBI, they were really helpful. Apparently it’s not overprotective to be worried about it, because every year kids between the ages of 5 and 18 end up visiting the Emergency Room over 20,000 times a year for football alone. Basketball falls in a little safer at 11,000 and soccer and baseball are both around 7500. Even swimming and diving end up injuring nearly 4,000 kids every year.
I just liked that we were empowered with tips for making sure our safety gear was in order and the kids were given information about TBI so they could pay avoid endangering themselves or others by engaging in unsafe play.
Florida recently tried to pass a bill that was designed at preventing concussions, by educating parents, educators, coaches and athletes about these same risks, and I thought it was super cool that an effort was being made. But we can still educate one another even without a legal mandate. I just went ahead and printed this article on brain injury prevention to share with the other parents on the team. I penciled my phone number on the bottom and went ahead and started my own little phone list so we could be sure that our children and their friends are as protected as they can be during each game.
I was glad to discover that so many parents were willing to step forward, print out flyers, work the games to be sure the helmets and safety equipment were in good working order and that the kids were wearing it properly. I’m not sure if the lady with the canteen realizes that we’re doing everything we can now, to prevent TBI. She still seems a little stressed. At least the rest of us can relax a bit.