Youth Sports Safety Summit
The Youth Sports Safety Summit (YSSS) is an annual event hosted by the Youth Sports Safety Alliance and the National Athletic Trainers' Association to educate key stakeholders about current issues in youth sports safety and effective measures to keep young athletes safe.
2017 Youth Sports Safety Summit
“Less Risk, More Reward: Emphasizing Safety and Encouraging Success” was the theme of the eighth annual Youth Sports Safety Summit, hosted by NATA and the Youth Sports Safety Alliance March 7 at the NCAA Headquarters in Indianapolis.
Parent advocates, school administrators, educators and health care professionals, among others, attended the one-day summit to learn about topics ranging from emergency action plans to preventing pediatric overuse injuries.
“You can’t separate safety and wellness from excellence,” said NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline, MD, as he welcomed attendees to the summit. “When you bring in a group of experts like this, you can bring about change more readily.”
Breakout and education sessions held by experts during the summit included:
- “Prevention and Intervention into Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Youth Athletes,” Mary Newman, MS, Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation
- “Insurance Risks in Sport,” James Shipp, ATC, A-G Administrators Inc.
- “Comprehensive Health Plans and Emergency Action Plans,” Ron Courson, ATC, PT, NREMT, University of Georgia
- “Same Day Return to Play after Pediatric Athletes Sustain Concussions,” Shane Miller, MD, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children
- “Preventing Pediatric Overuse Injuries,” Holly Benjamin, MD, FACSM, University of Chicago Medicine
- “Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Sports: A Parent’s Perspective,” JoAnne Taylor Babbit, John Taylor Babbit Foundation
- “Exertional Heat Illness,” Michael Bergeron, PhD, FACSM, Youth Sports of the Americas
In addition, a speaker panel composed of Youth Sports Safety Governing Bodies task force members and moderated by Will Carroll with ESPN discussed the new “Inter-Association Task Force Document on Emergency Health and Safety: Best Practice Recommendations for Youth Sports Leagues.” The document debuted at the summit and was published online first March 7 in the Journal of Athletic Training. The idea behind the best practice recommendations came out of the YSSGB 2015 meeting when areas of improvement were identified.
Read the press release.
Learn more about the 2017 Youth Sports Safety Summit.