Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
Even the coach cannot sign off on a player playing without information from the medical professional. And since you love the rulebook, it is stated in the rulebook.
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2-8-5: The officials must: Immediately remove a player from the game who exhibits signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion as in 3-3-8. (See NFHS Suggested Guidelines for Management of Concussion in Sports.)
3-3-8: Any player who exhibits signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion (such as loss of consciousness, headache, dizziness, confusion, or balance problems) must be immediately removed from the game and must not return to play until cleared by an appropriate health care professional. (See NFHS Suggested Guidelines for Management of Concussion in Sports.)
Here in Connecticut, we ignore these NFHS rules. Officials receive absolutely no concussion protocol training. None. We don't even review the NFHS Suggested Guidelines for Management of Concussion in Sports.
By State law (that trumps the NFHS), properly trained and certified coaches and/or health care professionals (trainers) make all the concussion, or concussion-like symptoms decisions, not officials. Does the player have a concussion, or concussion like symptoms? Does the player come out of the game? Can the player renter the game? Can the player participate in the next game? All decided by coaches and/or health care professionals (trainers), not officials.
If there is no health care professional (trainer) present, as in almost all middle school games, and a lot of freshman games, it's all on the coaches, including allowing, or not allowing, said player to reenter.
As I said earlier, the only thing Connecticut officials can do is to stop the game and say, "Hey coach. Check out number twenty-four. She may be hurt".
Well worth my CIAC Officials Association $13.00 annual fee. Since they lobbied in support of officials at the State legislature, nobody ever complains about these dues anymore (as some did in the past). One less headache we have to worry about.
Note: CIAC Officials Association $13.00 annual fee (mandatory for all local IAABO board members) pays for background checks for new officials, gets us into all regular season sports, for all three seasons, for free (nice if one has children, or grandchildren, playing in interscholastic sports), and gets us into all basketball state tournament games for free (lets me observe and "yank chains").