Quote:
Originally Posted by maven
Your remarks don't address the concern. The new law in Ohio (which OHSAA has adopted as policy) specifies that, if an official in any sport sends a player off and uses the word 'concussion', that player is ineligible to participate further in that contest and for the remainder of that day. Period, medical examination notwithstanding.
Coaches worry that this policy bypasses their medical personnel (one area football team has the chief of the Cleveland Clinic neurosurgery unit on its sideline) and makes the officials responsible for this call.
So officials find themselves in a crossfire between the state, which wants us to err on the side of safety and send kids off, and coaches and schools, who want us to do nothing.
The press release from the state is hardly illuminating, I would say, and merely describes the crossfire without proposing any remedy for it.
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Indiana only requires an approved medical personnel to clear the player without a concussion on the day he's removed. If the medical professional determines there was a concussion, he definitely can't return that day. And he must have approved medical personnel clear him in the future.
The reason I don't like the Ohio law (and I believe California has a similar policy) is we don't always make the right decision. We had a player who took a good hit on a play. He appeared to be wobbly on his feet and wouldn't answer questions from the R so he was sent out with apparent concussion symptoms. Turns out his mouth piece fell out when he was hit and he was trying to find it. He was confused about why the R was asking him a question. In Ohio and California he would have been done for the day. In Indiana, an approved medical person was able to determine there was nothing wrong with him.