Coaches Get U-M Concussion Training
July 24, 2012
Already administering a strong set of protocols addressing the removal and return to play of young athletes suspected of sustaining concussions in competition, the Michigan High School Athletic Association is further ramping up its concussion education efforts of coaches, student-athletes and parents as the 2012-13 school year approaches.
In partnership with the University of Michigan’s NeuroSport and the Pediatric Trauma Program at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, required online rules meetings for coaches and officials will include an education component illustrating the serious nature of concussions; recognition of the signs and symptoms; a review of return to play protocols; applicable MHSAA regulations; and downloadable co-branded resources from NeuroSport, as well as materials produced by a joint effort of the Brian Injury Association of Michigan, the Detroit Lions, the Center for Disease Control and the MHSAA.
This is the second year the MHSAA has included concussion education in its online rules meetings, which are annually viewed by nearly 20,000 coaches and game officials. This year, the Michigan NeuroSport Concussion Education - High School Coach edition, endorsed by the American Academy of Neurology last fall, has been modified for the MHSAA audience. The MHSAA will also promote the availability of the NeuroSport concussion education modules offered specifically for parents and coaches.
“These educational efforts, coupled with protocols addressing concussions when they take place on the field of play, put our schools in the best possible position to minimize the risk to young people,” said John E. “Jack” Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA. “We’re pleased to have our new partnership with University of Michigan NeuroSport and our ongoing partnership with the Brian Injury Association of Michigan which put our state at the forefront of addressing the critical health issue for interscholastic athletes.”
Roberts added that the same educational materials the Association has co-branded with its partners will also be used to help raise concussion awareness in other youth sports by other sponsors in the state.
“We are proud to partner with MHSAA and bring the most up-to-date concussion education to those on the frontline of athletics. Education is a vital component to improving player safety,” says Amy Teddy, injury prevention program manager at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. “We believe that ‘It takes a team to keep concussions on the sidelines.’ Parents, coaches, teammates, officials and athletic trainers all have a role in protecting athletes from serious injury.
“In addition to our coach modules, we recently launched our parent edition to help another member of the ‘team’ better recognize and understand concussion.” added Teddy, who also is director of education for Michigan Neurosport.
The NeuroSport online programs for parents, high school coaches and youth sports coaches is now available at http://www.MichiganNeuroSport.com. An online program for athletes will be available soon.
NeuroSport has also produced a 60-second public service announcement in which one of the state’s all-time winningest football coaches – John Herrington of Farmington Hills Harrison – talks about concussions. This video, along with a 30-second PSA recently updated by the MHSAA, “No Such Thing As Just Getting Your Bell Rung,” will be made available to media outlets in time for the coming sports season, and will be shown during MHSAA programming online and on cable television.
MHSAA Reveals Football Playoff Format
September 25, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Representative Council of the Michigan High School Athletic Association has approved an adjusted format for this season’s 11 and 8-Player Football Playoffs to accommodate the shortened regular season that began late due to COVID-19-related restrictions earlier this fall.
All teams this season are able to play up to six regular-season games before the start of the MHSAA Playoffs – down from the usual nine games because the first games this season weren’t played until the traditional Week 4. However, the playoff fields for both 11 and 8-player will be doubled this season, giving nearly every team in Michigan a guaranteed seventh game.
Changes to the football postseason are for the 2020 season only. Following are brief descriptions of the adjusted MHSAA Football Playoffs in each format:
11-PLAYER
· Field: 512 teams. (There are currently 507 playing 11-player football this season, so five teams are scheduled to receive first-round byes at this time.)
· Schedule: 3 District Rounds, Regional Finals, Semifinals, Finals. The host sites for the Semifinals and Finals will be pre-arranged and announced at a later time. Finals will be played the weekend of Dec. 4-6.
· Brackets: Teams have been placed in pre-arranged divisions based on enrollment. Teams in Districts will be seeded 1-8 based on playoff-point average, with the teams with highest averages hosting at the District and Regional levels. Because of a small number of teams opting to not play this fall, division lines were adjusted from what was released during the spring classification announcement, moving 20 teams to different divisions than previously published – those changes will be reflected next week on the playoff points page of the MHSAA Website. Click for District groupings.
8-PLAYER
· Field: 64 teams. (There are currently 78 teams playing 8-player this season. Those teams that finish the season but do not qualify for the playoffs will be allowed to schedule one more game against other non-qualifiers.)
· Schedule: 3 Regional Rounds, Semifinals, Finals. Finals will be played the weekend of Nov. 27-28 at site(s) to be determined.
· Brackets: Teams were placed in pre-arranged divisions based on enrollment during the classification process this spring. The top 32 teams in each division based on playoff-point average will qualify for the playoffs. Brackets will be drawn and announced Oct. 25. Teams with higher playoff-point averages will host Regional and Semifinal games. Additionally, there are six 8-player teams too large by enrollment to qualify for the playoffs; they will be allowed to schedule their own non-MHSAA playoff if they choose to do so after the regular season.
Further details will be provided soon on the Football page of the MHSAA Website.
The Representative Council is the 19-member legislative body of the MHSAA. All but five are elected by member schools. Four members are appointed by the Council to facilitate representation of females and minorities, and the 19th position is occupied by the Superintendent of Public Instruction or designee.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.