According to a recent study from the Atrium Health Wake Forest University School of Medicine, youth coaches in collision sports, such as football, reducing head-impact drills during practice reduces players’ chances of suffering from a concussion and other injuries, too. That research study is part of what led to new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that encourages coaches to limit contact during practice and instead reinforce position-specific and age-appropriate tackling and blocking skills. "If you look at the numbers of head injuries in contact football versus non-contact football, athletes in full contact had 18 to sometimes even 19 times more head impacts in comparison to flag football," Dr. Andrew Velic, a pediatrician at Aurora Health Care in Slinger, said. "But we live in a country, in general, where people take a lot of pride in our sports and high schools spend crazy amounts of money on sports. This makes it difficult to convince a community to completely turn the system upside down and do non-contact sports." “There are ways to teach athletes how to go into contact,” Velic said. “You can teach them to tackle without actually going full force into the tackle during practice.” A licensed athletic trainer can help coaches work with their student athletes in this way. Licensed athletic trainers can also help educate coaches and parents to know the signs and symptoms of a concussion so they can promptly care for the athletes when concussions do happen. When an athlete is diagnosed with a concussion, they can also ensure the athlete follows their return-to-play protocol to ensure they are healed before hitting the field. In addition to providing medical support for 526 local student athletic events in 2024, our hospital license athletic trainers completed: • 884 student athletes baseline concussion screenings. • 2,291 non-concussion injury and illness services for treatment, rehabilitation, Return to Play decision-making, and communication between the physician, coach, and family. • 6 concussion education sessions for 170 attendees. • 32 injury and prevention training sessions for 230 attendees. • 5 nutrition and hydration education sessions for 320 attendees. • 4 CPR training sessions for 15 attendees.