Injury Survey Report Spring 2009

     Once again, thank you all for participating in this season’s injury survey.  There was much more data from the high school athletes as expected compared to the fall when we first launched this survey.  Of the 86 reported injuries, 35 were male and 51 female.  There were 25 injuries in the recreational group, 13 high school athletes and 50 competitive players.  There were 55 injuries suffered in games and 31 in practice.

    The types of injuries were similar to the fall season with ankle injuries leading the way with 21 reports. Second most was knee injuries with 13.  There were 9 concussions- 2 in high school girls 1 recreational players and 6 competitive players.  The number of concussions is still very small given the extremely high number of participants.  Three injuries were reported to require surgery.  All three were females age 14 and 16 and were knee injuries.  Ten injuries required casting and eleven athletes were evaluated in an Emergency room.

      There were 12 season ending injuries while 34 of the 86 reported injuries returned to play the same day.  I suspect that there were far more minor injuries never reported as they were deemed to insignificant.  I hope in the future we can increase reporting of all injuries to get a better analysis.  Hopefully as time goes on the word will spread and participation will increase.

     The most significant point of concern is the number of concussions.  This is obviously a serious injury but unfortunately it is sometimes difficult to assess on the sidelines as the game is being played.  I will be providing the coaches with more education regarding assessing concussion on the sidelines.   

     Finally, I want to thank those of you that participated in the survey and those that contacted me after the last reporting period.  I hope to provide the data combined for the entire year on the website later this summer.  I appreciate your feedback and will attempt to use it to improve our data pool.  This will help in our efforts to improve the safety of our children