WASHINGTON, DC - The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), today held a hearing examining concussions in youth sports, as part of the committee’s broad review of concussions. The hearing followed the committee’s first roundtable discussion held in March. The goal of the review is to bring experts from a wide variety of fields - medical, military, sports leagues, and other stakeholders - to advance the understanding of these complex and traumatic brain injuries.
“Estimates suggest that more than 30 million children, ages 5 to 18, participate in organized sports each year," stated Chairman Murphy. “Despite this being the largest population of athletes, this group is one of the most underserved populations when it comes to the level of awareness, prevention and research related to head injuries. This brings us to our task for today. We want to examine what is being done today to reduce the incidence of head injuries in young athletes."
The hearing included two panels of witnesses. The first panel featured Ms. Kelli Jantz and Ms. Karen Kinzle Zegel. Both women lost their sons, Jake Snakenberg and Patrick Risha (respectively), following head trauma sustained playing youth sports. The second panel featured researchers, and officials with various youth sports leagues.
Dr. Dawn Comstock, Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health, spoke about concussion trends in high school sports identified through her work on the National High School Sports Related Injury Surveillance Study. Dr. Comstock highlighted the need for better surveillance data on youth athletes to inform preventative measures.
Mr. Eugene “Buddy" Teevens, head football coach at Dartmouth College, spoke to his decision five years ago to “eliminate all full contact live tackling of a teammate in all spring practice, pre-season and in season drills." In making this decision, Mr. Teevens said his coaching staff then developed a plan for practices on teaching proper form and execution of tackling. The result is that while the team may tackle more than any other team in the country, they never tackle each other. Mr. Teevens also highlighted the team’s winning record - the past two seasons they have won 17 games and lost only three.
A number of witnesses discussed the importance and challenge of changing the culture of sports. Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) asked Mr. Stenersen, President and CEO of U.S. Lacrosse, why it’s so difficult to get youth sports leagues to adopt their standards for coaching and officiating, something he stressed in his opening statement. Mr. Stenersen cited “culture and tradition."
Additional information on today’s hearing, including a background memo, witness testimony and an archived video can be found on our website here.
