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USA TODAY Sports
Pop Warner Little Scholars is giving its young charges a crash course in how to recognize concussions.
Starting today, the organization will offer a concussion education initiative to its 325,000 participants nationwide — roughly 225,000 football players and 100,000 more in cheer and dance.
CrashCourse is an interactive online program from software creator TeachAids in collaboration with Stanford University researchers in medicine, engineering and education.
The program includes a short interactive film that puts the viewer on the field for a high school football game and a symptoms simulator to help young people recognize the signs of a concussion in themselves or in others.
“This really focuses on a kid’s perspective,” Pop Warner executive director Jon Butler told USA TODAY. “If you get dinged, tell somebody. If you see one of your teammates or (cheer) squad mates acting funny, tell somebody. … You are not ratting a kid out, is what it comes down to. You are helping the kid and helping the team.”
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Julian Bailes, founder of The Brain Injury Research Institute, said in a statement that there are many materials on the issue of concussions for parents, coaches and medical professionals, but not much in the way of research-based education for young people.
“If we are going to change the culture of sports,” Bailes said, “we need to educate our young athletes.”
Alameen Murphy, a captain of Stanford’s football team, is among Stanford students who contributed to the education program. “The next generation of players will now be able to know and understand concussions the way we wish we did at their age,” he said in a statement.
Butler said Pop Warner is planning to put out a blast email to nearly 200,000 people today and to promote the program on social media. He said Pop Warner has made several rules changes over the years to make youth football safer, including limiting the amount and type of contact in practice, and eliminating kickoffs at its youngest age levels.
“We keep making the game safer,” Butler said. “As more science emerges and shows we should make additional changes, we’ll gladly make them.”
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