Baseline concussion tests ahead in youth hockey
Canadian hockey players as young as 10 years old will be put through the
same concussion testing as NHL players this season.
With high-profile cases involving Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby(notes) and
others in the news over the last year, concern about head injuries has filtered
down to the youth ranks. A growing number of leagues are trying to address it.
They include the Minor Oaks Hockey Association, based in the Toronto suburb
of Oakville, which is forcing all 2,600 of its young athletes playing atom level
or higher to go through baseline testing before the season starts next month.
“If we make it optional and one of the children who does not take the test
gets hurt, we’re still in the weeds, we haven’t progressed,” association
executive Louis Ouellette said Monday. “We want to make it mandatory. We don’t
believe there’s any valid argument not to take it.”
Minor Oaks is the largest hockey association in Canada to mandate the
neuro-cognitive test, which is conducted by the Critical Medicine Research Group
utilizing the same so-called ImPACT standard used by the NHL, CFL and virtually
every other pro sports league.
The baseline test is conducted online and takes about 25 minutes to
complete. It provides a detailed clinical report that can be used by doctors as
a comparison point when trying to assess if a player has recovered from a
concussion.
Essentially, the testing is designed to ensure that athletes don’t return to
action too soon.
“A lot of the times you see multiple case concussions and that’s what
you’re trying to avoid,” said John Chehade, director of sales and marketing for
CMRG, which administers the test. “We know that 80 percent of concussion cases
resolve in seven to 10 days, but how do you know whose in that 80 percent
category or whose in that 20 percent category (that take longer to resolve) like
Sidney Crosby?
“You just don’t know unless you have some sort of objective measurable
data.”
Chehade estimates his company will give baseline tests to as many as 17,000
youth hockey players across Canada this season.
Minor Oaks has pledged to foot the entire bill for its players—at $25 per
test, it will cost about $65,000 in total—and is providing it to those from
the lowest levels of house league right through to the top rep teams.
“We’re absorbing the cost within our operating budget because we feel it’s
important,” said Ouellette.
The practice is spreading to other youth sports as well.
For example, the Calgary Bulldogs Football Association is in its second
season of mandatory baseline testing for the 180 players it has between the ages
of seven and 18.
“The kids at this age are at their most susceptible (to concussions) and no
one is doing anything about it,” Bulldogs board member Terry Andryo said
Monday. “Each kid gets a file just like a medical situation. Any symptoms or
on-field contact is recorded. What we’d like to do is get it to the point where
we’d like to pass that information on to the next level where that kid is
playing.”
Hockey Canada dedicates a section of its website to concussions and has
developed a six-step protocol for athletes returning from head injuries. It
doesn’t specifically mention passing a baseline test.
The organization is unable to provide specific numbers on associations or
players who have access to that form of testing, but it has recently taken
several phone calls on the subject from hockey administrators.
“With all the awareness around concussions and the prevention, I think a
lot of minor hockey associations have certainly locally gone and looked at
baseline testing,” said Todd Jackson, Hockey Canada’s senior manager of member
services. “From our standpoint, it’s just another step in the overall return to
play process. They’re taking some steps to make sure their kids are safe.”
The issue took on even more importance for Ouellette when his son suffered
concussions in back-to-back games last year. Like many parents, he didn’t
realize anything was wrong after his son took a hit in the first game so he
encouraged him to play again the next day.
After those incidents, he started researching concussions in minor hockey
and set about instituting the new policy that takes effect in Oakville this
season.
“I would have done it anyway, regardless of whether my own son had
sustained an injury or not,” said Ouellette. “I’ve personally had teammates of
my son that have got conflicting diagnoses from doctors and it baffles me. It
baffles me that it can be different from one child to another. …
“We don’t want to put our children, the players, out in harm’s way without
understanding exactly how to control this and how to assess whether they’re
ready to come back.”