MHSAA announces concussion report findings

EAST LANSING — The Michigan High School Athletic Association released findings Tuesday from what officials are calling an ‘unprecedented yearlong collection of head injury reports’ from schools around the state.

According to the report, student-athletes at MHSAA member high schools encountered over 4,400 head injuries — just under six per member school — in the 2015-2016 school year. The collection — which required member schools to report possible concussions suffered by student-athletes during both practice and competition — is part of an effort to identify and reduce the incidence of those types of injuries.

“For the first time now, through our mandated reporting requirement, we’ll be able to establish baselines to measure our progress year-over-year in reducing head injuries in all of school sports,” said MHSAA Executive Director Jack Roberts, “and we are raising some questions that we will seek to get answered with the help of research partners.”

The MHSAA will work with Michigan State University’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports to explore these findings. The group is already collecting data for the current school year as well.

Click here to view the full report.