653 High School Football Concussions in Missouri in 2011

by Jeff Fisher
High School Football America

I applaud Missouri state lawmakers for mandating that the Missouri High School Activities Association for keeping track on suspected concussions.

Lawmakers made it mandatory last year and now the first results are out.

The MSHSAA has released the results of a survey that found that 653 high school football players suffered suspected concussions during the 2011 season.  In all, there were 871 reports of suspected concussions during the fall semester with boys soccer players suffering the second highest number of suspected concussions.

Concussion Survey Results - Fall, 2011

Football - 653
Boys Soccer - 81
Girls Softball - 40
Sideline Cheerleading - 40
Girls Volleyball - 29
All other - 29

Over 23,000 student-athletes played football in Missouri last season.

The MSHSAA reports that 74% of all of its members completed the survey.

Click here to see the entire report from the MSHSAA.

On a side note, last week CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta was a guest on last week's  High School Football America radio show.  Dr. Gupta reported that the average high school football player receives 650 hits to the head each year.

That statistic was brought-out in Dr. Gupta's CNN documentary Big Hits, Broken Dreams that will re-air this Saturday, February 25th at 8 and 11 PM.

Click here to listen to my interview with Dr. Gupta.

Rockhurst's Tony Severino Talks About Being Head Coach in U.S. Army All-American Bowl

by Jeff Fisher
High School Football America

The U.S. Army All-American Bowl is the granddaddy of all national high school all-star football games.

90 of America's best are facing-off in the Alamodome in San Antonio in front of 30,000-plus fans and a national television audience on NBC.

I spoke with Rockhurst High School (Missouri) head coach Tony Severino, who is the head coach of the West All-Stars, on Thursday's High School Football America radio show.

Click here to listen to that interview.

Gus Frerotte Appears on High School Football America

by Jeff Fisher
High School Football America

Gus Frerotte's first year as head coach of the John Burroughs School ended just short of a gold medal, and he joined me on Thursday night's High School Football America radio show to talk about last weekend's Class 3 championship game loss to Logan-Rogersville.

JBS was knocking-on-the-door late in the game down 21-14 on Saturday when junior running back Ezekiel Elliott fumbled.  Logan-Rogersville recovered the ball near the goal-line to preserve the school's first state title.

Frerotte talks about the disappointment of the school's second straight runner-up finish.  In 2010, John Burroughs lost 21-20 to Richmond, after losing a 20-7 fourth quarter lead.

With only eight seniors on this year's squad, Frerotte also talks about the excitement of 2012.

Frerotte is one of three former NFL players on the show.

Former Buffalo Bills wide receiver Don Beebe talks about his team, Aurora Christian, winning the Class 3A Illinois state championship last weekend.  Also on the show is former Jacksonville Jaguar QB Phil Stambaugh, who talks about guiding his school, Pius X, to the Pennsylvania Class A quarterfinals.

Click here to listen to the interview on High School Football America.