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.

MSHSAA Looking at New High School Football Playoff Format

by Jeff Fisher
Missouri High School Football Huddle

Jeff McNiell of the Houston Herald is reporting today that the Missouri State High School Activities Association is going to examine whether to abandon the current playoff system for a new format.

The 2011 season will mark the fourth year in a four-year trial period for a playoff system that advances the two top teams from each district to the post-season.

According to McNiell's story, the MSHSAA is requesting input from its member schools about the current system and two other options.  Aside from the current system, another option is to return to the playoff system used from 1988 to 2007, which qualified one team from each four-team district.  The other is to play a nine-game regular season with the 10th week starting a tournament that would involve every team in the state.