Record temps urge community leaders to promote sports safety education

As Alabama sees record high temperatures this week, fall sports training begins and volunteer coaches hit the playing fields nationally, sports safety continues to be a primary concern for Homewood officials and others in the city.

On Wednesday at the Homewood Community Center, Mayor Scott McBrayer joined a panel of other local officials and experts to recognize safety as an essential part of their sports programs and share their approach to raising the safety standards within their communities by working with the National Center for Sports Safety.

The founder of NCSS, Dr. Larry Lemak, provided relevant sports safety tips as summer practices begin for the upcoming fall season.

“When I founded the NCSS 14 years ago, I saw a large percentage of sports injuries that could have been prevented with coach’s education,” Lemak said. “This led to the development of the PREPARE Sports Safety Course in 2004, which has been perfected and used by tens of thousands of coaches across the nation.”

The PREPARE Sports Safety Course teaches athletes what to do and what not to do in emergency situations, and it provides knowledge on how to prevent and recognize injuries and illness.    

“It puts in the hands of the coach the skill set needed until a medical professional arrives – everything a person we trust to coach our kids should know,”  McBrayer said.

In addition, many parks and recreation departments do not have support resources and their policies and procedures are outdated. In 2011, Homewood Parks and Recreation partnered with National Center for Sports Safety to apply new policies that can be applied at parks and recs across the nation. 

“Even with Homewood’s many resources, sports safety still needs to be addressed, but it has to be the main focus for the city to make it happen,” said Berkley Squires, director of public services for Homewood. “Regardless the size of the city, it’s important to put safety first. The small investment pays off in the long run with better coaches and better programs for our youth.  At the end of the day, it’s about protecting the kids.”

Call 329-7535 or 1-866-508-NCSS for more information about the National Center for Sports Safety.