If you’ve been working in campus recreation for long, you’ll know that concussions are presenting a new and serious threat to campus recreation programs. While you might say, “Ian, there’s nothing new about concussions in intramural and club sports,” I say concussions are a new threat because key players in the insurance market—who are worried about potential future class action lawsuits—are examining how they issue negligence liability insurance policies that cover concussions to colleges and universities.

Should the industry move in the direction of excluding concussions from campus recreation insurance coverage, it could result in the cancellation of many higher-risk programs. Programs like rugby club, intramural soccer, and ice hockey would likely all be under threat of cancellation if concussions are dropped from coverage.

What can be done about it?

While campus recreation can’t control the insurance companies, you can proactively influence them with your programs’ standards and practices. How you say? By ensuring that your recreation staff and participants are aware of concussions and their implications, and by training key people in your organization to recognize and respond to suspected concussions.

At SportRisk, we’ve developed a concussion training package to do exactly that. While many campus recreation professionals know concussion management is an important issue, most have neither the time nor expertise to create a comprehensive concussion training plan. A longtime NIRSA partner, SportRisk has delivered quality risk management assessment and training tools to NIRSA schools for many years. Go to the experts for the solution!

About the concussions training package

The SportRisk concussion training package includes two separate modules: one module allows you to educate your staff, coaches, and participants with overview information and awareness training and the other module offers more advanced recognition and response training for those individuals with a responsibility to recognize potential concussions and respond appropriately.

“The concussion training package is easy to implement, applicable to different recreation programs, and provides the confidence in knowing my staff are well prepared.”

These training tools have been developed exclusively for the collegiate recreation market and include a built-in tracking mechanism that provides key participation statistics. Not only does the tool help to eliminate staff time dedicated to data entry, it also helps you demonstrate due diligence to insurance companies.

The discounted $495 annual subscription fee—available to NIRSA member schools—is affordable for programs small and large. So, don’t miss out on your chance to be among the early adopters of this new tool and show that your school is at the cutting edge of promising practices.

“SportRisk has been a provider of many helpful tools for recreation professionals, and the recent release of the concussion training package has become a new tool in that toolbox! It is easy to implement, applicable to different recreation programs, provides a tracking option to automatically monitor successful completion of the training, and provides the confidence in knowing my staff are well prepared,” says Sandra Ondracka, Lancer Recreation Coordinator at the University of Windsor.

  • For more information about the SportRisk concussions training package, please contact President of SportRisk Ian McGregor.

Ian McGregor, PhD, is currently the President of Ian McGregor & Associates.