COLUMBUS – Ohio ranked 31st in a high school sports study which shows that many individual states are not fully implementing key safety guidelines to protect athletes from potentially life-threatening conditions.
UPDATE: This article has been edited from an earlier version to include a response from the National Federation of State High School Associations
The study, conducted by the Korey Stringer Institute, named in honor of the former Ohio State and Minnesota Viking lineman, and sponsored in part by the NFL, examined state-by-state policies on combatting things like heat stroke, sudden cardiac arrest and traumatic head injury among high school athletes.
The 50 states and the District of Columbia were evaluated based on whether they followed practices recommended by the Interassociation Task Force for Preventing Sudden Death in Secondary School Athletics.
Ohio received a score of about 43.9 on a scale of 100, lower than the median score 47.1 percent. missing out on points for reducing practice length and frequency and having automated external defibrillator (AEDs) on-site for practices.
The National Federation of State High School Associations, of which the Ohio High School Athletic Association is a member, expressed its disappointment in the study, saying it concentrated on criticizing states rather than working with them to improve athletic safety.
“By ‘grading’ state high school associations based on a limited number of criteria, [the institute] has chosen to shine a light on certain areas, but it has left others in the dark,” said Bruce Howard, the federation’s director of publications and communications. “Thus, the information provided…gave an incomplete view. The full picture is much more positive.”
North Carolina ranked No. 1 with the most comprehensive health and safety policies at 79 percent, followed by Kentucky at 71 percent.
At the bottom were Colorado’s 23 percent and California’s 26 percent.
More than 7.8 million high school students participate in sanctioned sports annually.
A native of Warren, Korey Stringer was drafted in the first round out of Ohio State by the Vikings in 1995 and was a pro-bowl offensive tackle who died from an exertional heat stroke during training camp in August of 2001.