By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

All Osceola County public school athletes will undergo baseline concussion tests prior to the 2011-12 school year.

The tests give trainers and doctors a standard for athletes to test against in case they are injured.

Ryan Adams, the Osceola School District coordinator of athletics, said the School District has partnered with Florida Hospital to assist with the tests.

“All the student athletes are required to take the baseline test, not just football,” Adams said. “Florida Hospital assists with the tests if the trainers need it.”

Sports concussions are a hot topic after medical researchers discovered many cases of brain injury to former athletes, who went untreated after suffering repeated concussions during their playing careers.

The Florida High School Athletic Association released its concussion action plan in June.

The plan calls for any athlete who exhibits symptoms consistent with concussions to be immediately removed from a contest. The athlete must be cleared by a health-care professional before being allowed to return to competition.

Harmony High football coach Jerrad Butler said awareness of the damage caused by concussions has changed the way coaches handle the athletes.

“I remember when I was playing (as a football lineman in the 1990s at St. Cloud High), I ran into (teammate) Marshall Smith, who was one of the county’s leading tacklers, in practice and I saw red dots,” he said. “But, I wasn’t about to tell anyone anything about it. The last thing you want to do is to be taken out of the lineup. I probably should have handled that differently, but that was the mindset.”

Now, Butler said, coaches and trainers quickly evaluate any athlete who may have suffered a blow to the head.

“It’s a different climate now. The coaches all undergo training for it. We watch a video the county provides and they do a pretty good job of keeping us informed,” he said. “It’s the same thing for the heat. Back when I played, you might get a water break after 45 minutes. Now, we give the players water breaks every 15 or 20 minutes.”

Each athlete responds to a variety of visual tests to establish a baseline. If the athlete is hurt, the tests are repeated to see if the athlete is impaired.

“A lot of times, it’s hard to see exactly how bad they are hurt. It may not look like anything at first, but it might keep someone out for a few weeks or months,” Butler said.

Coaches at private schools City of Life Academy, Heritage Christian and Life Christian School said their athletes have not taken baseline tests.

Hockey’s biggest star, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, has been out since January after he suffered blows to the head in consecutive games. He may not be ready to play when the NHL season begins in October due to recurring symptoms from those concussions.