The Editor,
Re: “Don’t play head games,” News, Dec. 12.
Cody Kusch, the Seafair Board of Directors, Dr. Virji-Babul and indeed the Richmond News should be commended for their innovative program and the informative feature respectively on concussion detection, diagnosis and treatment.
Cody and Seafair are providing precisely the kind of leadership in working to reduce the public health crisis in traumatic brain injury among youth that one might otherwise expect from Hockey Canada or BC Hockey.
It is not always easy to go against the traditions and culture of hockey and they deserve credit, and our thanks as parents, for their courage and hard work in doing so when it was necessary.
Additionally, many parents don’t know that research from the University of Calgary revealed that in body checking leagues injury rates are three times higher than those in non body-checking leagues.
The likelihood of getting a concussion in a league that permits body checking is about one in four per season.
By contrast, the odds of playing at least one game in the NHL are about one in 3,000.
Removing body-checking from peewee (age 11-12) leagues now avoids more than 13,000 injuries to youth in Canada per year, including hundreds of catastrophic head, neck and back injuries.
If similar rule changes are adopted in bantam and midget rep hockey leagues, the injuries avoided nationally could reach 30,000-40,000 in total.
It’s compelling evidence for change without even considering the millions of dollars saved in health care costs that come with it.
Registration in boys hockey begins to decline after age 10. Concussions and other serious injuries are a factor in kids deciding to leave our game prematurely.
Programs like Seafair’s need to be adopted widely to preserve not only our kid’s health but our game as well.
Bill Barrable
Richmond
