People in North Carolina love sports and love to support their local teams whether its high school or college, but people outside of North Carolina may not know that North Carolina is at the forefront in protecting its young athletes from catastrophic sports injuries such as concussions and other brain injuries.

A part of North Carolina's push to recognize and address catastrophic brain injuries related to sports began with the tragic death of a North Carolina high school foot ball player. The 15-year-old sophomore from Winston-Salem suffered a serious concussion during his first high school football game. The young man never woke up from the concussion and died two days later. The high schooler's mother recalled the hit and explained that neither her son nor the boy who hit him had the ball. The mother said it was a helmet to helmet hit that resulted from a trap block. The other boy did not mean to hurt her son the mother said.

There was a delay getting the 15-year-old to the hospital that night because of the need to call two ambulances, but it is not clear whether getting the 15-year-old to the hospital 15 or 20 minutes earlier would have saved his life. The tragic event has served as a point to ensure that proper planning at future sporting events across the state is developed.

Every year 30,000 high school athletes go to the hospital due to serious sports injuries and 50 high school athletes died from catastrophic injuries in 2010. A significant number of high schools lack access to an athletic trainer. According to the National Athletic Trainers' Association, a certified athletic trainer should be present at every high school sports event. An athletic trainer can immediately respond to an emergency and be the point of communication when other medical professionals arrive at the scene of an injury.

This summer, North Carolina passed a law on concussions named after the 15-year-old high school football player and another amateur athlete. The law requires that all public middle schools and high schools have an emergency action plan to respond to serious athletic injuries.

Source: health.usnews.com, "Parents speak out on catastrophic youth sports injuries," Lisa Esposito, Dec. 29, 2011