Oakdale Athletic Association is committed to providing safety to our youth kids. 

MN Concussion Law Announcement

Minnesota Legislature's New "Concussion Law" Requires Online Training for All Coaches and Officials.

The Minnesota Legislature recently passed a "Concussion Law" which requires any municipality, business, school district or nonprofit organization that organizes a youth athletic activity and charges a fee to follow the statute's requirements, including implementing concussion training and education to improve player safety and establish safe return-to-play policies for athletes who sustain a concussion.

The law mandates that:

• All coaches (head and assistants) and officials receive concussion training and education by September 1, 2011, and then at three-year intervals thereafter.

• Coaches must remove an athlete from activity if they exhibit signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion and/or are suspected of sustaining a concussion.

• The law also requires an appropriate health care professional's signature to return to play if an athlete is removed due to a concussion or is showing signs or symptoms of a concussion.

The Concussion Education we recommend for coaches and officials is the online video training session developed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Federation of State High Schools. This course requires registration but is free. Over 200,000 coaches and officials have already successfully completed this course. The training process involves watching a video and then successfully completing a quiz. The entire training program can be completed in a little over a half an hour and then participants can print out a certificate on their desktop or print and scan the certificate to create a digital file. (Link on the right)

Coaches who do not complete the training course or do not have a copy of the certificate will be ineligible to coach.

This also applies to Sports,

When you're working in the heat, safety comes first. With the OSHA Heat Safety Tool, you have vital safety information available whenever and wherever you need it - right on your mobile phone.

The App allows workers and supervisors to calculate the heat index for their worksite, and, based on the heat index, displays a risk level to outdoor workers. Then, with a simple "click," you can get reminders about the protective measures that should be taken at that risk level to protect workers from heat-related illness-reminders about drinking enough fluids, scheduling rest breaks, planning for and knowing what to do in an emergency, adjusting work operations, gradually building up the workload for new workers, training on heat illness signs and symptoms, and monitoring each other for signs and symptoms of heat-related illness.

Working in full sunlight can increase heat index values by 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep this in mind and plan additional precautions for working in these conditions. 

Click on the logo above to get more information and or download the app.  App is for Android, and iPhones.