Sports Medicine
Postseason Meeting Minutes – 5/12/09
WPI
Harrington Auditorium
Forkey Conference Room
In Attendance: Pete Olsen (MHC), Matt Whalen (Babson), Greg Steele (Wheaton),
Rick Burr, Kelli Steele (Smith), Mike DeSavage (WPI), Tom Cronan (MIT), Jennifer
Grunzweig (Wellesley), Kathy Disalvesti (Wheaton), Natalie Diamond (WPI), Lisa
Marie (MIT), Michelle McCloud (MIT), Scott Spack (MIT), Jess Runny –Gallagher
(MIT), Kristen Wilson, Barclay Dugger (Springfield), Ken Niedzwiecki (USCGA),
Brent Riddle (Clark)
1. Review Minutes from September conference call
Due to coordinating schedules and lack of issues to discuss, there was no conference call in
September 2008.
2. New NCAA legislation – discussion (Clark)
Wellesley- All head coaches and assistants-department pays: on job description
Smith- Teach in August –Head, Assistant and GA-department pays
WPI- Teach in May and August
Wheaton- all head coaches, only assistants running practice by themselves
Babson- CPR/AED- available to all staff, First Aid- All head coaches
MHC- Only head coaches, must pay for the card themselves
Springfield- All coaches done in January, GAs done in August: paid thru athletics
Smith sends e-mail reminders throughout the summer giving coaches the dates and times
certification is available through the school. Challenge becomes when individual cannot
attend those sessions. In-house teaching becomes burdensome to offer separate times for
individuals that need special sessions.
NEWMAC-Sports Medicine-Minutes 5/12/09
Babson will utilize online sessions for staff that cannot attend certification sessions.
American Red Cross has now started online sessions “Blended Learning Approach”.
MIT mandates handling of blood borne pathogens training along with First Aid.
Issue was raised about the additional work-load that this places on the certifying
individual(s). Different demands when legislation was changed from “institutional policy” to
“NCAA legislation”. When push comes to shove, on August 15 it will be an NCAA violation
for coaches not to be certified.
Tom from MIT suggested a brief survey on the NEWMAC institutions to document what
each school is doing with regards to certification.
Rick asked about new legislation with regards to ADHD medication. MHC is placing
additional questions on their medical history forms. Babson already asks these questions as
part of their academic area where students must document need for additional time on
tests or other special academic needs. NCAA language indicates that the institution
“should” keep documentation of particular medications in confidential file. Does not sound
like student-athletes should be withheld from participation
3. Smith FH team will be playing all home games off campus this coming year. (Smith)
Smith’s FH team will be playing 4 institutions at 3 different sites. Travel to sites can vary
from 10 minutes to 30 minutes.
4. Returning to practice/competition following miscarriage or termination of pregnancy.
Topic rose at the “scholarly colloquium”. This past year was the topic was raised about
returning to practice following a pregnancy termination. Two student-athletes, identical
situation, but each kept from participation for different amounts of times. The outcome of
the discussion was that this should be left up to the team physician.
This raises larger question about mandating whether student-athletes report changes to
their medical status. Sports medicine personnel struggle with student-athletes that do not
notify trainers of medical issues.
5. Springfield- athletics training students will no longer be traveling with team.
6. Babson-discussion on how institutions handle treatment of officials. Babson’s legal counsel
indicated that Sports Medicine staff will not be covered if they treat or evaluate individuals
outside our system. Should we initiate legislation that limits what institutions provide on a
conference level? Rick volunteered to write a NEWMAC policy on this that can be
disseminated to officials’ assignors across the conference.
NEWMAC-Sports Medicine-Minutes 5/12/09
Discussion took place on process and how we could/should notify officials within the
conference. NEWMAC could send letter to all “conference assignors”, but institutions
should also notify all their assignors of NEWMAC policy.
Recommendation: Each Head Certified Athletics Trainer return to campus and discuss with
their Athletics Director and/or legal counsel regarding this issue.
MIT raised the concern about leaving one institution on an island. Could be awkward if one
institution provides certain treatment and another does not.
7. Work-life balance information coming out of the NCAA is interesting and encouraged to be
read. As a group, the Athletics Trainers may be in a position to discuss more balance.
8. Point was raised that liaison institution’s ATC should be on the pre-season conference call
for each sport. The ATC from host institution for per-determined site championships should
be on the call for those sports. ATC liaison will send reminder to each sport liaison about
including ATC on pre-season conference call.
NEWMAC-Sports Medicine-Minutes 5/12/09