Brooks pleads for heat-stroke bill; lawmakers not persuaded

FRANKFORT — Efforts to prevent heat stroke among young athletes were in doubt Monday for this legislative session after the Senate Education Committee voted to defer the matter for study until fall.

The move came despite testimony by University of Kentucky football Coach Rich Brooks that many younger coaches in the state have little or no training in how to recognize heat stroke or what to do about it.

“I think it’s imperative that coaches do receive some education into the threat of what can happen to a young man when heat exhaustion becomes a major factor,” said Brooks, who was joined by Jack Crowe, head football coach at Jackson State University in Alabama. Crowe lost a player to heat stroke while coaching at Auburn University in 1983.

Monday night, however, Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr, R-Lexington, filed an amendment that would require Kentucky high school coaches to receive advanced training in heat stroke and related safety topics.

The issue in Kentucky was triggered last fall by the death of Max Gilpin, a football player at Louisville’s Pleasure Ridge Park High School, who died after collapsing while practicing in 94-degree heat. His coach later was indicted. It’s apparently the first time a coach has ever been criminally charged in a heat-stroke death.

Monday’s committee decision apparently would stand unless Kerr’s floor amendment is adopted when the bill comes to a vote in the Senate.

The committee’s decision to submit the matter for study was opposed by some education committee members, who argued that it would appear Kentucky was doing little about a potentially deadly problem for young athletes.

“The question will be asked, ‘What did Kentucky do?’ ” declared state Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville. “And the response is, ‘We studied the issue.”

Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, also questioned the wisdom of delay, saying he feared another tragedy could occur when middle and high school players start practicing in this summer’s heat.

The legislation at issue, House Bill 383, already had been weakened in the House. It requires Kentucky high school coaches to be trained in the use of automated external defibrillators, devices that can shock patients back to life if they suffer heat stroke. However, local school districts would have to provide defibrillators only if funds were available.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joni Jenkins, D-Louisville, noted Monday that it originally would have required the Kentucky Board of Education to start a review of heat injury issues within 30 days after the bill became effective.

But the committee substitute approved by the Senate education panel on Monday simply requires the Kentucky High School Athletics Association to complete a study of sports safety, including heat-related injuries, and report by Oct. 30. Legislators could then consider the findings in the next session in January.

Brooks, however, told the committee that the problem could be addressed before this summer’s football practices by quickly instituting training for coaches in how to recognize heat stroke. He suggested that Kentucky could expect waves of negative news coverage this summer as a state where a fatality occurred, but little was done.

Also appearing with Brooks was Matthew Lemak, executive director of the Alabama-based National Center for Sports Safety, who said his organization already markets a training program to help coaches recognize signs of heat stroke before it becomes a life-threatening problem. The course costs about $36 per coach; can be completed in person or online in a few hours; and already has been mandated by Alabama, Florida and Mississippi, Lemak said.

Crowe, who has worked with Lemak, said he’s worked on heat-stroke issues for 25 years since losing one of his own players. He asserted that “there is an enormous gap in education among coaches” in how to deal with the problem.

“This is not that hard … it’s about education,” Crowe said. “There are studies. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has studied this. You already have studies.”

Neal agreed, contending that requiring education “just cannot be something that we can delay about.”

According to Brooks, the NCAA already has adopted practice rule changes as a result of previous heat deaths.

“As a coach I’ve been fortunate enough to have Red Cross training; I was a lifeguard; I’ve taken CPR courses,” Brooks said. “I’ve had a certified athletic trainer at all my practices … But all coaches have not had that training, particularly at the high school level.”

Jenkins said after the meeting that she would have preferred that some action be taken before football practices start this year.

Also disappointed were Randy and Marla Owens of Henderson, whose son, Ryan Owens, died of heat-related problems while practicing football in 2006.

Randy Owens said he and other parents had received assurances that something would be done to prevent future deaths. Now, he fears nothing will happen, he said.

“No one wants to touch it,” Owens said.

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