Protecting youth athletes in the heat: how a flawed governance system creates unnecessary hurdles to achieve best practices

This presentation will examine the current best practices for prevention, recognition, and treatment of exertional heat illnesses in high school sport in the USA. Specifically issues related to heat acclimatization, work to rest ratios based on the WBGT, emergency action plans, cold water immersion, cool-first/transport second, coaching education among others will be addressed. It will examine the process in which best practices become policy and procedures for the 8 million high school athlete and explain the hurdles that are present in the current governance structure. It will also provide an overview of the current standards that are in place in the 51 entities (including D.C.) in the USA and recap recent progress since the release of the 2013 consensus statement document titled: Preventing Sudden Death in Secondary School Athletics.