i9 Sports Supports President Obama’s White House Healthy Kids & Safe Sports Concussion Summit
Tampa, FL (PRWEB) May 29, 2014 -- Today, President Obama, who has said he would have to think “long and hard” before letting a son play tackle football due to the risk of head injuries, hosted the White House Healthy Kids & Safe Sports Concussion Summit hoping to raise awareness on how to identify, treat and prevent concussions.
i9 Sports, the nation’s first and fastest-growing youth sports league franchise is taking concussion safety head-on by pioneering concussion safety reform within youth sports.
“We don’t believe that injuries should be a natural and acceptable consequence of playing youth sports. That’s why we’ve made changes to our leagues to further minimize the risk of head injury so kids can focus on learning the fundamentals of sports and having fun,” says Brian Sanders, President and COO of i9 Sports. “It takes more than a coach, a team or a league to make safety changes. It takes a movement. We see the Safe Sports Concussion Summit as an important step in large scale safety reform and are excited to be leading the movement from within the youth sports arena.”
Some ways i9 Sports is leading concussion safety reform:
• “When in Doubt, Sit Them Out” Policy – An athlete in i9 Sports who is suspected of sustaining a concussion or head injury will be removed from the practice or game immediately and will not be allowed to return to play without written clearance from a licensed health care provider. i9 Sports was the first national youth sports organization to implement this policy across all its leagues coast to coast.
• i9 Sports now Educates All Its Parents, Coaches and Officials on Concussion Safety. i9 Sports now requires parents to read and sign a Concussions Safety Information page as part of its online registration process. i9 Sports also provides concussion information, signs and symptoms in all coaches’ and officials’ guides.
• i9 Sports leagues play flag football – NO TACKLE. i9 Sports parents across the country, even those that played tackle football when they were young, choose flag football for their children under age 14 because it offers the benefits of learning the sport without the dangers of full contact tackle football.
• i9 Sports has a Strict No-Heading Policy in soccer. Young soccer players do not have the developmental skills to head the ball properly on the forehead and instead may incorrectly head the ball on the top of the head or on the temple, causing greater risk for concussion. i9 Sports was the first youth sports organization to implement this policy nationally across all its leagues
About i9 Sports
Based in the Tampa Bay, Florida area, i9 Sports® is the first and fastest-growing youth sports league franchise company in the United States. With more than half a million members from New York to Hawaii, i9 Sports offers leagues, camps, and clinics for boys and girls ages 3-14 in today’s most popular team sports such as flag football, soccer, basketball and baseball.
A privately held company, i9 Sports was founded in 2003 by CEO Frank Fiume on the principle that the number one reason kids play organized sports is to have fun, not to become the next draft pick. Reinventing the youth sports industry, customers enjoy the i9 Sports Experience which emphasizes fun, safety and convenience as well as teaching the value of good sportsmanship.
Named #1 Children’s Fitness Franchise by Entrepreneur Magazine, i9 Sports has been ranked in their prestigious Franchise 500® issue the past seven years. i9 Sports has also been listed among INC Magazine’s 5000 Fastest Growing Companies for the past five years and received Franchise Business Review’s Top 50 in Franchise Satisfaction Award for five years.
For more information on i9 Sports, visit http://www.i9sports.com. To learn more about the low investment, low overhead i9 Sports franchise opportunity, visit http://www.i9sportsfranchise.com.
Megan Licursi, i9 Sports, http://wwwi9Sports.com, +1 (513) 404-2545, [email protected]
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