Simple Illness Prevention

As we come closer to the postseason tournaments, I would like to remind all of our athletes that we are also hitting the peak of cold and flu season. If you are around somebody who is dealing with these bugs, please make sure that you are using proper hand washing techniques frequently and practicing good hygiene. Also, please do not feel embarrassed to decline shaking hands or hugging others, especially if they are sick. Simply explaining that you are trying to be careful and remain healthy for the postseason will often alleviate any hard feeling that others will have. Finally, I recommend that each of you stops at Marc's or Walmart and invest in a small bottle of hand wash that you can attach to your bag and keep with you. USE the hand wash regularly when running to the bathroom to wash your hands is not feasible.

Lightning strike at high school football halftime show

This video is offered here without comment. If this was as random a lightning strike as is being reported, that is scary. If, however, the strike could have been foreseen coming with a smartphone app, then there is no excuse for it.
Video as reported by WTAM in Cleveland, Ohio

Reaching out

Over the next couple of months, we will be trying to reach out and inform a lot of diverse groups about the implications of HB 143 in Ohio. Since this legislation requires everyone who works with active children under the age of 18 to take an online course every three years, this is a monumental task. This means that every person who supervises a martial arts class, ski instructor, PE teacher, summer camp counselor, and you name it, must take this this class. We are working quickly to try and build the network we will need to get the word spread as quickly as possible. Here is some of what we have planned.

A major announcement coming soon from the hospital about a project that a colleague and I have been working on for the last two years. No, I can't say any more than that yet.
A new twitter account for our group within the hospital with some planned tweet chats has been created.
A new lunch time podcast will premier soon on iTunes. (Guess what the first few topics are that we have chosen to cover.)
A new quarterly electronic newsletter to help inform parents and coaches via email.
A significant amount of work to drive more traffic back to the hospital's Facebook page and website, both of which will hold more information about the law.
Educational courses for school administrators and teachers to increase awareness of issues and how they can help victims significantly by identifying issues in the classroom have been constructed.

Needless to say, that with the short window we have to eat this all done by March, we have set a very aggressive timeline for ourselves. This promises to be a very busy month and a half since it also coincides with our preparations for National Athletic Training Month and, oh yes, I think there might be a couple of basketball, wrestling, swimming, and gymnastics tournaments running soon.
Yep, this is going to be a fun time.

And just for reference, here is a link to the new law:
http://bit.ly/UdWArT