2016 Insurance Program Released For American Youth Football

Source: sadlersports.com - 2016 Insurance Program Released For American Youth Football
Author: John M. Sadler

The gold standard that is the envy of the competition

The American Youth Football and American Youth Cheer endorsed insurance provider, Sadler Sports Insurance, has released the new 2016 insurance program for teams /associations /conferences. Detailed 2016 coverage and rate information is now available on our website.  Online enrollment for the new season is available now!

The 2016 offering is, once again, the gold standard in youth football and cheer insurance with an unbeatable combination of low rates, broad custom coverages, and best-in-industry automation that allows instant online enrollment and issuance of proof of coverage documents and certificates for field owners. But that’s not all: the program also provides best-in-industry risk management resources to prevent injuries before they become claims and groundbreaking studies on safety in youth football and cheer.

Apply, pay, and print proof of coverage documents and certificates in as little as 10 minutes

Our advanced automation is so simple and fast that you can complete the entire insurance purchase transaction and print all your documents in as little as 10 minutes. Many competitors require the completion of forms and days of waiting just to get a quote. Then, once the quote is bound, it can take several days to get the proof of coverage documents and certificates for field owners. Or, they could charge $100 extra for next day rush delivery.

After the purchase, we provide our clients access to our website so that they can self-issue certificates for new field owners 24/7. It’s so easy and our clients love this benefit.

Beware of competing programs that seem too good to be true

We often hear stories about a competitor offering cut-rate policies with a per team rate that is too low to be believable. Whenever this happens, something ends up being defective with the offering, which illustrates that if something is too good to be true, it usually is. We’ve seen cases where the quoted price did not include the cost of both the Accident and General Liability policies, where the organization never reported the transaction to the insurance carrier and no insurance was in force, and where a big corporation was going to foot the bill for the insurance (dream on), etc. Just this year we found a competitor that was bragging about their great insurance program but had grossly misrepresented its limits and coverages to the public. We brought this to the attention of their insurance carrier and corrections were made. After a little bit of digging, these schemes fall apart.

What is being done to combat the risk of concussion/brain injury and related litigation?

Sadler Sports Insurance provides a sample Football/Cheer Concussion Awareness Risk Management Program (short form) that is strongly recommended for all teams/associations/conferences. This free program can be found under the risk management section of our AYF Insurance Page. This program consolidates accepted risk management practices into a three-page document for easy board adoption and implementation. We recommend coaches complete the AYF coaching education program. Certification is required of head football and cheer coaches participating in AYF national championships. We also encourage coaches, volunteers and players view the Seattle Seahawks’ tackle video, which demonstrates their tackling methods. AYF has provided a certification test to take in conjunction with this video on myafy.com. It is important for all teams/association/conferences to thicken their shields by adopting and fully implementing a comprehensive concussion/brain injury risk management program. The future of our sports depends on this action and it’s the right thing to do to protect the kids.

Check Out Our New, Improved AYF Webpage And Video And Our 98% Staff Awesome Rating

Our AYF/AYC webpage has been totally redesigned for an enhanced user experience where our prospect and clients can access all of our services (ex: applying, renewing, issuing certificates, add/delete teams, claims, etc.) without ever having to speak to a staff member at Sadler. However, should you have a question or need assistance, you can contact our staff by email, chat, or phone. We are very proud that surveys indicate that our staff is graded as 98% “Awesome” by those who have contacted us.

Also, all the football and cheer specific risk management content and related blogs are now available directly from the webpage.

In addition, we created a new video that can be viewed individually or by a small group to explain how to access our insurance and risk management services.

Best-in-industry risk management resources (free)

We have an incredible line up of free risk management resources including articles, legal forms, risk management program templates for your easy adoption and customization, and training videos for administrators and staff. This includes the newly created document entitled Sample AYF/AYC Advanced Plan, which is a comprehensive risk management program customized for AYF/AYC organizations.

Be a part of groundbreaking injury studies

If you purchase your insurance through the endorsed insurance program, all Accident claims automatically become part of the database where our custom software analyzes the information to produce meaningful injury reports. This has led to groundbreaking studies on the comparison of injuries in age only vs age/weight categories and the incidence of concussions within AYF/AYC.

Please visit our webpage at www.sadlersports.com/ayf or call us at 800-622-7370 if you have any questions.

Read Full Story: http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/2016-insurance-program-released-american-youth-football/

Beware USA Heads Up Football League Contractual Requirements

Source: sadlersports.com - Beware USA Heads Up Football League Contractual Requirements
Author: John M. Sadler

Leagues forced to share liability limits and assume liability that should belong to HUF

Last September, we posted “USA | Heads Up Football Imposes Onerous Contractual Requirements On Leagues” in an effort to educate our clients on how they were exposing themselves to legal risk when they signed the 2015 Heads Up Football (HUF) contract. In summary, most leagues that signed the contract were unknowingly reducing (i.e. giving up) their valuable league insurance limits by sharing them with HUF and were contractually accepting liability that should otherwise belong to HUF.

This conclusion was not just my opinion as a 30-year veteran sports insurance specialist, sports risk manager, and attorney, but was also the opinion of American Youth Football’s legal counsel and the experts at a major sports insurance carrier.

HUF is taking advantage of its superior negotiating strength to transfer insurance responsibility and litigation risk to the leagues that usually don’t have the luxury of staff legal counsel to review contracts on their behalf. That’s a smart move by HUF if no one notices and they can get away with it. However, it’s my job to educate my league clients so that they are informed decision makers before they give away their rights and protection.

Negotiation attempts with HUF have not been productive

During the off season, we shared our concerns and thoughts with USA Football about a more equitable HUF contract that would be fair to our insurance clients.  Now that the 2016 season is approaching, we contacted USA Football again for an update but they have not yet indicated their position. This is very concerning to me since leagues are now making plans for their brain injury risk management and tackle training programs. Hopefully, USA Heads Up Football will drop these unfair terms that are explained in detail in our original post.

What do we have against USA Heads Up Football?

Absolutely nothing. We commend them for developing the HUF program and they are one of the few vendors providing this type of training to get the head out of the tackle. We just want them to back their product and to use their own insurance limits if they are sued in conjunction with a league for negligent course content or negligent training.

Does USA Heads Up Football have a different opinion?

Yes, they have a different opinion and think that their contract is equitable. We just disagree and want to work with them to clarify some provisions. This is a highly technical contractual problem with potentially serious consequences for our clients.

Would you turn over your liability insurance limits to football helmet manufacturers and agree to accept their liability?

What if you wanted to buy new football helmets for your league and you approached the big helmet manufacturers, Riddell, Schutt, and Adams? And what if they told you that you could not buy their product unless you named them as a primary additional insured under your General Liability policy and signed an indemnification / hold harmless provision agreeing to accept their liability if you did not meet 10 of their conditions? I’m sure you would be outraged. You would probably be wondering why they did not want to be responsible for the safety of their own product and why they wanted to tap into your insurance limits and reduce your potential coverage when they already buy their own insurance. This situation is very similar to what HUF is trying to accomplish. Both are vendors of a high-risk product and/or service. If you wouldn’t accept this from the helmet manufacturers, why would you accept the same from HUF?

Are there any alternatives?

Some youth football leagues may want to explore other coach training options to get the head out of the tackle such as the  2015 Seahawks Tackling video. The  Seattle Seahawks video was developed by coach Pete Carroll and delivers online training to coaches on rugby style tackling techniques. It includes drill demonstrations and actually displays techniques during live action. The 2014 video was updated for 2015 and is touted as an excellent resource for youth tackle football coaches. AYF has developed an online test that can be found on their website that goes along with the video to verify that the coach has learned the essential elements.

Coach training to remove the head from the tackle is an important part of any youth tackle football concussion/brain injury risk management program. We discussed this in our recent post, “The Truth About Concussion Risk Management In Youth Tackle Football.”

Read Full Story: http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/p16142/

John Sadler Quoted in "Rough Notes"

Source: sadlersports.com - John Sadler Quoted in "Rough Notes"
Author: John M. Sadler

The April 2016 issue of Rough Notes magazine featured an article on the competitive market of amateur sports insurance. Rough Notes is a leading trade magazine for insurance agents that often turns to John Sadler for his insight into sports-related industry trends and issues.

With regard to insurance service and risk management in this segment of the insurance industry, Sadler was quoted saying, “For the third year in a row, the biggest issue of concern in amateur sports insurance is brain injury in the concussion-prone sports. While most carriers haven’t actually seen an influx of brain injury claims activity on the amateur side, they’re being cautious.”

Sadler is referring to the response to ongoing reports in the media of professional athletes diagnosed with CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) following their autopsies and researchers looking into the possible link of contact sports to CTE in living athletes.

“It’s feared that adverse media attention will negatively impact juries.The recent Pop Warner settlement has not helped in this regard; however, many recent court rulings in this area have been favorable to sports associations,” said Sadler.

Sadler was also asked  about rate increases, which he says are running in the range of 0 to 8% for accounts with good loss histories. “High-risk concussion sports are seeing slight rate increases and coverage reductions. Carriers want to limit their exposure on this still-difficult-to-quantify risk by excluding it altogether, lowering aggregates and/or including defense within limits, and they’re also requiring certain risk management controls as a pre-condition of binding.”

He also addressed the issue of risk that comes with the social element of sports and clubs, saying, “While most of these clubs do have policies in place to help cover potential injuries and to protect and defend against any potential lawsuits, there could be gaps. This is particularly true where a liquor liability exposure exists.”

The digital version of the article can be found online here.

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Source: Dave Willis, “Amateur Sports: Competitive Market, Emerging Risks.” www.roughnotes.com. Vol. 98, April 2016.

Read Full Story: http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/p16127/

The Truth About Concussion Risk Management in Youth Football

Source: sadlersports.com - The Truth About Concussion Risk Management in Youth Football
Author: John M. Sadler

How to Plan a Youth Football Brain Injury Risk Management Program

Local associations must adopt and implement a concussion/brain injury management program to battle looming liability crisis.

For the past three years, Sadler Sports & Recreation Insurance has been urging our youth tackle football clients to implement comprehensive brain injury risk management programs to help to prevent injuries and resulting lawsuits from becoming insurance claims. In the event that a lawsuit is filed by an injured participant, whether from a single concussion, multiple concussions, or cumulative traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), it is crucial for a local association to show that it has complied with the national standard of care for brain injury protection. Doing so not only protects the players against injuries and the association and staff against lawsuits, but also protects the General Liability insurance carrier, which makes it more likely that brain injury coverage will be available in the future.

Standard of care owed is determined by state legislation, case law, sanctioning and governing bodies, risk management resources, and expert witnesses

In a negligence-based lawsuit, the claimant filing the lawsuit must prove that a duty was owed, the duty was breached, and that the breach was the cause of the damages. The duty that is owed is also known as the standard of care. The standard of care to protect against brain injury for youth football players will be determined by state legislation, case law, sanctioning and governing bodies, risk management resources, and expert witnesses.

Depending on the source, some standards are mandated and others are recommended or are just guidelines. However, understand that the claimant’s attorney will argue that even recommended standards and guidelines should be implemented by a reasonable and prudent youth football association.

9 Elements of a solid written risk management program for youth football associations

The following elements should be considered by local tackle football associations when developing their concussion/brain injury risk management program.

1. 
   

   Written program

   
   

A written risk management program should be adopted by board action and communicated to all administrators, staff, players, and parents. A written program that builds in accountability is much more likely to be implemented than a program that is not in writing.

2. 
   

   Educational awareness through online training and information handouts

   
   

Coaches should receive training and certification in both 1) concussion basics for youth sports through the CDC Concussion Training Course, NAYS Concussion Training Course, or a similar online course, and 2) a tackle training program on how to remove the head from the tackle such as through Seahawks Tackling.

Players and Parents should receive and be required to sign off and return to the association a concussion fact sheet handout from the CDC or a similar source at the beginning of every season.

3. 
   

   Document retention

   
   

The local association should maintain documentation of coach training certificates and player/parent fact sheets for 15 years. Note that a 5-year-old child may wait until age 20 in many states before filing a lawsuit for a past injury.

4. 
   

   Baseline and post injury neurocognitive testing

   
   

This is a rapidly changing area with the emergence of new, lower-cost technologies where baseline and post-injury testing can be delivered on the sidelines through smart phones and tablets. So far, baseline neurocognitive testing is considered to be a voluntary measure in most instances.

5. 
   

   Identify suspected cases of concussions

   
   

The highest medical authority (M.D., D.O.,  athletic trainer, or person with EMT or Red Cross certification) at a practice or game should make the call in terms of signs observed by parents, guardians, or sports staff and symptoms reported by player. The highest authority must be aware of danger signs that would result in an immediate trip to the emergency room and in questions to ask and exertional maneuvers to perform to identify a potential concussion. Identification of potential concussions is a rapidly evolving area with a number of new tools that have recently hit the market or that will soon be available, such as helmet impact indicators, smart phone/tablet apps for sideline testing of memory and fine motor coordination to compare to baseline results, tablet eye-tracking devices, telemedicine with doctors via smart phones, etc.

6. 
   

   Actions to take if a concussion is suspected

   
   

Remove the athlete from play, make sure the athlete is evaluated by an M.D. or D.O., inform parents through the CDC fact sheet, and keep the athlete out of play until written return-to-play medical clearance is received from a qualified medical provider. Some state concussion laws allow return-to-play medical clearance by a “health care provider” which may also encompass professionals such as physicians’ assistants and nurse practitioners.

7. 
   

   Reduce full contact during practices

   
   

The Datalys Study by Kerr indicates that limiting contact at practice may reduce concussions in youth tackle football. Governing and sanctioning bodies have started to adopt contact limitation guidelines.

8. 
   

   Proper fitting and care of helmets

   
   

This has always been and continues to be of critical importance in protecting youth football players from head and neck injuries. A number of online guides and videos are available from helmet manufacturers to assist coaches and equipment managers in this area. A list of these sources can be found on the risk management section of our website.

9. 
   

   Compliance with state concussion laws and governing body and sanctioning body requirements or recommendations

   
   

Any risk management program should comply with the standards as prescribed by state concussion legislation (this only applies to schools in some states) and governing body (USAFB) and sanctioning body (AYF, Pop Warner) requirements and recommendations.

Based on my 30 years of experience in the sports insurance niche and the potential for brain injury litigation, I would not want to be a board member or staff member involved with a youth tackle football organization that did not have an effective, formally-adopted and fully-implemented written concussion/brain injury risk management program.

Sadler Sports & Recreation Insurance has developed a sample concussio/ brain injury risk management program for our youth football clients that incorporates the elements listed above and that can be downloaded from our website in WORD document format.

Read Full Story: http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/concussion-risk-management/

High School Facing Title IX Complaint Over Softball Fields

Source: sadlersports.com - High School Facing Title IX Complaint Over Softball Fields
Author: John M. Sadler

Softball parents cry foul over field conditions

What should evoke feelings of nostalgia and pride have instead propelled parents at Lexington High School into legal action. The South Carolina school’s aging softball field is in need of improvements, according to Tanya McCraw. Her daughter still plays there where she played while attending the school in the mid 1990s.

The players’ parents claim the girls’ softball and boys’ baseball facilities are unequal and that their complaints are being ignored. They have filed a Title IX complaint, insisting there are serious safety issues that need addressed.

Parents’ list of complaints include:

• A storm drain in foul territory along left field line is uncovered posing a trip hazard.


• The home plate backstop isn’t adequately padded to protect players or fans.


• The outfield is dimly in areas and is riddled by divots from by bands that use the field to practice.


• The dressing area is so small that players often change their uniforms in their cars.


• Dugouts are small and have dirt floors that turn to mud during heavy rains.

What’s in dispute

Officials from the school district say minor problems on the field are being addressed but reject claims of any dangerous conditions. The school replaced lights that were burnt out, is removing mold from the concession stand, and already installed plastic piping along the top of the fences.

But an upgrade to the 24-year-old field would need to be added to a plan that’s already in development for renovations and new facilities, according to district officials. And that would require voters agreeing to a raise in property taxes. Even then, the improvements wouldn’t be made until 2018.

A recent $1.5 million upgrade to the boys’ field include a new backstop, bleachers and dugouts. Funds for that project came from money saved on other project. The boys also have an indoor practice facility, which was built with donated money.

Understanding Title IX

School districts and private educational institutions that receive federal funds need to be aware of Title IX and the potential for litigation and should respond accordingly to make sure that illegal disparities between boys and girls facilities don’t exist. Title IX claims and their legal defense may potentially be covered under a Directors & Officers Liability policy depending on how the complaint is worded.

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Source: Tim Flach, “Lexington High’s softball field is unsafe, players’ parents say,” thestate.com. 10 March, 2016.

Read Full Story: http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/p16110/