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How we did the concussion survey

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

February 19, 2012

How the numbers were compiled

The Globe asked 29 top high school athletic departments in Greater Boston to provide the number of “head injuries and suspected concussions’’ (the language in the new state law) sustained during the 2011 fall season in three sports: football, boys’ soccer, and girls’ soccer, at all levels (varsity, junior varsity, and freshmen). Not all schools have three levels in every sport.

The survey went to a number of the last decade’s most successful football programs as well as girls’ and boys’ soccer programs at the same schools. The programs surveyed included 2011 Super Bowl participants Needham, Lincoln-Sudbury, Everett, Duxbury, Oliver Ames, Concord-Carlisle, and Cardinal Spellman. Those teams each played 11 games in the regular season, plus two playoff games.

The Globe survey provides an early look at totals in two fall sports at a limited number of schools.

At the end of the school year, all public middle and high schools and schools governed by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association will be required to report their head injury data to the state for the full school year.

Three schools did not provide the fall sports data requested by the Globe: Walpole High School, Natick High School, and Acton-Boxborough Regional High School.

Lincoln Lynch, superintendent for the Walpole public schools, said in an e-mail: “We are not comfortable releasing the information until the end of the school year, which is when it is reported to the Department of Public Health. The Walpole public schools understand the importance of this issue and appreciate the article you are writing, but we prefer that the information be complete before it is reported.’’