A nightmare occurred at the University of Maryland in 2018 when freshman football player Jordan McNair died of heatstroke after an offseason practice. The confluence of events caused this nightmare scenario—a warm, humid day with a heat index over 90 degrees; practice was suddenly relocated to another field because the designated practice area (the football stadium) was under construction; the workouts were started before ATCs arrived on site and were fully set up (including cold water pools), and the strength coach running the practice did not recognize the signs of heatstroke that McNair was demonstrating.

That same year, I authored an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun about what may have precipitated this pressure placed on coaches, athletes and administrators-both financial and prestige. This situation can typify the unintended pressures that come as presidents and trustees try to move their institutions quickly up the ladder in college sports.

The question all senior leaders should ask is: could something like this happen at my school?

Today, my guests are two health care professionals who have seen college athletics from the inside, both as team medical professionals and now as administrators in the United States. Both represent the U.S. Council for Athletes Health, an organization dedicated to strengthening institutional education, consulting, compliance (with existing health care mandates) and support for the newly mandated Athletics Healthcare Administrator, now required under NCAA rules.

Dr. Chad Asplund is a 20-year sports medicine practitioner at the professional, Olympic, collegiate and recreational levels. Dr. Asplund is the executive director of the U.S. Council for Athletes’ Health, as well as a sports medicine physician and Professor of Family Medicine and Orthopedics at the Medical College of Georgia. Chad currently serves as the medical director for USA Basketball, and a team physician for USA Hockey and Georgia Southern University. He also is the past president of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, the largest physician-only organization for sports medicine physicians.

Angie Beisner focused her career on the care and prevention of athletic injuries within collegiate organizations for more than two decades before bringing her extensive knowledge to USCAH operations in June 2021.

Before joining the U.S. Council for Athletes Health, she most recently was the head athletic trainer at Ohio State, she was also named the lead athletic trainer for the USA U19 Men's Lacrosse team.

Student Athlete Health, Safety and Wellbeing: A Lack of Accountability and Prioritization Poses the Greatest Risk to College Sports

Opinion Editorial/Blog

Written by James Borchers, MD, MPH

President and CEO of USCAH