Doctors will look at icy pool option for high school athletes

This from the Herald-Leader:

LOUISVILLE — Physicians on a Kentucky Medical Association committee will conduct immediate research so that they can advise Kentucky High School coaches
on the best way to react to heat illnesses by the time warm-weather athletic practices begin, committee chairman James Bowles said Thursday.

One option is whether coaches should make sure that they have an icy pool available to athletes — a provision that was recently cut from legislation in the General Assembly because certified trainers and physicians worried that coaches wouldn't know how to use the pools properly.

Bowles, a Madisonville physician, heads a KMA committee that advises the Kentucky High School Athletic Association on medical matters.

He said that to meet the requirements of a law signed Tuesday by Gov. Steve Beshear, members of the committee also plan to develop an online course for coaches by midsummer.

The law requires medical and safety training for coaches by the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, as well as mandating that a trained coach be present at all practices and competitions...