At the Ravens, we take concussion safety extremely seriously. We have gone beyond World Rugby guidelines by partnering with BC Children’s Hospital Injury Prevention to ensure we are applying best-practice education and tracking across all our age groups. This includes monitoring players’ concussion history and incidents, so we can better understand how often concussions occur and how we can reduce risks.

 

Why this matters

 

Concussions cannot be eliminated in a contact sport, but we can greatly reduce their impact through education and proper management. From our experience, the most severe concussions (those that affect school attendance) often occur when:

 

1. A player begins the season with a history of concussions.

2. A player suffers a minor concussion but does not follow best-practice recovery, leading to a more serious outcome.

 

What we are doing

 

To support our players, we are introducing the following requirements:

 

• Concussion history form: Each family must opt in or out of sharing a player’s concussion background at the start of the season. This helps coaches understand if a Raven is entering play with prior concussions. Form here

• Community training: We ask that every player, one parent/caregiver, and all coaches complete concussion awareness training. This builds a culture of safety where:

  • Players feel comfortable reporting symptoms.

  • Coaches and parents are alert to warning signs

  • Teammates look out for each other if a coach doesn’t see an incident.

• Immediate removal from play: If a concussion is suspected, players will be removed from contact immediately.

 

Training resources (CATT Online)

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In addition to the world rugby coach training, we will be using the CATT Online Tool for consistent education across our community:

• Athletes Training Course (adult players)

• Youth Training Course

• Parents/Caregivers Training Course

• Coaches Training Course

 

Steps for families and players

 

Complete the concussion history form Form here and the relevent relevant training course (youth, athelte (adult), parent and coach).

Report any rugby suspected or confirmed concussion through the season, form here.

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By working together, we can reduce the risks and make Ravens Rugby a leader in concussion awareness and player safety.

 

Thank you for your support in protecting our young athletes.