July 26, 2005


TEXAS SPORTS MEDICINE FOUNDATION TO MAKE ITS DEBUT AT TEXAS STATE HIGH SCHOOL COACHES’ ASSOCIATION’S ANNUAL COACHING SCHOOL

New Foundation Committed To Leveling Playing Field for Underprivileged High School Athletes

San Antonio, TX – (July 26, 2005) – Supported by a board of professional athletes and founded by one of the world’s foremost authorities on anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, the Texas Sports Medicine Foundation (TSMF) will introduce itself and its mission to more than 1,000 high school coaches attending the Texas State High School Coaches’ Association’s 74th annual Coaching School July 24-27 in San Antonio. According to T.O. Souryal, M.D., head team physician for the Dallas Mavericks and founder of TSMF, the primary goal for the foundation is to keep high school athletes’ college dreams alive.

“For many underprivileged high school athletes, their athletic skills may be the one ticket they have to achieve a college education and a better way of life,” he says. “Too often, we see high school athletes sidelined because of injuries that their families simply can’t afford to have treated. The students’ abilities to reach their full potential are then sidelined right along with them. The Texas Sports Medicine Foundation aims to change that by providing grants to cover necessary medical tests, treatment and equipment – like knee braces – so that these promising athletes have the opportunity to realize their athletic and academic potential.”

While medical grants represent a crucial service the foundation will deliver, it is equally focused on injury prevention as well as education about issues affecting the student athlete. To that end, and in conjunction with FSN Southwest, the foundation will develop a series of educational pieces on topics ranging from anabolic steroids and heat stroke, to head trauma and over-use/over-training syndromes, that will be distributed to every high school athletic director and trainer throughout the state. These same materials will be available through the foundation’s website (www.tsmfoundation.org), and will provide the basis for a series of public service announcements on FSN Southwest.

To raise awareness and help prevent serious and, sometimes catastrophic, sports-related illnesses such as Sudden Cardiac Death Syndrome, the foundation also plans to raise the necessary funds for mobile testing equipment as well as defibrillators for every school that cannot afford one. “We are extremely concerned with student athletes’ cardiac health and the increasing incidence of Sudden Cardiac Death Syndrome, which is claiming at least 60 young lives per year. This rare but potentially fatal condition can be curbed with a series of tests and the availability of electronic defibrillators. We want to ensure every high school athletic program has a defibrillator, as well as someone trained to use it.”

Beginning in late August, when many high school football teams will be knee-deep in two-a-day practices, the foundation’s public service announcement about heat stroke will begin airing on FSN Southwest featuring two of the foundation’s board members, retired Dallas Cowboy LeeRoy Jordan and Tim Brown of the Oakland Raiders. High school coaches will begin receiving information about the foundation in September; the foundation will begin accepting applications for medical grants in January 2006. The grants will be administered without regard to race or gender to any eligible high school athlete (grades 9-12) who plays a school-sponsored sport.

The foundation’s board of advisors includes: Shawn Bradley of the Dallas Mavericks; Tim Brown of the Oakland Raiders and 1987 Heisman Trophy Winner; Roger Hinds, head team trainer of the New York Knicks; LeeRoy Jordan, former Dallas Cowboy and NFL All-Pro; Anthony “Spud” Webb, former NBA Slam-Dunk Champion and player for the Atlanta Hawks; Doug Welch, chief executive officer of Las Colinas Medical Center; Dr. Doug Overbeck, cardiologist; Kevin Sherrington, sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News; and, Mike Robinson, prominent high school football coach.
 

The Texas Sports Medicine Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. The goal of the Texas Sports Medicine Foundation is to level the medical playing field for economically disadvantaged high-school athletes by ensuring they have access to the same level of medical care, expertise and treatment for their sports-related injuries as is the accepted medical standard, regardless of ability to pay, so they may achieve their ultimate potential in athletics and in life. The Foundation is also dedicated to supporting and developing research studies related to improving the environment in which student athletes practice, train and compete.