Insure young athletes who are injured

Rocky Clark’s death offers a day of reckoning for justice: Didn’t he as a paralyzed high school athlete teach us? Didn’t Rocky, who played for a South suburban high school 10 years ago, show us the way?

A new day calls out for dealing with the catastrophic injury of high school student athletes: Rocky’s voice is still now, but we hear the details of a “Rocky Clark law” and the Gridiron Alliance leadership’s working national plan concept:

1. Make sure moms and dads review their own athlete’s health care coverage. Parents and boosters can obtain an extended “rider” to protect their athletes.

2. Make sure the high school/district has a minimum $5 million dollar policy that clicks in and works with parental insurance plan or pays for uninsured athletes.

3. Make sure that the state association responsibly insures student athletes for an additional $5 million that clicks in after the school district pays out.

4. Make sure that the national high school association insures student athletes so that if he or she should be fortunate to outlive the other policies, a comprehensive safety net is in place.

5. Mandate all of this with the force of a local “Rocky Clark law.”

Don Grossnickle

Gridiron Alliance

Arlington Heights