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NATA Public Relations Committee Report and Recap for November

With the Youth Sports Safety Summit just days away, our primary efforts have focused on media follow up and attendance at the December 6 event. We’ve also continued with our ongoing news bureau and Journal of Athletic Training PR activities and generated coverage in USA Today, Gannett News Service, and in the Wall Street Journal, among other outlets. Details are included below:

Total audience reach for November: 7,361,195

1. Youth Sports Safety Summit

We have worked closely with NATA on overall program elements including acknowledged speakers, case history speakers, general strategy and media planning. We have dedicated much of our resources to media follow up on the local DC and national front to generate on-site and extended media coverage of the program and NATA’s advance release of a position statement on Preventing Sudden Death in Sports.

Sixty-three organizations have joined the Youth Sports Safety Alliance spearheaded by NATA, and to collectively support increased education, research and legislation. The formal program and key speakers are as follows and Marje Albohm will serve as moderator:

NATA will also recognize Congressman Tim Bishop; R. Dawn Comstock, PhD; State Rep. Keith M. Ingram (Ark.), Beth Mallon and PBS Frontline. Each of these individuals or organizations has supported youth sports safety through legislative, public service, research or media-driven awareness.

2. College Football Hall of Fame
We continue to follow up with college sports reporter Ray Glier (a USA Today and NY Times contributor) on content for the exhibit which is moving from South Bend to Atlanta in 2013. Ray was looking for content for the “Coaches and Players Game Day.” Charlie Thompson, John Davis and Allen Shelley provided some facts and figures for consideration. Ron Courson also offered his on-site support to ensure the athletic training section of the exhibit is current. 

As follow up to our contact with Ray, he also asked for comments on marijuana use in collegiate sports and a possible NCAA PSA campaign. Charlie Thompson offered to provide some general insight.

3. Advance for Physical Therapy and Rehab Medicine
We continue to work with Advance and editor Jon Bassett on bylined articles for the year and just submitted content on quick fix nutritional benefits (Kathleen Laquale). Future topics include: the industrial athlete, sports psychology, sudden cardiac arrest, youth sports safety, lightning and functional movement screenings.

4. Journal of Athletic Training
We crafted a press release on the current 2011 journal publication titled “Evaluation of a Persistent Antimicrobial Formulation” that showed using a soap product containing 4 percent CHG was far more effective at killing the MRSA bacterium than was using a non-medicated soap. Ron Courson and Mike Ferrara are co-authors and we will distribute shortly.

General News Bureau Consumer Placements:

5. Consumer Placements

The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, November 40, total audience reach; 2,117,796
Ralph Reiff was interviewed by health blogger Katie Hobson on the NBA lockout and if time away from the game would lead to increased injuries and shorter training camps.
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/11/30/will-the-nba-lockout-mean-more-player-injuries/

USA Today, Tuesday, November 22, total audience: 1,829,099

We coordinated a visit by sports reporter Erik Brady with Kevin Guskiewicz at UNC Chapel Hill in September. Erik was most interested in Kevin’s program and research and wrote a front page sports story on the visit – and essentially a full feature on Kevin. The hard copy article includes a color photo of Kevin and an additional online story (second link complete with video) delves deeper into the topic and Kevin’s personal experience. His role as an athletic trainer, and reference to the profession and UNC head athletic trainer Scott Trulock is included throughout. The story also ran on the Gannet News Service wire.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/story/2011-11-23/UNC-professor-battles-concussions-through-research/51337506/1

 
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/story/2011-11-22/concussions-researcher-draws-from-personal-experience/51337904/1

High School Rivals.com/Yahoo sports, total audience reach: 2,987,410

Brian Robinson was interviewed by reporter Tom Bergeron regarding a study that shows teenage girls have a far greater propensity than boys to suffer serious knee and ankle injuries.
http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1292156

Boston Globe, Sunday, November 13, total audience reach: 356,652

Ralph Reiff was interviewed by Patriots reporter Monique Walker on how an NFL player’s body adapts to the hard hits of the sport week to week.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2011/11/13/
patriots_welker_shows_no_fear_going_across_the_middle/?page=full

6. Trade Placements

Employee Benefit News, December 2012, total audience reach: 70,238

Marje Albohm, Marty Matney and Tom Bair were interviewed for an article on the ROI of athletic trainers in the workplace.

http://ebn.benefitnews.com/news/athletic-trainers-holding-off-health-costs-2720152-1.html