Leading off today: I cannot recall an issue related to high school sports that has picked up as much momentum as the effort to educate people about concussions. Not unlike what we've seen in the NFL recently, head injuries in high school sports have become a major topic of conversation in the last 18 months.

   The subject took another step up in visibility this week when the 22,500-member American Academy of Neurology called on schools to bench athletes suspected of suffering concussions until they are checked by physicians trained in diagnosing such injuries. The AAN also recommended that certified athletic trainers staff all sports events, including practices.

   The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported there are 3 million sports-related concussions a year in the United State, making the category second only to auto accidents as a cause of traumatic brain injury in the 15-to-24 age group. Concussions are most frequent in high school football, though experts say such injuries can be particularly harmful to girls and to younger athletes.

   Under current regulations, New York scholastic athletes showing signs of concussion can return to play only after clearance by district medical personnel, though that is sometimes a rubber-stamp approval of the recommendation of the player's personal physician. There is currently no provision for mandatory input by a neurologist or other brain-injury specialist.

   In Washington, Congress is considering some sort of national guidelines that would set standards for when to allow young athletes back onto the field following a concussion. A bill is pending in the New York State Assembly.

   I caught up over the weekend with Caledonia-Mumford AD Mike Monacelli, who is the longtime football coach there. Besides being incredibly successful on the field, one heck of a storyteller and a budding comic, he has also become somewhat of an expert on head injuries by virtue of the fact that he became an early supporter of the highly praised "ImPACT" concussion assessment program developed in Pittsburgh. Ironically, Cal-Mum romped in its Section 5 final on Friday against an Avon team that was missing its top player due to a concussion suffered the previous weekend.

   James Schmutz, executive director of the American Sports Education Program, calls the coach a model to follow, and Monacelli was called upon in May to testify in Washington before the House Education and Labor Committee that looked at sports-related concussions among high school students.

   People say, 'Hey, we've got more concussions than ever,'" Monacelli said. "I say that's good in a way because that means we're getting more kids diagnosed correctly.

He had a kid out today. I had three during the season, up to three or four weeks. You don't mess with that. These kids have lives after football."

   In the Cal-Mum sports program, sixth-, eighth- and 10th-grade students have been given baseline

Many reporters use Twitter to deliver updates from fall sports contests. We track those tweets from a variety of venues 24/7. Visit the page to see what's going on.

examinations through ImPACT, developed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, since 2006 so that medical experts can compare pre- and post-concussion medical data while evaluating the player's ability to safely return to the field.

   "If that child does get hurt, we can take that paper to the pediatrician or the primary care physician and they have a better way to diagnose," Monacelli said in his testimony. "Maybe there is nothing wrong here. But maybe there is."

   More on concussions: I had started gathering information and a couple of background interviews last month after receiving word that the American Academy of Neurology was going to release its recommendations soon. In fact, I had marked Cal-Mum's game vs. Avon on my calendar last week so that I could talk to Monacelli in greater depth.

   My original intention was to roll out a couple of blogs in the next few weeks on "off days" as the various state tournaments were winding down.

   However, The Journal News beat me to the punch -- and did so in a very big way. On Sunday, they published special reports both in print and on the LoHud.com website.

   Beginning with Josh Thomson's mainbar, it's the best enterprise sports package I've seen on a health and safety issue in quite some time.

   If you are a coach or a district administrator who'll be involved in creating the official policy on head injuries for your district -- there are at least 15 across the state with studies currently in progress, I'm told -- then you'll want to visit the paper's presentation. Just be prepared to spend a lot of time there -- it's a very thorough resource.

   Extra points: I needed to take a few days away from blogging to tend to family business (all good stuff, BTW). I should be back to a regular schedule tomorrow, when I'll catch up on some interesting tidbits from the weekend and early this week.