Rowan's Law: HIT. STOP. SIT.

NorWest Soccer recognizes Rowan’s Law - Concussion Awareness and Education. Rowan’s Law is named after Rowan Stringer, a high school rugby player from Ottawa, who died in the spring of 2013 from a condition known as second impact syndrome (swelling of the brain caused by a subsequent injury that occurred before a previous injury healed). NorWest has a Concussion Code of Conduct for Players, supports and follows the Canada Soccer Concussion Policy, and has a Concussion Return to Play Protocol in place. This information is available on the Policies & Forms page.

In order to raise awareness of concussions and their long and short-term implications, the Government of Ontario established Rowan’s Law in 2018, which makes it mandatory for sports organizations to:

• Ensure that athletes under 26 years of age, parents of athletes under 18, coaches, team trainers, and officials confirm every year that they have reviewed Ontario’s Concussion Awareness Resources;

• Establish a Concussion Code of Conduct that sets out rules of behaviour to support concussion prevention;

• Establish a Removal-from-Sport and Return-to-Sport protocol

Valuable Parent Resource: Canadian Pediatric Society concussion page