As of the 2022 spring season, the Town of Needham requires all youth sports coaches to complete annual concussion training. There are two approved online concussion training courses: one from the National Federation of State High School Assocations (NFHS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Both providers require you to create an account to access the training, and the two courses have very similar content (both the account and the training are free of charge), but the CDC account creation process is somewhat more involved and the CDC course includes a pre-assessment that takes several minutes to complete. Please be sure to download the certificate after successful completion of the course and provide it to NGYL.
Create an account to access NFHS concussion training
Enter the required username/email/password information, click the Captcha box, then click the “Next” button
Enter the required profile information (you can enter “NGYL” for the “School/Organization Name” – click on the “add this organization link if it pops up a message that NGYL is not in their list), then click the “Finish” button
Enter your name in the box for the person taking the course, click “Coach” in the list of “primary positions”, leave the answer to “Will you be taking courses in Massachusetts” set to “Yes”, then click the “Finish” button
Type “concussion” in the search box (middle of the page, to the right) and select the “Concussion in Sports” course
Select “Massachusetts from the “Please select your state” pulldown menu next to the “Order Course” button in the upper right corner of the page, then click the “Order Course” button
Answer the question about who will be taking the course, then click “Continue”
Click the “Checkout” button on the Cart page (it should say $0 is due)
Click the “I agree to the NFHS no refund policy” statement, then click the “Continue” button
Click the “Go To My Courses” button at the top of the page
Create an account to access the CDC concussion training
Go to https://www.train.org/cdctrain/user/register and enter the required information (use your personal, not work, information and note that the time zone should be “GMT-05:00”), check the box to agree to the TRAIN policies, then click “Next Step”
Select “Other” in the Select: Community of Practice list, then
Click on the green “Confirm these selections” button
Select “4B” in the Select: Region list
The list will be replaced by the Select: City list – select “Needham”
Click on the green “Confirm these selections” button
Click the “Finish Creating Account” button
You may be required to complete your TRAIN Profile before being able to take the course – some of information is self-explanatory, but for the “Organization” tab use “NGYL” for the Organization Name, “Travel team” for Department/Division, and “Coach” for Title; for the “Professional Role” tab select “Volunteer”, and for the “Work Settings” tab select “Non-Profit Organization (except Healthcare)” (note that you need to hit the “Save” button in the upper right corner of the page to upload the information in most tabs)
Take the CDC concussion training (~30 minutes + a “Pre-Assessment”)
Go to https://www.train.org/cdctrain/welcome and login to your TRAIN account (if you’ve just finished registering, you will be logged in and taken to your landing page).
Click on the “Course Catalog” link just under the “CDC TRAIN” logo
Click on the search box, type in “Heads up” and hit return
Scroll down the results to find the entry for “HEADS UP to Youth Sports: Online Training for Coaches” and click on the link
Start the course by clicking on the green “Pre-Assessment” button
