Several of you have asked me about how to get a Bill for Athlete Safety to this point. There certainly wasn’t a map for this and I can tell you that while I am the person who researches and plans for everything, I had to follow my instincts when making choices and decisions about where to direct my energy and the Foundation’s resources to protect the greatest number of kids.

First and foremost – I did not do this alone. You probably figured that out on your own, but it is so important to me to acknowledge that there were people who understood the danger and were passionate about implementing safeguards for high school athletes before I lost Zach to Exertional Heat Stroke (EHS). No one was listening.

A couple of months after Zach died, my husband called the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) to discuss their policy handbook and understand why preventing heat illness was not addressed and why summer conditioning practices were not regulated. They didn’t want to talk with us and gave him the number of someone at Jacksonville Sports Medicine Program (JSMP). I am sure they figured that’s the last time they’d hear from us.

They figured wrong.

We partnered with JSMP to write new policy language for FHSAA, we funded a video to walk through setting up a cooling zone, the symptoms of EHS, and how to use a cold water immersion tub. I spoke at several conferences, sharing Zach’s story and my growing knowledge of EHS, and we began donating cold water immersion tubs to high schools through our Foundation. We also made numerous telephone calls and sent many, many emails to Florida legislators. Our debates always ended in a stalemate because they believed Exertional Heat Illness (EHI) was a rare occurrence, and I believed it was more common than anyone knew. I continued to bring up the unknown number of occurrences in every conversation and stubbornly held my ground that it was not “rare” and one of those conversations ended with a Senator requesting the OPPAGA survey which shocked everyone, including me.

It outlined in stark detail the appalling number of Exertional Heat Illness (461!) and Exertional Heat Stroke (18!) documented in Florida high schools during the 2017-18 school year. Remember, in Florida, summer conditioning is not regulated and there are no state reporting requirements for injuries/illnesses either, so the survey does not include summer 2017, which is when Zach died, or summer 2018.

Florida has a high school heat stroke death every two years, on average, so I began to feel a real sense of urgency as we moved from Spring to Summer 2019. Disappointingly, in 2018 and 2019, the FHSAA Board of Directors voted NOT to include mandatory guidelines that would require heat stress monitoring, cooling zones, and available cold water immersion tubs. This despite their proven 100% survival rate for exertional heat stroke AND the unanimous recommendation of their own Medical Advisory Council. In 2019, they opted to require an on-line course for EHI and “strongly suggesting” policies that would be effective for the 2019-20 school year “unless mandates are legislated”, sending me the not-so-subtle message to stop wasting my time and theirs.

Let me clarify. During my conversations with legislators, I asked several times about legislation and was assured that getting a bill passed with only the safety guidelines was almost impossible. They were sympathetic but told me that there would certainly be amendments, additional items other legislators considered important to be added or deleted, and it could take years to pass what would undoubtedly end up as weak policies. FHSAA was no doubt aware of this.

I had come to a brick wall. But my friends at JSMP and FASMed and I were busy figuring out possible ways around it. We had a survey that showed a frightening number of incidents in Florida high schools and the Korey Stringer Institute had published a report ranking each state on their high school safety. Florida came in at #24, with a grade of 48.25 out of 100, so… an F. (As of 2019, Florida is at #7, but still has a D with a score of 62.45 out of 100. I’ll talk about this in my next post.)

Then, the first day of summer conditioning 2019, a 14 year old boy in Tampa, Florida collapsed and died from exertional heat stroke.

Devastated. It’s the only word that comes close to how I and my family and friends felt when the news broke. It doesn’t even come close to what his parents and family are experiencing. I wish I could have done more to prevent it…

I received interview requests and took all of them, including one from “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”. (Click HERE to watch. Used with permission from HBO) The interviews were with Soledad O’Brien and she did a fantastic job giving this issue a national voice. In Florida, the media had widely broadcasted our attempts to get mandated policies from FHSAA. Now they wanted to know if those policies could have saved this young man’s life. I didn’t hold back.

Absolutely YES. IF they were mandated and IF they applied during summer.

Representative Massullo, aware of the loss of a student, FHSAA’s policies, and the media surrounding the lack of safety for Florida’s high school athletes, filed the original House bill in December 2019 and Senators Perry and Cruz sponsored the Senate Bill.

And here is a full circle: the proposed House and Senate bills used the policy language that I personally worked on two years ago with Dr. Casa, the Florida Alliance of Sports Medicine, and the Jacksonville Sports Medicine Program which was intended for FHSAA’s handbook.

All the hard work, disappointments, and heartbreak that led to small victories over the last two and a half years has resulted in the very thing we were told was impossible. The emotions are BIG; I am exuberantly happy and relieved that the votes were one voice, all in favor, and I am humbled and appreciative of the kind words given to me by Florida’s Representatives and Senators in response to me speaking at the committee meetings.

Now, the Zachary Martin Act will be sent to the Governor’s office for his signature! It has been delayed due to the virus as he is very busy responding to that crises. I will be sure to continue updates as we learn more about that event, but it is still not guaranteed that Governor DeSantis will sign it. However, he IS updated on this petition’s signatures…

This is where you have helped me tremendously - by signing and sharing the petition! (just copy and paste this link: https://www.change.org/AthleteSafety ) We have almost 30,000 signatures today and I need to ask you to please share it a few more times on social media pages, blogs, vlogs, Tik-Toks, and Snaps. Kids, teens, and adults, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins – it doesn’t matter where they live, we need ALL of their signatures!

If you prefer to personally contact the Governor's office, the email is Ron.DeSantis@myflorida.com or if you would rather call, the office number is (850)488-7146. We are seeing firsthand how the voice of the people can be heard to benefit our families! 

Thank you for partnering with us to protect our kids!