Dear Washington Youth Soccer Coaches -

On July 24, 2015, Senate Bill 5083 - also known as the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Act - becomes effective. The law mandates that ALL coaches (paid or volunteer) at organizations using school district facilities in the State of Washington are educated in the nature and risk of sudden cardiac arrest prior to the first practice/competition. This education shall include signs and symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest. The new law is an important step in ensuring player safety and mitigating sudden cardiac arrest risk.

Washington Youth Soccer is taking the following steps to help educate you and other coaches by:

Publishing sudden cardiac arrest resources from Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) and the complete law on the Washington Youth Soccer website, including an online pamphlet providing information about sudden cardiac arrest: http://www.washingtonyouthsoccer.org/resources/concussion_and_head
_injury/sudden_cardiac_arrest_awareness_complianc
Requiring all coaches to complete an online sudden cardiac arrest prevention program and submit to their club/association a certificate showing completion of the program. WIAA is still working on the training program for coaches; in the meantime, WIAA recommends using the National Federation of State High School Associations (NHFS) online training. The training takes approximately 15 minutes and is available for free at https://nfhslearn.com/courses/61032.
You will need to register and create a log in at the above website and complete the Cardiac training for Washington state. Once you have completed the online training, you must provide your Association with a copy of your completion certificate. You must email the completion certificate to swwayouthsoccer@gmail.com

Note: In order for players to participate in practices and be eligible for the current soccer season, players and parent(s)/guardians must sign the statement of compliance form relating to the nature and risk of concussion or head injury and sudden cardiac arrest. We are helping to facilitate this by sending all Washington Youth Soccer players an email with a link to their online registration profile to review and electronically sign the consent form and providing a link to a PDF version of the form. Until the consent form is signed, players will not be allowed to practice or play.

To read more information on the new sudden cardiac arrest awareness law, as well as the concussion and head injury law, visit http://www.washingtonyouthsoccer.org/resources/concussion
_and_sudden_cardiac_arrest_awareness/.

All coaches on the roster must have the cardiac, concussion and a national background check completed before rosters and cards will be issued for the currant season.

For any questions and completed cardiac certificates please email swwayouthsoccer@gmail.com

Thank you for your timely completion of the required Cardiac training.