Senator William Gannon is the recipient of the 2022 New Hampshire Athletic Trainers’ Association (NHATA) New Hampshire Service Award for his exemplary efforts in the passage of SB 148, Part III, relative to emergency plans for sports related injuries, herein referred to as RSA 200:40-c.

 The New Hampshire Service Award recognizes non-athletic trainers from various backgrounds who have made outstanding contributions to the profession of athletic training in the state of New Hampshire. 

RSA 200:40-c aims to standardize emergency preparedness and responses of New Hampshire schools that many young athletes and their families have come to expect. RSA 200:40-c is also the first known legislation of this kind to be passed preventatively, rather than in response to a tragedy, with the purpose of eliminating preventable death in young athletes participating in school-sponsored athletics.

Prior to the passage of RSA 200:40-c, New Hampshire consistently ranked in the bottom 10 on the Korey Stringer Institute’s (KSI) State High School Safety Policy Evaluations. New Hampshire was catapulted to fifth place because of Senator Gannon’s commitment to young athlete health and safety initiatives.

“In our work of tracking and supporting state high school sport health and safety efforts, we believe that this is the largest singular bill for athlete safety,” said Rebecca Stearns, Chief Operating Officer of KSI. “This one bill put New Hampshire within the small company of a few other states that have prioritized athlete safety to this degree.”