PlaySafe

PlaySafe is an outeach program of theUCSF Sports Medicine Center to provide care for student athletes in the high schools of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). Until this program began in 2001, San Francisco high schools — including all eight schools that have interscholastic football — did not have a team doctor or athletic trainer.

With PlaySafe, the public high schools have access to UCSF Sports Medicine Center experts. Doctors from the center perform pre-season physical exams and help monitor the athletes throughout the season. The UCSF center also sponsors the visits of athletic trainers.

These experts are qualified to determine when an athlete should play or be withheld from competition. Before this program, paramedics were available during games but there was no continuity of care.

The outreach program was initiated by UCSF experts after media coverage of serious injuries and the deaths of young athletes, including one at a San Francisco high school, that could have been prevented with appropriate medical care.

Services

The program provides the following services:

• Athletic trainers and sports medicine doctors for all SFUSD high school football games
• Free sports medicine clinics for student athletes with athletic injuries and illnesses
• After-school training and research programs
• Athletic health care training rooms and weekly care in the SFUSD high schools.
• Educational seminars to athletic teams, coaches and referees
• Annual Wrestling Weight Management Program Assessments

PlaySafe Team

UCSF Sports Medicine doctors who provide services include:

• Dr. Christina Allen
• Dr. Casey Batten
• Dr. Anthony Luke
• Dr. Benjamin Ma, chief of Sports Medicine

Athletic trainers from UCSF Sports Medicine who work with high school athletes include:

• Joe Caballero
• Elise Hammond
• Derek Hirai
• Duke Meek
• Jason Miyamoto
• Ryan Sargent
• Joe Smith

More Information

For more information about the PlaySafe program and Saturday morning clinics, contact the UCSF Sports Medicine Center:

UCSF Sports Medicine Center
1701 Divisadero St.
Suite 240
San Francisco, CA 94115

Request an appointment online with UCSF Sports Medicine.

Support PlaySafe

To make a donation to PlaySafe, please send a check payable to the University of California Regents to:

PlaySafe Program
UCSF Sports Medicine
ATTN: Jason Miyamoto, PlaySafe Program Coordinator
500 Parnassus Ave., Room MU-320W
San Francisco, CA 94143-0728