OLYMPIC COMMITTEE, RED CROSS TO TEACH SPORTS INJURY PREVENTION.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Daily News Staff Writer

Aiming to reduce sports-related injuries and deaths, the American Red Cross and the U.S. Olympic Committee have teamed up to offer sports safety training geared for athletes, parents and coaches beginning next week.

Each year, millions of sports-related injuries occur nationally, costing billions in medical and legal costs. Some injuries lead to deaths, with coaches, parents and teammates agonizing over how they happened.

Within the past three months in Southern California alone, four young athletes accidentally have died while engaging in sports, with the most recent involving a 17-year-old Glendale athlete hit in the head Sunday with a baseball.

The Red Cross class, which will begin Wednesday, has been planned for about three years, said Steve Goldfarb, a health and safety specialist in the Los Angeles Red Cross chapter. Coincidentally, the course is being offered at a time of highly publicized sports-related injuries, Goldfarb said.

``I think it's just like an earthquake. People feel a little jolt and they want information,'' Goldfarb said of the recent slew of sports-related deaths. ``The timing is right . . . I would think we should always be concerned about using CPR and first aid.''

The class will be offered at Red Cross service centers throughout California, including in the San Fernando Valley, Burbank, Santa Clarita, East Los Angeles, Inglewood and West Los Angeles.

``We want to train coaches to be better prepared to handle injuries and prevent sports injuries,'' Goldfarb said of the new course.

The class will address injuries sustained in various sports at all levels, and teach both adult and child CPR and first aid. A sports safety certificate, valid for three years, will be issued to participants.

Though the seven-hour-long, $37 course is open to all ages, the terminology and textbook is geared for coaches, athletic trainers and athletes, Goldfarb said.

The course content also includes preparing for emergencies, such as bringing a first-aid kit to the field and inspecting fields for any potential dangers, such as a sprinkler head sticking out of the ground.

Instructors also will teach such basic skills as inspecting equipment to assure that it is in good working order, scouting out a pay phone before a game in case of an emergency and designating certain coaches to call 911 and flag down an ambulance.

``You need to think before you get into the sport,'' Goldfarb said.

For more information about dates and locations for the training course, call [phone].