Rival team's athletic trainer's call sparks controversy

BOSTON (WHDH) -- A Boston high school athletic director is lobbying for change after a basketball star was told by a rival school’s athletic trainer she may have had a concussion, and was benched for the rest of the game.

Deandra Humphries is a star player for Boston’s New Mission High School.

“She averages 17 points and 12 rebounds a game. She is a vocal leader,” said Cory McCarthy, New Mission Athletic Director.

As her team attempted to advance in the state finals Friday night, she was hit in the face.

“I just got poked in the eye,” Humphries said.

Teams don't travel with their own trainers, so a trainer for rival Shawsheen Regional Tech examined Humphries and benched her.

“He told me I had a concussion. He said, ‘Do you have a headache? I see you took a pretty bad fall’” Humphries said.

“She was very coherent. She was jumping up and down cheering for her teammates. I know what a kid with a concussion looks like and that wasn't it,” McCarthy said.

Sadly, without Humphries, Mission Hill lost.

“I thought my life was over. I started crying immediately,” Humphries said.

Right after the game, McCarthy took Deandra to the emergency room at Children's Hospital where it was confirmed she did not have a concussion.

McCarthy is outraged. He is filing a complaint with the state athletic league, and lobbying for teams to be able to travel with their own trainers.

A league spokesman says that trainer had only been with Shawsheen two weeks, adding he disagrees "with any implication that a qualified medical personnel would compromise their medical judgment in an attempt to influence the outcome of a game."

The superintendant for Shawsheen released a statement saying, "Student health and safety are our highest concern. I dismiss out of hand any accusations that challenge either the integrity of our athletic department or the broadly acclaimed sportsmanship of our program."