Concussions in high school football are a recurring theme. The effects of concussions on high school athletes are especially evident later in life, as shown by recent studies.
“There’s all sorts of evidence that any concussion is a bad concussion, or is a bad outcome,” said Steve Buist, reporter at the Hamilton Spectator in Canada. “There’s lots of evidence that even a single concussion suffered over a lifetime can lead to changes in the brain.” Buist recently wrote a multi-part series about concussions in former Canadian Football League players. The question that seems to be on the mind of fans, parents and the players – is there any way to prevent concussions in sports like football, hockey, soccer, baseball, volleyball, and other sports? Before that question can be answered, parents, athletes and coaches must first look at what a concussion is and what it does to the brain. “You have to have a head injury and it’s a closed head injury,” said Luann Richardson, associate professor in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Robert Morris University. “So if someone bumped their head and there’s no room for the brain to expand, that’s called a closed head injury. Sometimes the patient will lose consciousness and often some won’t but they will have universal symptoms that could be anywhere from a headache to dizziness to feeling dazed to not feeling they could remember things and having nausea.” There is a scale that doctors look at to diagnose a concussion. The patient can have a minor concussion, in which they feel like they have a head attack or headache that can last 48-72 hours. With more severe concussions, the patient can lose consciousness; nausea and vomiting are common and they need hospital attention. And the concussions in the middle of those two can linger for weeks. “Doctors look at history. They want to know what happened, they also want somebody else outside of the patient telling doctors what happened, as the patient about symptoms and then doctors would perform a physical exam by looking at vital signs and then concentrate on a neurological exam,” said Richardson. Some schools and studies are trying methods to lower the risk of concussions. This can include eliminating tackles, using special helmets and other prevention techniques. Eliminating Tackles According to a study by University Wire, there were 4.1 million youth and high school football players in America. Any hit to the head could result in a long-term concussion. “The problem, as I’ve said repeatedly to people, is that your brain already comes with a helmet. Your brain already comes with a pretty unforgiving helmet,” said Buist. “So, yeah you might be able to cushion some of the blow through whatever type of padding they have, but the fact of the matter is the first thing your brain is going to hit is the inside of a very hard, bony helmet that comes designed to protect the brain.” Eliminating one of the main sources of concussions – tackles – would be a hard shift to make. Taking away tackling would be changing the entire game of football as America knows it. According to Concussions 101, there are almost 67,000 concussions diagnosed in high school football players every year. “Having evidence of absence is absence of evidence” Richardson said. “We have to keep studying it and look at common sense things. Those intentional injuries that sometimes happen in those contact sports should be punitive; we can not allow that to happen. If we’re going to have kids play sports which they should, there is going to be some risk of concussion.” The author of the University Wire study came to the conclusion that eliminating tackling would not reduce concussions. Buist reached the same conclusion because there are accidental concussions that can happen when a person simply trips and falls. Richardson also gave the same sentiments. “I know what’s happening to those athlete’s brains but kids and people need to be active. You have to accept risk in life otherwise I wouldn’t let my child drive to school or go on vacation,” said Richardson. Companies, such as Riddell, are looking at a way to detect concussions quicker to make the game safer for high school students. Chips in Helmets The football helmet company, Riddell, made waves in 2014 when it introduced a helmet that helps detect a concussion during a game or in practice. Riddell calls it Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) system technology. This wireless technology is made possible by iMEMS Motion Signal Processing. When the helmet takes a hit hard enough, a signal is sent to the trainers on the sidelines. This technology gives coaches and training staff a more clear and concise vantage point of what happens inside of helmets of players. HITs illustrate the effects of linear and rotational acceleration as well as duration and location of the severity of the impact to the head. David Forrest, who attends Hoover High School in North Canton, Ohio, plays football for the Vikings varsity football team. This season, his team used the Riddell Speedflex Helmet, which has the InSite Impact Response System technology. Forrest felt that wearing the helmets gave him a sense of being safer while playing. “We had the Riddell Speed Flexes and I felt a lot more comfortable in them,” Forrest said. “They are a much more comfortable helmet. “It obviously helped break impact in hard collisions, which made me feel a lot better knowing that it had a sensor in the helmet and that it could detect a hard hit and help me get evaluated by the trainers, so I’m not putting my life at risk playing.” During a game this season, a signal was sent to the Hoover football training staff after Forrest took a hit to the helmet and he detailed what occurs when the trainers get a signal from the alert system. “When they get an alert, you’ll get brought over to the sideline. The trainer will ask you questions; they’ll take you through protocol, then, if you’re able to resume, they’ll put you back in.” Forrest added that several other players also had to visit the training staff, and in some cases they were not allowed back into that game. Forrest is impressed with the Riddell helmets and remembers the days when football helmets were not as advanced and he is ready to see where these advanced technological football helmets go in the future. “Even with the equipment going back to 8th grade, I remember, the inside of it wasn’t very padded. They didn’t have the technology they have today and then you go to this season and they have a completely different design of the helmet and they have the new technology inside of the helmet. So, obviously, in the near future it is going to keep advancing,” Forrest said. Buist, the Canadian sports journalist, said, “If people are going to play a sport like that and if there is sort of nothing you can do to prevent someone from taking that path then I suppose it’s a good idea to try to mitigate the damage as best as possible.” The question then might be asked – is prevention possible at all? Is Prevention Possible? A clear cut prevention to concussions, especially during games remains unknown, but there are steps coaches and players are taking to limit the amount of concussions suffered to high school football players. One way involves coaches being aware of head injuries to players when the injury didn’t occur in a game. Forrest suffered a non-football concussion this past season, but the alertness and awareness of the coaches and training staff led to Forrest being sidelined for two games. He said the concussion happened on a Friday when he was on his way home from school. “I obviously got checked out by the medics and they said that I could have had a possible concussion,” he said. “So I went in early to the trainer’s office before the game and they took me through the protocol and they said ‘it probably wouldn’t be very safe for you to play tonight.'” He didn’t play in that game. Forrest continued to show signs of a concussion the following week and the coaches took note, sidelining him for another game. “And then the next week, after I kept taking the IMPACT Test ,which is an online test that sees my progress, and obviously it wasn’t improving enough for me to (go) back in.” Forrest was out another week. Finally, “as the next week after that went on, I got better and they told me I was able to play again,” Forrest said. Forrest said it was obvious at his high school that the coaches “are definitely growing more aware” of concussions. Coaches are also limiting the amount of hits players take. “Tackling in practice has obviously been limited greatly,” Forrest noted. “I remember some practices where if were banged up after a game, they’ll just tell us, ‘hey just throw on your helmet,we’re not going to wear pads today, we’re not going to be hitting.'” Buist believes that there may not be a way to change sports that have a risk of concussions. If anything is going to happen, it could be parents. “If anything is going to kill football, it’s going to be moms,” said Buist. “Because over time what you will see happen is that moms will start to say ‘my son is not playing football.’ “And once you start to choke it off at the teenage or high school level, then you lose that sort of feeder system to the colleges.” Richardson agrees. “There are pros and cons of being an athlete. I’m a parent of four kids who were all athletes,” said Richardson. “It’s tough. We’re going to see some parents who are pulling their kids away from football because we’re seeing so many concussions.” Concussions are a major problem, but the answer as to how to prevent them is unknown.
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