300,000. This is the number of sport-related concussions that happen every year in the United States, according to the University of Pittsburgh Brain Trauma Research Center. More than 62,000 concus- sions happen during high school contact sports alone. The likelihood of a concussion through contact sports is as high as 19 percent, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Many students at Northwood have experienced concussions.
“I got elbowed in the head during a [soccer] game,” senior Amanda Peele said. “I was playing midfield, and I was running toward the ball as it was being thrown in. The defensive player on the other team elbowed me in the head.”
A concussion is a brain injury that occurs from a blow to the head or the process of being violently shaken. This causes the brain to hit against the skull. Some of the most common symptoms from a concussion include headaches, nausea, confusion, lack of balance and memory loss.
Peele’s injury during her soccer game resulted in a concussion. She did not return to the sport after the 2012 season.
Senior football player John Atwater has had three concussions and suffered his worst one in middle school while playing in a football game.
“I was running, I had no blocking and I got knocked out,” Atwater said. “I was on the field for like 20 minutes; it was pretty bad.”
The severity of the concussion dictates how long a person has to wait until returning to play the sport and completing schoolwork. Every athlete is different when it comes to symptoms and recovery time.
“I couldn’t go to school for like two weeks,” Atwater said. “I wasn’t allowed to participate in band, I wasn’t allowed to get on the computer or watch TV for about a week and I wasn’t allowed to sleep that night after I got back from the hospital.”
Senior cheerleader Teagan williams had similar symptoms after her concussion. Her concussion resulted from stunting. She was lifting another person who fell on her head, causing a concussion.
“I missed a few days of school, and it was harder to do my homework and schoolwork because I couldn’t concentrate and I couldn’t complete things as easily,” Williams said.
In some of the worst cases with concussions, symptoms can linger and last for a longer time.
“A couple months [after my concussion], I started to develop double vision, and I still have it now; we don’t know the exact cause of it,” Peele said. “If you Google double vision, you can see what that looks like. I have to wear glasses sometimes with one of the lens taped over. It affects me with reading, writing, walking around and driving. It’s really tough.”
Prevention for concussions has become more emphasized as researchers have started to become more aware of the effects. Most schools and clubs have started to give athletes a baseline test before participating in the specific sport. A baseline test assesses an athlete’s balance and brain functions and can be helpful when determining the severity of the concussion. The test asks questions that assess memory, ability to concentrate, reasoning and problem solving.
“If I were concussed really badly, then I wouldn’t be able to answer some of those questions or do some of the tasks,” junior football player Montel Goods said.
After an athlete shows symptoms of a concussion, they can take the same baseline test again and their results will be compared to their original score. The further away the second score is from the original score shows how severe the concussion is.
There has been more research concerning prevention, but there is still not an established method for completely preventing this injury. For now, much of the focus has been on how to educate coaches and athletes on the importance of letting the brain heal.
“I don’t know what else to do because athletes want to play their sports, and they want to give it all they can,” Peele said.
Coaches and athletic trainers are in charge of monitoring the athlete’s health status after they have been hit in the head. The athletes are also expected to hold themselves accountable and report any symptoms they have. The competitiveness that sports bring can make it difficult for the athletes to pull themselves out of competition. The risk for concussions increases with going full out in any sport.
“I feel like [medical researchers and coaches] do the best they possibly can,” senior wrestler Hiquan Cole said. “If you go 100 percent, that’s the risk you’re willing to take.”
-By Wesley King & Jamie Palermo