Heads Up!

In high school football, stricter safety precautions need to be enforced in order to prevent the growing rate of concussions.

During the 2008-2009 high school football season there were over 400,000 reported concussions throughout the country. That number has climbed over the past 7 years and continues to grow. “Concussions represent 8.9% of all high school athletic injuries” (Gessel etal). A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury that I caused by a blow to the head or body. “A brain injury consists of primary (fractures, and bruises) and secondary events (biochemical events set in motion by the trauma and is a major contributor to long-term deficits associated with brain injuries)” (“The Human Brain - Watch Your Head”). In high school football, stricter safety precautions need to be enforced in order to prevent the growing rate of concussions. Through increasing awareness about the severity of head injuries in football, many lives can be spared the frustration of long term concussion effects.

Players love to play the game of football; they would die for the game they will keep playing regardless of severe injuries. “Players do not want to sit out, and parents are just as bad” (Beardmore etal.). Players experience much pain during football because it is such a violent sport and overlook that it might just be another injury that they think they can play through. ‘If a player has a headache from a hard hit it’s not okay to return. Only the players believe a headache shouldn’t warrant a benching” (Beardmore etal.). Every coach and trainer knows that if symptoms are present then they shouldn’t be playing but it all comes down to the athlete taking responsibility. Players are very competitive and have the drive to compete whether they are healed or not. The morale of the players is very strong they do not want to quit for themselves their team or their school they do not want to disappoint coaches. This leads to an increase of possible concussions that go without being diagnosed.

During practice, players are more likely to sustain a concussion because of the repetitive tackling and physical contact with other players. “Players from 10-18 had nearly taken 12,000 hits, or an average 240 per player. Again players absorbed more hits during practice” (Belson). Players take a substantial amount of hits to the head throughout the season but the majority of them occur in practice. During practices coaches stress the technique of tackling and have drills designed to do it the right way. Practices are more physical than games because of the repetitive nature of physical drills. Football practices are always intense because of the constant contact and the overall physicality of the sport. The NFHS should implement safety pre-cautions and set practice standards to protect players from extreme head injuries that would reduce head trauma during practices, which are usually every day if you are a football player.

Players may not participate but they may come back to action before they are fully healed. “Athletes who are not fully recovered from an initial concussion are significantly vulnerable for recurrent, cumulative, and even catastrophic consequences of a second concussion” (“Concussions”). Due to concussions being a disruption in brain activity through head trauma, any kind of damage must have time to heal completely. Any additional damage to the brain can result in many health problems if it goes undiagnosed and unhealed. “No athlete should return to sport or other at-risk athletics when symptoms are present during the recovery process” (“Concussions”). When a player has a concussion they are dealing with many symptoms such as: trouble thinking or remembering, physical problems, drowsiness, sensitivity to light, headache, dizziness and vomiting, trouble sleeping and mood changes. If an athlete has any of those symptoms they should not even consider putting on shoulder pads and a helmet. “Injured players are returning to practice and games too quickly after shots to the head” (“The Human Brain - Watch Your Head”). Players may not have symptoms but that doesn’t mean their brain is completely healed. Players need to communicate with coaches or trainers because if nothing is said no action will be taken to care for the athlete’s injury. A clear line of communication is an essential for the health and well-being of players with any injury during sports. “When head injuries are identified, they traditionally haven’t been given enough time to heal” (Petersen). The healing time for concussions can vary with the severity. There are many different levels of a concussion: “Grade One (brief period of confusion and appears to be dazed) usually lasting five minutes before they appear completely normal, Grade Two (the confusion can last between five minutes to an hour, but does not lose consciousness) which can keep a player out for a week or more, and Grade Three (there is a loss of consciousness even for a short time), where the athlete can be out for an extended period of time” ("The Human Brain - Watch Your Head"). With such a large number of players being injured before games, some coaches may push their players past a headache to use them during games, ignoring their symptoms. Additionally, this can make the severity of the concussion worse as the player continues to endure head contact.

State and national guidelines need to be improved and used by every state. “An athlete needs to be removed from competition only if the individual was unconscious or appearing to be unconscious” (Petersen). This is one of the current NFHS guidelines; however, only 10% of concussions occur when a player is knocked unconscious, leaving 90% unnoticed and undiagnosed (‘Concussions”). Although these guidelines serve to aid coaches and players in determining when a player should be removed from a game, only Illinois and Iowa adhere to these rules. Only two states use these mandates although there are some problems with them, they should be used by every state. A law should be passed that makes each state use the guidelines to ensure that doctors, coaches, parents and players are all aware of rules that they must abide by. “A 2009 study report at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that 41 percent of 1,300 athlete re-entered the same game in which they developed concussion symptoms” (Petersen). A law should also be implemented that players who play in positions that have most head contact should be evaluated after each quarter through a series of questions to verify they are not having symptoms of concussions.

There are many injuries throughout high school football but concussions represent the highest percentage of high school injuries. “Concussions represent 8.9% of all high school athletic injuries” (Gessel etal.). 8.9% is not an alarming percentage at first but there are thousands of injuries that can occur and go undiagnosed. “Participation in high school sports continues to grow” (Gessel etal.). The more athletes there are participating in high school athletics throughout the nation; the more chances people will be affected by concussions. "Concussion Statistics for High School Sports." MomsTeam. N.p., 25 Nov. 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. <http://www.momsteam.com >. “Concern has grown along with diagnoses, particularly at the high school level, where there are 1.1 million football players with still developing teenage brains” (Petersen). The diagnosis and healing of concussions that occur at a young age is extremely important due to the maturing brain. Any kind of brain disruption can affect the growth of an athlete socially, academically and physically for the rest of their lives. There are over a million football players throughout the country, and the most of which have had a concussion. Most sports are physical so the chances of a head injury occurring increases tremendously, even with protective head equipment.

Athletes who have had multiple head injuries do not perform to the best of their ability in school. “Athletes who have had more than one concussion have lower test scores” (Collins etal.). A concussion affects the way people think and damages the way some comprehend information. This is due to the repeated damage of delicate and important processing areas of the brain. “Concussions become learning disabilities and effect listening, speaking, writing, reading, reasoning and mathematical abilities which is diagnosed at early childhood” (Collins etal.). Some athletes cannot focus for long periods of time and must slow or postpone their academics to fully recover from these injuries. For some players, especially those applying for college, this can be extremely detrimental in their success in getting into the colleges of their dreams because of one bad semester. “A 1999 study showed that college football players found that their learning disorders and reduced neuropsychological performance was independently associated with multiple concussions” ("The Human Brain - Watch Your Head"). Concussions create learning disabilities in some players that are equivalent to that of childhood learning disabilities. Concussions at a very young age increase the development of learning disabilities. “Verbal learning and memory appeared to be the most sensitive components in athletes with concussions” ("The Human Brain - Watch Your Head"). Concussions reduce reaction time and affect the way people live their everyday lives.

Regardless of age and gender every concussion is the same. “Over 25,000 football players from 14-19 years old have been treated for concussions” (Belson). Every age is susceptible to have a bad concussion, because of the high risk of getting a concussion plus the difficulty to diagnose. All concussions are of concern but they are all equal. “Men are twice as likely as women to injure their brains” (Belson). “Players as young as 7 take hits to the head that are equally as devastating as high school players, collegiate players and professional players” (Belson). Whatever level players are participating at, the risk of a concussion is always there regardless of the levels of physicality and speed but the risk will always be there because it is the of football. Football is a physically demanding sport reguardless of the level, kids can have concussions playing two hand touch or flag football just because of minor contact.

There are many long term effects with a concussion. “The overall damage can increase the risk of premature senility” ("The Human Brain - Watch Your Head"). Premature senility affects the ways the brain is developed. A child or teenager still developing having a concussion is compared to having shaken baby syndrome, which is a closed head injury. “Players with many brain injuries could develop Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s” ("The Human Brain - Watch Your Head"). Former professional football players are at a high risk of dying from Alzheimer’s ("The Human Brain - Watch Your Head"). Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of mental decline, or dementia. Parkinson's disease affects the way you move. It happens when there is a problem with certain nerve cells in the brain.

Concussions can affect social and even moral reasoning. “Teenagers who have experienced damage in the prefrontal cortex never completely develop social or moral reasoning” ("The Human Brain - Watch Your Head"). The prefrontal cortex is the most vulnerable area of the head, and can easily be damaged in a contact sport such as football. “Uninhibited signals from the amygdala lead to free expression of emotions, and may manifest in violent and aggressive behavior” ("The Human Brain - Watch Your Head"). Amygdala is in between the cerebral cortex and is responsible for emotional related to do with survival, including the ability to learn what is fearful to us ("The Human Brain - Watch Your Head").

In high school football, the growing rate of concussions needs to be prevented by creating stricter safety precautions that need to be enforced. Concussion awareness has increased gradually and is now becoming a known problem. Concussions can affect anyone, but are especially common in high school football athletes. These injuries, which often go undiagnosed, can cause many short term and long term health issues if the appropriate treatment is not received or not given adequate time to heal. This problem needs to be addressed for the overall well-being of young athletes today. Prevention and awareness are as important necessities in helping players have the best quality of life possible after playing high school sports.