The second an athlete steps onto the playing field, he or she puts himself at risk for an injury. These risks range from broken bones to torn muscles to cramps. Recently, however, one type of injury is considered among the most dangerous: concussions.
There’s a reason why concussions are a major issue in today’s sports world. According to The Huffington Post, four former National Football League (NFL) players have sued the league and its official helmet maker, Riddell Sports, Inc., claiming that they hid information about brain injuries to them.
Sophomore Mia Prine can confirm the importance of concussions. Prine is a varsity women’s lacrosse player and plays lacrosse outside of school for additional practice.
“I was playing lacrosse and got tripped and hit my head on the ground,” Prine said. She was rushed to the emergency room and found out she had a fractured skull and internal bleeding.
When the incident occurred, Prine blacked out and couldn’t remember what happened when her head hit the ground. “I had to be out of sports for about two months,” Prine said.
Prine isn’t the only student-athlete who has been taken out of action due to concussions. Joseph Snyder, basketball player and sophomore, suffered from two concussions recently as well.
“One of my concussions I headbutted another guy in the head, and the other one I was landed on top of and my head hit against the court,” Snyder said.
Snyder was sidelined for a couple of weeks.
“When you get a head injury you get tested and go through diagnosis,” Snyder said. “Following that, you get guidelines for however many weeks you’re out, and after that you can slowly add activity gradually until you’re fully fit to play again.”
Snyder said than after the injury he couldn’t remember things that had just happened and he was mentally “out of it”. After the injury, an athletic trainer examined Snyder and soon found that he had a concussion.
School nurse Rachel Lencheck said concussions should be taken seriously.
“It’s important to know when students have concussions so we can help monitor their activity. Concussions are not a joke. They all vary in severity, but you should keep track of all of them,” Lencheck said.
However, Lencheck said some people still undervalue the importance of concussions.
“I think people who haven’t been educated on concussions don’t know how serious they can be,” she said. “Severe concussions initially can cause issues with vision, focus and they have a lot of side effects that can cause issues for students and athletes. Another issue is with minor concussions and if you play through them, you have a significant chance of making it worse,” Lencheck said.
Lencheck said that she advises that all student-athletes should wear all recommended equipment, and if they think they have a symptom, they should tell someone immediately and have it evaluated.
Scott Turnquist, physical education teacher and assistant football coach said concussions have become a serious topic in the past three to five years.
“It’s definitely become a topic very prominent in athletics today,” Turnquist said. “I think parents are much more educated about concussions. I think coaching staffs and athletic trainers have much more emphasis placed on seeing the signs and symptoms of them.”
“As coaches, if we see anything we don’t hesitate. We send them to an athletic trainer immediately to get diagnosed,” Turnquist said. “It’s something you have to take very seriously.”