Concussion awareness on the rise in high school football WITH VIDEO
Farmington High School Falcons quarterback Troy Mitchell suffered a bell-ringing concussion when he took a hit to the head in the Falcons 39-12 defeat of Southfield-Lathrup.
When Mitchell got back to the sideline following the play, Farmington head coach John Bechtel knew something wasn’t right and pulled him from the game.
In the past, Mitchell or any other player might have been sent back in to play, but things have changed.
“He came back over to us after getting hit and said he was OK, but I knew relatively quickly that he was pretty banged up and shouldn’t be going back in,” Bechtel said.
In the midst of growing nationwide concern over the safety of football, state legislators have signed two bills into law aiming to protect young athletes from sports-related concussions. The bills are designed to inform students, coaches and parents on how to recognize a concussion.
In many cases, those involved with local football programs are already making great strides.
The Farmington coach confirms this, saying: “The attitude towards these things has definitely changed in my time as a coach and for the better. You’ve got to have the kid’s best interest in mind, first and foremost.”
As for the Falcons quarterback, he suffered from headaches for about two weeks and was kept out of action. After the headaches stopped and he got doctor check-ups, he was cleared to play and made a triumphant return, throwing a touchdown pass in his return game, in a 41-29 victory over Rochester Adams. Continued...
When Mitchell got back to the sideline following the play, Farmington head coach John Bechtel knew something wasn’t right and pulled him from the game.
In the past, Mitchell or any other player might have been sent back in to play, but things have changed.
“He came back over to us after getting hit and said he was OK, but I knew relatively quickly that he was pretty banged up and shouldn’t be going back in,” Bechtel said.
In the midst of growing nationwide concern over the safety of football, state legislators have signed two bills into law aiming to protect young athletes from sports-related concussions. The bills are designed to inform students, coaches and parents on how to recognize a concussion.
In many cases, those involved with local football programs are already making great strides.
The Farmington coach confirms this, saying: “The attitude towards these things has definitely changed in my time as a coach and for the better. You’ve got to have the kid’s best interest in mind, first and foremost.”
As for the Falcons quarterback, he suffered from headaches for about two weeks and was kept out of action. After the headaches stopped and he got doctor check-ups, he was cleared to play and made a triumphant return, throwing a touchdown pass in his return game, in a 41-29 victory over Rochester Adams. Continued...
“I’ve been feeling a lot better lately, and really glad to be back in the groove of things,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell realizes the changing attitude towards concussions, if only based on his personal family experience. His brother played football at Farmington just five years ago and experienced concussion-like symptoms after a hit, however wasn’t sidelined.
“I remember when my brother was a senior in 2007, he took a big hit and probably shouldn’t have been sent back in or played the next week, but it was a different mindset then and the kind of safety measures we have in place now didn’t exist,” he said.
School districts concerned
With an increasing awareness and growing concern regarding concussions in sports permeating the country in recent years, local high school football programs across the area are doing everything in their power to combat the issue.
Asked about football concussions, Southfield High School coach Tim Conley said: “It’s a major concern and a subject we give the utmost importance to in our program.
“A lot of it starts with education, making sure the kids have the proper equipment and are taught proper technique. We do everything we can to keep our players out of harm’s way and the more you can teach them about the issue, the better the chance of successfully dealing with it,” Conley said.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association, like many other state high school athletic associations throughout the nation, has taken significant steps over the past few years to implement the proper measures in approaching and in educating the public about concussions and their potential consequences.
For the past 18 months, public address announcers at MHSAA-sanctioned games have been reading multiple public service announcements to the crowd regarding how best to react to the symptoms of a concussion.
“The bar has been raised so much higher in how we deal with the issue now as compared to the times of the past,” John Johnson of the MHSAA said. “We’ve been able to put in place all the proper protocols, so we’re being as proactive as possible in dealing with the subject, which is undeniably important and something that should be dealt with extremely diligently. We’re talking about these kids’ long-term health and protecting our athletes at all costs is our duty as a governing body.” Continued...
Mitchell realizes the changing attitude towards concussions, if only based on his personal family experience. His brother played football at Farmington just five years ago and experienced concussion-like symptoms after a hit, however wasn’t sidelined.
“I remember when my brother was a senior in 2007, he took a big hit and probably shouldn’t have been sent back in or played the next week, but it was a different mindset then and the kind of safety measures we have in place now didn’t exist,” he said.
School districts concerned
With an increasing awareness and growing concern regarding concussions in sports permeating the country in recent years, local high school football programs across the area are doing everything in their power to combat the issue.
Asked about football concussions, Southfield High School coach Tim Conley said: “It’s a major concern and a subject we give the utmost importance to in our program.
“A lot of it starts with education, making sure the kids have the proper equipment and are taught proper technique. We do everything we can to keep our players out of harm’s way and the more you can teach them about the issue, the better the chance of successfully dealing with it,” Conley said.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association, like many other state high school athletic associations throughout the nation, has taken significant steps over the past few years to implement the proper measures in approaching and in educating the public about concussions and their potential consequences.
For the past 18 months, public address announcers at MHSAA-sanctioned games have been reading multiple public service announcements to the crowd regarding how best to react to the symptoms of a concussion.
“The bar has been raised so much higher in how we deal with the issue now as compared to the times of the past,” John Johnson of the MHSAA said. “We’ve been able to put in place all the proper protocols, so we’re being as proactive as possible in dealing with the subject, which is undeniably important and something that should be dealt with extremely diligently. We’re talking about these kids’ long-term health and protecting our athletes at all costs is our duty as a governing body.” Continued...
Johnson points to legendary local high school football coach John Herrington, who in more than four decades on the sidelines at Farmington Hills Harrison has led his teams to a state-record 13 state championships. Herrington just taped a public service announcement television commercial for the MHSAA, expounding on the virtues of concussion prevention.
“The goal is consistent education and putting in as many preemptive measures that we can to provide a safer playing environment,” Johnson said. “A figure like Coach Herrington getting involved and supporting your cause makes people take notice.”
Player lawsuits
Much of the recent groundswell of support nationally for reform in dealing with concussions in organized athletics stems from a barrage of lawsuits filed in the past decade by thousands of former professional football players against the NFL, seeking damages for long-term brain trauma caused by incurring multiple concussions over the course of their career and not being properly treated.
Back in July, all of the cases were consolidated into one giant federal class-action suit.
The lawsuit’s battleground is made even more intense with a rash of recent suicides of former NFL players who suffered concussions during in their playing days.
Stoney Creek High School head football coach Brad Zube has seen his share of concussions throughout his program this fall. Between his freshman, junior varsity and varsity squads, more than a half-dozen players have missed time due to concussions.
“We’ve been seeing our share of concussions this year,” Zube said. “But you deal with them the right way. The doctors and the trainers have final say on when they can return point blank. If they’re not cleared, they’re not stepping foot on the field, period.”
Bechtel and Zube point to the critical importance of a top-notch training staff within their program, as a means of always striving to thwart concussions at every turn.
Bechtel said: “We’re lucky to have a great training staff at Farmington High School and they do an outstanding job making sure we all follow the proper procedures in terms of how we deal with the issue.”
“The goal is consistent education and putting in as many preemptive measures that we can to provide a safer playing environment,” Johnson said. “A figure like Coach Herrington getting involved and supporting your cause makes people take notice.”
Player lawsuits
Much of the recent groundswell of support nationally for reform in dealing with concussions in organized athletics stems from a barrage of lawsuits filed in the past decade by thousands of former professional football players against the NFL, seeking damages for long-term brain trauma caused by incurring multiple concussions over the course of their career and not being properly treated.
Back in July, all of the cases were consolidated into one giant federal class-action suit.
The lawsuit’s battleground is made even more intense with a rash of recent suicides of former NFL players who suffered concussions during in their playing days.
Stoney Creek High School head football coach Brad Zube has seen his share of concussions throughout his program this fall. Between his freshman, junior varsity and varsity squads, more than a half-dozen players have missed time due to concussions.
“We’ve been seeing our share of concussions this year,” Zube said. “But you deal with them the right way. The doctors and the trainers have final say on when they can return point blank. If they’re not cleared, they’re not stepping foot on the field, period.”
Bechtel and Zube point to the critical importance of a top-notch training staff within their program, as a means of always striving to thwart concussions at every turn.
Bechtel said: “We’re lucky to have a great training staff at Farmington High School and they do an outstanding job making sure we all follow the proper procedures in terms of how we deal with the issue.”
Having faith in the experts is key, according to Zube.
“You do everything in your power to make sure they don’t occur and when they do, you turn them over to your training staff and let them and the doctors make all the final calls as to whether and when they can get back in there and play again,” Zube said.
Amy Braun, the head trainer at Stoney Creek, points to preseason testing, standard operating procedure in many programs the last few years, as crucial.
“You put kids through impact tests and baseline tests before practice starts and then if they get hurt, you have numbers to compare and contrast in terms of recovery time,” she said.
In her years as a trainer, Braun has seen an increase of concussion awareness around high school sports and the adopting of more methods to prevent them.
“The visibility surrounding the issue has really gotten a lot bigger and the measures we have at our disposal related to prevention have become much more commonplace,” she said. “Both are very important.”
Dark stories
There is a darker side to this issue. Apparently, not every team and training staff from around the area has grasped the dire nature of things when it comes to concussion concerns.
“I saw a situation last year that really disheartened me,” said a prominent Michigan high school head football coach who declined to be named in this story. “We were playing a big game against a very high-profile team and a very successful head coach and it was obvious to me in the way they handled an injury to one of their star players, that the kid’s health was not their first priority.
“This kid got his bell rung pretty bad and didn’t know what was going on and they kept him in there until the end when it was obvious to almost everyone he shouldn’t have been playing. After the game, they had to carry him into the locker room.
“At some point, winning at all costs has to be superseded by looking after a young man’s general health and well-being. It was pretty evident to me that wasn’t the case that day,” the coach said.
Dr. Aashit Shah, Chief of Neurology at Harper Hospital and a professor at Wayne State, can’t overstate how important it is to approach the issue of concussions with the utmost sensitivity.
“They are definitely not something to take lightly or blow off,” he said. “The sustaining of a concussion is a very serious thing.”
Even the medical profession is still learning about concussions and their varied and severe consequences.
“We still don’t know everything we need to or have a complete understanding of the extent of damage concussions do to the brain,” he said.
The danger increases significantly if concussions are sustained close together in time, the issue that is most damaging if players are allowed back onto the field too early.
“You can get into real trouble if a player has multiple concussions in the same few days or weeks,” Shah said. “There is increasing evidence that if someone hasn’t recovered from an initial concussion and then has another one, the potential for long-term damage starts to come into play. At the most severe, it could wind up being fatal. That’s why this issue is turning into such a hot-button topic and rightfully so, because the more we’re learning, the more we’re uncovering deeper and more ravishing effects.”
Concussions facts
More than one in seven high school athletes who suffer concussions have suffered at least one previous concussion, according to a report at momsteam.com, a research and content site designed for youth sports parents.
The same report, citing two separate studies, states there are an estimated 1.6 million to 3.8 million sports-related concussions each year in the United States. The problem has reached an epidemic level, according to the Center for Disease Control. Sports concussions are the second-leading cause of traumatic brain injury, trailing only motor vehicle crashes, for those between the ages of 15 and 24, according to the momsteam.com report.
“At least 50 youth football players (high school or younger) from 20 different states have died of sustained serious head injuries on the field since 1997,” the momsteam.com report states, citing research done by the New York Times.
Statistics like those have caused physicians, as well as local and national media outlets, to notice.
In New Hampshire, a retired physician who is on a school board in Dover is pushing to have football banned.
Dr. Paul Butler is behind the push, stating that football players are at risk of brain damage, but other board members have stated that they will not support the proposed ban.
Grantland.com writers Tyler Cowen and Kevin Grier wrote earlier this year about what the end of football could look like — stating that, with the right conditions, it could take between three and five years for the sport to reach its ultimate demise.
The story cites liability lawsuits as the likely beginning of the end, but also describes a much quicker scenario.
“The second most likely path of doom is that medical science conclusively connects (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease found in people with a history of multiple concussions) with football, and state legislatures or Congress move to ban it,” the story states.
“If the connection is made, this could take only three to five years. This is faster because it doesn’t require financial ruin or a slow drain of labor supply, but also less likely because Congress and a lot of other legislatures face a lot of gridlock as it is.”
Concussion app
The concern is not limited to high schools. The University of Michigan has released an app, called Return2Play, which allows concussed athletes to track their activities and symptoms and share the information with healthcare providers.
The app costs 99 cents and is available for iPhone. It allows users to enter the date and details of their injuries.
“Return2Play was designed with the patient and healthcare team in mind,” Amy Teddy, injury prevention program manager at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, said in a released statement.
“Our goal is to create a more efficient clinic appointment that leads to better management of the injury and safe return to play decisions. This allows for a more streamlined, efficient clinic visit by eliminating the need for recollection of the injury details, signs and symptoms. It also provides a learning section that provides quick access to education and tips about concussions.”
Staff writer Dave Phillips can be reached at dave.phillips@oakpress.com or 248-745-4631
“You do everything in your power to make sure they don’t occur and when they do, you turn them over to your training staff and let them and the doctors make all the final calls as to whether and when they can get back in there and play again,” Zube said.
Amy Braun, the head trainer at Stoney Creek, points to preseason testing, standard operating procedure in many programs the last few years, as crucial.
“You put kids through impact tests and baseline tests before practice starts and then if they get hurt, you have numbers to compare and contrast in terms of recovery time,” she said.
In her years as a trainer, Braun has seen an increase of concussion awareness around high school sports and the adopting of more methods to prevent them.
“The visibility surrounding the issue has really gotten a lot bigger and the measures we have at our disposal related to prevention have become much more commonplace,” she said. “Both are very important.”
Dark stories
There is a darker side to this issue. Apparently, not every team and training staff from around the area has grasped the dire nature of things when it comes to concussion concerns.
“I saw a situation last year that really disheartened me,” said a prominent Michigan high school head football coach who declined to be named in this story. “We were playing a big game against a very high-profile team and a very successful head coach and it was obvious to me in the way they handled an injury to one of their star players, that the kid’s health was not their first priority.
“This kid got his bell rung pretty bad and didn’t know what was going on and they kept him in there until the end when it was obvious to almost everyone he shouldn’t have been playing. After the game, they had to carry him into the locker room.
“At some point, winning at all costs has to be superseded by looking after a young man’s general health and well-being. It was pretty evident to me that wasn’t the case that day,” the coach said.
Dr. Aashit Shah, Chief of Neurology at Harper Hospital and a professor at Wayne State, can’t overstate how important it is to approach the issue of concussions with the utmost sensitivity.
“They are definitely not something to take lightly or blow off,” he said. “The sustaining of a concussion is a very serious thing.”
Even the medical profession is still learning about concussions and their varied and severe consequences.
“We still don’t know everything we need to or have a complete understanding of the extent of damage concussions do to the brain,” he said.
The danger increases significantly if concussions are sustained close together in time, the issue that is most damaging if players are allowed back onto the field too early.
“You can get into real trouble if a player has multiple concussions in the same few days or weeks,” Shah said. “There is increasing evidence that if someone hasn’t recovered from an initial concussion and then has another one, the potential for long-term damage starts to come into play. At the most severe, it could wind up being fatal. That’s why this issue is turning into such a hot-button topic and rightfully so, because the more we’re learning, the more we’re uncovering deeper and more ravishing effects.”
Concussions facts
More than one in seven high school athletes who suffer concussions have suffered at least one previous concussion, according to a report at momsteam.com, a research and content site designed for youth sports parents.
The same report, citing two separate studies, states there are an estimated 1.6 million to 3.8 million sports-related concussions each year in the United States. The problem has reached an epidemic level, according to the Center for Disease Control. Sports concussions are the second-leading cause of traumatic brain injury, trailing only motor vehicle crashes, for those between the ages of 15 and 24, according to the momsteam.com report.
“At least 50 youth football players (high school or younger) from 20 different states have died of sustained serious head injuries on the field since 1997,” the momsteam.com report states, citing research done by the New York Times.
Statistics like those have caused physicians, as well as local and national media outlets, to notice.
In New Hampshire, a retired physician who is on a school board in Dover is pushing to have football banned.
Dr. Paul Butler is behind the push, stating that football players are at risk of brain damage, but other board members have stated that they will not support the proposed ban.
Grantland.com writers Tyler Cowen and Kevin Grier wrote earlier this year about what the end of football could look like — stating that, with the right conditions, it could take between three and five years for the sport to reach its ultimate demise.
The story cites liability lawsuits as the likely beginning of the end, but also describes a much quicker scenario.
“The second most likely path of doom is that medical science conclusively connects (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease found in people with a history of multiple concussions) with football, and state legislatures or Congress move to ban it,” the story states.
“If the connection is made, this could take only three to five years. This is faster because it doesn’t require financial ruin or a slow drain of labor supply, but also less likely because Congress and a lot of other legislatures face a lot of gridlock as it is.”
Concussion app
The concern is not limited to high schools. The University of Michigan has released an app, called Return2Play, which allows concussed athletes to track their activities and symptoms and share the information with healthcare providers.
The app costs 99 cents and is available for iPhone. It allows users to enter the date and details of their injuries.
“Return2Play was designed with the patient and healthcare team in mind,” Amy Teddy, injury prevention program manager at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, said in a released statement.
“Our goal is to create a more efficient clinic appointment that leads to better management of the injury and safe return to play decisions. This allows for a more streamlined, efficient clinic visit by eliminating the need for recollection of the injury details, signs and symptoms. It also provides a learning section that provides quick access to education and tips about concussions.”
Staff writer Dave Phillips can be reached at dave.phillips@oakpress.com or 248-745-4631
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