Don't fumble with concussions

Reporting by Emma Carman and Paige Meyer.

The concussion epidemic among athletes has continued to worsen in recent years. According to Prevacus, from 1997 to 2008, the concussion rate among athletes rose 16 percent annually.

“When in doubt, they sit out,” stressed Tom Dyer, athletic director and head coach of the Hamden High School football team.

Headaches, loss of consciousness, delayed response, dizziness, nausea, fatigue and vomiting are all side effects from suffering a concussion. A concussion is caused from a brain injury resulting from a blow or shaking of the skull. The effects can rattle life in more ways than one.

“Little did I know that my concussions from when I was ten would affect me nowadays at 22-years-old” Tyler Cabral, New Hampshire native and semi-pro football alum said.

Any athlete is at a high risk of suffering a concussion. Due to the increased impact and physical pressure athletes put on their bodies, they are more likely to be diagnosed with a concussion. No matter the sport, athletes are at risk of injury.

“Every one of our sports has an athlete who had suffered a concussion. Athletes have many violent turns and sometimes there are no ways to prevent it,” Tom Dyer said in regards to the athletic program at Hamden High School.

Football leads the way in terms of concussions. According to UPMC Sports Medicine, there are between 1.7 and 3 million sports related concussions each year. Around 300,000 of those concussions are football-related.

High schools, colleges and universities across Connecticut have different methods to help prevent concussions among their athletes. Below are the listed high schools, colleges and universities in Connecticut that offer football at their schools.

“Football is safer now than it has ever been,” said Dyer.

Due to the high amount of concussions, precautions have been put in place to make football safer. High school coaches in Connecticut must got through a series of modules from the Connecticut Coaching Education Program to ensure awareness of concussions among athletes.

These modules stress the importance of recovery and proper return to play protocol. Inside and outside of the classroom it is important that athletes are fully stable to take on the tasks. Return to learn is implemented to provide some constraints for student athletes before they are put back on a full academic workload.

As for all Hamden High School athletes and NCAA athletes, an Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing, otherwise known as the ImPACT test, must be taken prior to the start of any athletic season. The ImPACT test is a computerized brain injury measurement tool for athletes who have sustained a traumatic brain injury.

Brogan Rafferty (Number 25) and Nicholas Jermain (Number 18) reviewing the ImPACT test for their 2018-2019 season at Quinnipiac University for the Men's Ice Hockey team.

The amount of padding and safety worn today differs from that worn in 1920 when football started. Back then, players wore no helmets or pads while being kicked, punched and mangled by competitors. Today, individualized helmets are designed for each player. Teams also use a “flying wedge formation” which only allows the players to run in downfield and smash into opponents. The original game of football allowed players to pick up their ball carrier and hurdle him over the opposition similar to todays game of rugby.

College and university level practices are now structured to make sure time spent tackling is monitored. All of these precautions are put in place to help reduce the amount of concussions and the long term effects that they cause.

“Someone asked me if I was drunk the next day in class. I felt as if I was looking through everything with a different lens” Andrew Grinde, the former Yale Football player said.

Pictured is the view from the Omni New Haven hotel at Yale. This is where Grinde spends his time while finishing up his education at Yale University.

When an athlete is diagnosed, their season is put at jeopardy. When it comes to universities and their injury protocol, if an athlete is suspected of having a concussion, they must be seen by a physician who will confirm the diagnosis.

In a study conducted by two Quinnipiac students, the question of whether you have had a concussion or not and gone to the doctor was done and the results came back with almost a split down the middle for both “yes” and “no.”

The severity of symptoms is monitored by using the SCAT 5 Model.  This list helps doctors, physicians and trainers decide the correct time for an athlete to return to play. Athletes are not allowed to return to their respective games and scholastic obligations unless they have completed the five stages of external testing while remaining asymptomatic. In between each stage, 24 hours of problematic free behavior must take place.

“The physician must clear an athlete for full return to play after the last stage so theoretically the minimum an athlete can be out is five days. The maximum you can be out could be infinite. Some concussions can be career ending especially if you have a history of concussions in the past,” Laura Nichols an athletic trainer at Quinnipiac University said.

“It is said that you become more susceptible to them and the severity increases with the number of instances of concussion,” Nichols said.

As for the future of concussions, there will be new tests developed to make the diagnosis easier. Tom Dyer noted that testing through blood work is in the works but can be very tough to evaluate in this day and age. All these issues with concussions bring up so many questions as to if football will be continue to be a leading sport in Connecticut and the world.