Community Problem

Report
SPORTS ISSUES: CONCUSSIONS
STEPHEN MANNING

Abstract
Concussions are starting to become more up and coming in high school organized sports
and are not being paid attention to. A lot of Statistics are about how the Coaches of the organized
Sports are not doing anything to try and prevent them rather they are doing anything they can to
try and win the game rather than take care of their players that they are responsible for. A lot of
coaches are starting to keep the players in even after the player has notified them that they are
hurt and that they are not feeling good. This is bringing more parents that are unaware that their
child is hurt and that their child is in need of help because it is a risk to their health and a risk to
their future lives.

Introduction
Concussions are not being paid any attention high school sports. Players think that they
will get better in a few weeks and they are more concerned in that they are missing out on the
playing time they should be getting. They are not fully understanding what could happen to them
if the concussion is not being taken care of. Parents are not being fully informed on what is going
on with their child when they get a concussion, they get told the basics and that their son or
daughter will be fine in a couple weeks or however long the trainer evaluates them to be out for.
If the parent is medically trained they will or should let the child know that they should not play.
Ultimately it is up to the player to let it be known that they are not well and that there might be
something wrong and get checked by a doctor but should go to the trainer first to save money.
Coaches may not care if the player is hurt or not. If it can win them the game they will do
anything to keep their job and brag about how great their team is.

Winning vs. Children

Coaches may be the ones hurting your son or daughter. They may not be doing it
intentionally or physically but they are doing for a purpose. A coach needs to keep the amount of
their wins up. To do that they must be using their best players at all times. If their best player is

hurt, and the team depends on that star player to catch the winning touchdown, make the winning
Figure 1 the athlete doesn't
care what happens as long
as they play.

basket, or score the final points in the game, what is the coach to do?
Take a loss? Give up and say well my team cant do it without him
or her. No they will say nothing is wrong with the player and try to
get him or her back in the game as soon as possible so they can keep
their jobs. People will object and say it is not fair to put their child in
harms way so the coach can keep his or her job. Coaches are always
out to gain a competitive edge. So when does Winning Cost Too

Much? It costs when the players lives and their futures are at risk over getting a win. (2005,
p.344)

Concussion Equipment

How is the sports equipment that the players are using keeping them from getting
Figure 2 the equipment
isn't going to save
someone 100%

concussions, or is it doing anything to keep them safe?(2011, p.119)

These are the questions that Parents need to be asking and finding
out. Unaware parents are not knowing that the concussion their
child has, was not helped by the equipment they were wearing.
American Football uses padded helmets to protect the players from
being injured, but it is not stopping the impacted player from getting
a concussion. The players are unaware that the helmets they use will

not stop you from damaging your skull or brain. It just barely cushions the blow to the head. The
impact of the how hard and the momentum of the opposing player is what causes the concussion
and the helmet is not doing a thing to guarantee the player will be okay, no matter how much
room the player has in the sports equipment.
Admitting Athletes
The hard hits that one player lays upon another is often rewarded and admired by his or her peers
and coaches. They often brag about how hard they hit their opponent and how long they knocked
them out for. What they do not realize is that, the opponent may appear to be okay on the outside
by not okay on the inside. They do not realize they could have just ruined the opponents future,
their lives, even the way the think. None of those things would be rewarded if those peers and
coaches really looked at what really just happened to the other player and how their lives could
possibly change forever. This is not the case one-hundred percent of the time but when someone
does get praised and rewarded for their actions in the game that is what they fail to realize. A
hard hit could only just knock the wind out of someone, it could cause them to get dizzy for a
second or two, and it could even paralyze them for the rest of their lives.

Concussion Statistics
Organized sports will always be the number one with concussions. The sport with the
most concussions is American Football. 1 in 5 high school athletes will sustain a sport related
concussion during the season. According to Head Case Company 33 % of high school athletes
who have a sports concussion report two or more in the same year. Sports injuries is the 2nd
most often cause of concussions in life says Brain Trauma. Org. Traumatic brain injuries have to
do with pathophysiology, neuropsychology, sport psychology, biomechanics and neurological
treatment and rehabilitation. These studies focus on the impact on the brain and the damage that
is done to the brain and if they can do anything to get the brain back to where it used to be and to
see if it will function the same way it did before the hit. The type of exercises that are able to try
and get the brain and help it function the way it did, but this is not 100% that the brain will be
okay when the brain heals after the hit or the amount of time that was given for the brain to get
back to working normally again or functioning the same way it was before.

Making a Change
Parents, Athletes, Coaches, and Trainers arent the only ones that can make a change, it
takes one voice to make a change and that voice doesnt have to be anyone of these that I just
named. Doctors, Scientists, anybody can do anything to try and prevent athletes from getting a
concussion, not by being there to protect the player from the hard hit that they are about to
endure, they can create new rules and form petitions to change the rules of contact and to try and
start a controversy. The rules of contact in high school sports can be talked with any referee and
any coach or any official who referees games at high schools. If anyone thinks that the

equipment the players are using arent doing anything to protect the players or athletes can try
and think of a design or a new way to protect the brain and skull from being damaged and being
effected by the blow and contact by a hard hit to the head. Even though the player is wearing all
this equipment to protect them it really isnt. A scientist can do more to research the momentum
when the opposing player hits the athlete and see what they can do to stop so much from
momentum going all to the brain and hurting it and damaging it.

The healing process

The parent can do most helping with the athlete when the athlete is currently having a
concussion. The reason is because the athlete lives with the parent at the time and is with the
parent most of the time. For those with different cases it is up to the athlete if he or she would
like to get back to the sport that he or she is playing and it is up to them if that sport is worth
staying in with a concussion and not telling their coach, parent, or trainer. Coaches could do
more to see if their players are doing well and being healthy during the duration of the season
that the sport is in. They could do random tests, have the parents do random tests at home or have
them do random tests within their jurisdiction. They could take them to the high school nurse, or
the high school trainer. The high school could do more too, other than supporting the team to go
and win those games and being the cheer team for the sport that is in season.
Most people wait for someone else to do something or they are too scared to take
initiative and say too many of our school mates are getting injured and we dont want to see them
hurt anymore. It only takes that one voice for someone to say something or do something about it
and a lot of people dont do anything until it is too late and there is nothing they can do but say

oh we could have done something for him or her that was injured from the concussion that
nobody spoke up about or nobody even paid any attention too.

Call the Doctor

Doctors are finding that more concussions are coming up upon the youth and the ones
that are in high school and where sports are starting to become more physical, and way more
competitive than junior high or middle school. Once students hit high school they start growing,
mentally and physically. They become bigger, faster, smarter, and stronger and those are all the
attributes to giving someone a concussion. A concussion does not have to be intentional says
Jennifer Niskala Apps. The doctors are finding that a concussion can just be an accident or nonintentional.

1. NRC, Committee on sports- related concussions

2. Concussions and Sports Equipment.
3. Pediatric and adolescent concussions, Jennifer Niskala Apps, Kevin D. Walter,
editors

4. Sports Injuries Guidebook, Robert S. Gotlin, editor

5. Pediatrics Neuropsychology case studies, Jennifer Niskala Apps, Robert F.
Newby, Laura Weiss Roberts, editors

6. Foundations of sport related brain injuries- Semyon Slobounov, Wayne

Sebastianelli

7. When winning costs too much, John McCloskey, Julian Bailes

8. School of hard Knocks, Australian Broadcasting Corporation