Guest columnist Ken Wood is communications director for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio and a board member of the Footpath Foundation. He has spent his entire life playing and coaching sports.
We were playing a zone pass defense. I noticed the running back, a guy our high school report described as “strong.”
I dove for his ankles, but I was wrong. His knee hit the front of my helmet, sending my head back so that I hit the ground a second time.
I don’t remember how I got out of the field. I remember people raising their fingers in front of me and asking me where I was.
I remember going back to the game. The words at the time were “I just rang my bell.”
A year later, I was hit in the face by a pitched ball and passed out during baseball practice. I arrived at the hospital with a head injury and a broken jaw.
Two days passed before my coach called to see me.
It’s taken a while, but we’ve really changed the way we think about concussions in sports.
Today, the risk of head injuries is a major concern for parents when considering the choice of sports for their children.
A concussion — a type of traumatic brain injury that occurs when the brain is shaken or hit — has short-term symptoms that affect memory, concentration, and balance, as well as long-term effects that include the possibility of reducing cognitive function.
Playing games is one of the most common ways for teenagers to get distracted.
Advances in precautions, medications, safety equipment and training make athletic fields and courts safer. But for families, the risks must be considered first practice, first physical, first payment.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contact sports are associated with 45 percent of all emergency visits for sports-related brain injuries and concussions among children 17 and the younger ones.
The CDC says the youth sports with the highest concussion rates are:
- Boys play football (with fighting accounting for 63 percent of all high school football concussions)
- Girls’ soccer game
- Boys lacrosse
- Boys’ ice hockey
- Boys wrestling (with 59 percent of all high school wrestling incidents resulting from weight loss).
Complicating sports participation decisions for parents and children is that girls are more likely to experience sports-related conflicts than boys. According to the CDC, girls are more likely to have sports-related emotions than boys in sports that use the same rules, such as football and basketball.
In addition, concussion symptoms affecting mental health are common in girls.
With all the new information, the decision to play sports is a difficult one for parents today. But new safety measures taken by schools and youth sports clubs are helping to reduce injuries.
And the rewards are worth it.
I strongly believe in the value of team sports. In many ways, the lessons you learn about discipline, teamwork, effort, and the ability to overcome failure are hard to replicate.
I loved my experience. At the same time, I constantly wonder what effect the conflict has had or will have on my life. I have struggled with depression. Is that the result of conflict? What could be next?
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) tracked MRI and PET brain data over time from adults who had concussions nearly 20 years earlier and compared the results to participants who without chaos.
According to the NIA study, those who were confused had more visible levels of white matter damage that remained at follow-up visits and showed differences in brain activity.
There is risk in everything we do, including playing sports. And while we’re learning more about the impact of head injuries, it’s safe to say that we can no longer dismiss concussions as a bell that has just rung.
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