<p>That is so terribly sad.</p>
<p>There was a lot of discussion about concussions at our HS last year because one of our star players reached the state’s “limit” on concussions early in the season.</p>
<p>Bulletandpima – you are so right to hope that this tragic death creates more awareness among players and parents. What I also hope for is to convey that there is no shame in quitting a sport even if you’ve just had one concussion or are worried about your personal safety. I’ve heard of boys making fun of kids who choose not to continue a sport. They call them wimps and make fun of them. They’re not wimps – they’re making a choice for their future. Everyone can make their own choice, but there is no reason to shun a teammate who chooses not to continue. There’s so much attention paid to bullying in schools. This is a different form of bullying. It should stop.</p>
<p>Now that I keep learning, does every state have a limit on concussions?</p>
<p>Class of 15 I agree, in contact sports there is that machismo aspect. </p>
<p>Bullet doesn’t get why I hate going to the games. I hate going because there are the folks decked out in the school colors, and screaming only their kids name, it is all about their kid…where and when did we lose the team aspect?</p>
<p>Worse yet screaming from the bleacher “Coach what were you thinking?” , or to their child, “walk it off get back in there”. </p>
<p>I just don’t get it, maybe it is the fact that I have 2 XX chromosomes and no Y, but I doubt it. 2 weeks ago, I watched a Mom who was silent until her child came on the field. I sat a row behind her, and while he was on the field she stood the whole time. In other words, I saw squat. When he was off the field, she was silent and sat on the bench. To me this was not about the team it was about her kid… and that bothers me deeply because there is no I in team.</p>
<p>Not every parent is that way, but some are so over the top it is insane. The child who died had parents that supported the team, every player, the coaches and worked in the snack shop. I want to make that it is perfectly clear they weren’t one of the “it is all about my kid” parent, they were about the kids and the school. They volunteered to sell t-shirts, and bring in casseroles for the Banquet. </p>
<p>It will be interesting because as I stated the Dad is on the BOE. I hope he uses this horrific loss and his position to make sure that the BOE does everything in their power to ensure it will never occur again to another parent in our county.</p>
<p>H’s classmate and friend was injured in a junior high school football scrimmage and became a paraplegic. My S isn’t athletic, but I would never have let him participate in football or any other violent contact sport in school. Developing brains and bodies shouldn’t be subjected to those sorts of risks. One concussion is one too many.</p>
<p>I seem to recall that, according to an article I read about the head injury problem in The New Yorker, the issue is not limited to concussion alone. Researchers were finding that more frequent less violent hits in practice caused significant damage.</p>
<p>Several members of our girls LAX team have suffered concussions over the past 2 years. A few from illegal checks (in practice & games) and some from falling to the ground & hitting their head. The HS trainer is very dilligent about following up and keeping them out of games until she clears them, then they need to get an MD clearance. My daughter fell during a weekend horseback lesson & I made her go to the trainer on Monday to get checked, as she had a baseline the year before from LAX.</p>
<p>BandP, I’m so sorry for the family, the school and your S personally. It is almost incomprehensible to teenagers that something like this can happen to someone they know.<br>
S2 played football 6-12th grade. When he was a senior, we got a call after an away game fr. the team trainer asking us to come out to the h.s. and drive S2 home. Said he was a little woozy and she didn’t feel comfortable letting him drive home.<br>
S2 swore that he was fine but DH drove him home and we took him to the Dr. first thing in the a.m. The Dr. did neuro tests and determined that S2 was OK to play. He went back to practice on Monday and was OK. </p>
<p>Since then I have heard/read so many stories about football player deaths and concussions and have been so thankful that S2 was OK after that night.<br>
I will always be grateful that the trainer called us and we had him checked out just to be on the safe side.</p>
<p>Pima - big {{{hugs}}} to you and your son. I am saddened to hear of this young man’s death.</p>
<p>As for concussions, it’s a real problem. It is not only how many you have had but how severe they are and how close together.
One of mine got two blows close together and she had post-concussion symptoms for months. The brain takes a long time to heal.</p>
<p>There is no doubt whatsoever that the UPenn player committed suicide. At the time, his friends reported that he had suddenly gotten very depressed and angry, which was out of chracter for him. His parents, both ministers, agreed to an autopsy. The autopsy showed the beginning of a rare degenerative brain disease. Two NFL players who committed suicide had the same disease. Until the college player’s death, it had been believed that only professional players who are exposed to the risk of brain injury for many years are at risk for this sort of disease. </p>
<p>The UPenn player HAD NO KNOWN HISTORY OF CONCUSSIONS. This makes the findings really scary. It may be that in some people repeated head butting can cause brain damage, even if no one incident is severe enough to cause a concussion. </p>
<p>The thought is that the young man’s sudden depression triggered his suicide, but the depression itself may have been caused by brain damage. </p>
<p>See [UPenn</a> Football Player’s Autopsy Reveals Brain Disease | NBC Philadelphia](<a href=“UPenn Football Player’s Autopsy Reveals Brain Disease – NBC10 Philadelphia”>UPenn Football Player’s Autopsy Reveals Brain Disease – NBC10 Philadelphia)</p>
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<p>Actually, teenage girls have a higher rate of concussion then teenage boys. No one is sure why, but there are some theories. One is that the muscular structure of their necks protects boys more, one is that the developmental differences in male vs female brains plays a role, one is that girls are much more likely to report symptoms then boys who want to “tough it out”.</p>
<p>This is horribly sad and my heart goes out to you and all who are suffering. I don’t have a son, so I’m sure there are things I don’t understand…but I feel football is too dangerous a sport, that it just isn’t worth it. There are all kinds of competitive sports that require agility and strength and speed and all the things football asks of a boy…sports where head/spine injuries are very rare. Why not simply enjoy those? (I know, I know, but I just had to say it.)</p>
<p>My thoughts and prayers are with you, your family and your school. It is truly a tragedy. I am quite familiar with your school and the family atmosphere it offers. I teach at a small, rural Virginia high school. We are coming up on the one-year anniversary of the death of one of our football players. He died in a single-vehicle crash. We know the pain and loss that you feel.</p>
<p>More than 40 years ago when I was in hs, there were a series of football-related head injuries in our state. A good friend of mine, a very talented musician, drum major, star quaterback, received a freak hit. He suffered a serious brain injury and essentially lived out the rest of this life (> 20 years, I have no idea if he’s still alive) in a semi-vegetative state. I would never have even considered letting my two Ss play football, not that they were interested.</p>
<p>How sad for the high school player’s family and community. </p>
<p>Concussions are being diagnosed more in many sports. There are a couple of girls out with concussions on D’s field hockey team, and her lacrosse team last spring. We do use the UPMC Impact baseline test here, and girls who were not thought to have concussions are found to have deficits on the test after a hit. Some of their symptoms have lingered for 6 months. I’m not sure what my reaction would be if my D ever sustained a concussion - that might be the end of her athletic participation.</p>
<p>I am so sad to hear about this tragic loss. My heart goes out to the family, friends, and community of this young man.</p>
<p>The Washington Post had an [url=<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/23/AR2010092303683.html]article[/url”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/23/AR2010092303683.html]article[/url</a>] just yesterday about a House committee grappling with how best to safeguard young athletes from concussions.</p>
<p>Pima - sorry to hear that. Very disturbing, especially when it hits that close to home.</p>
<p>My son played football (1st string) grades 7-12th. Fortunately, he played a position that was less likely to receive head injuries than a QB or running back (though no one is immune). Had he received even one concussion that would have been it for him- the risk of permanent brain damage is just too high from subsequent blows. That damage can go undetected for years. Another player on his team received a concussion and saw a neurologist and was advised to stop playing or risk a life-time of problems. This kid and his parents wisely decided once was enough. This kid’s father was a physician and I suspect the father understood the dangers much better than the average person and wasn’t willing to take the risk.</p>
<p>They are just now starting to understand that the brain doesn’t necessarily ‘heal’ from these head injuries (even if the symptoms disappear) and there can be permanent changes to the brain structure and in the person’s cognitive abilities (both emotionally and intellectually) that may not show up until years later. I strongly suspect that playing major contact sports like football in the early years through HS will fall into the ‘what were they thinking?’ category many years from now.</p>
<p>You know letting your S or D (Iknow girls who have played) play football, wrestle, play rugby, etc is such an individual choice. I saw a kid on S’s freshman bball team over run a bball and go head first into the cement wall. If it was my kid he would have been pulled, but he wasn’t. Now bball is not a sport a kid at my S’s HS would have to baseline on the IMPACT test. </p>
<p>The same thing can happen doing non compatative sports like skiing, heck riding a bike, even with a helmet on. It is very hard to pass judgement on parents who allow their kids to play these sports.</p>
<p>My son had a concussion from a bad bike accident, helmet in place. Ambulance ride, CAT scans, MRIs, hospital stay – the whole bit. It impacted his junior year of high school --grades, scores, the whole bit. The accident was in August and he spent the entire fall and winter saying he didn’t know what was going on … he just wasn’t the student he thought he was. About April there was a huge change – and he finished his junior year with flying colors (and rising grades).</p>
<p>A concussion is nothing to fool around with.</p>
<p>This is going to sound cold, and I’m sorry, but some of you are freaking out more than you should. I understand it’s your kid and you can make the decisions for your kid. I have a much better understanding of this topic than many of you would think after reading that first sentence. I actually just finished a presentation (2nd one in 8 days) 45 minutes ago about concussions and their severity.</p>
<p>Look, concussions are serious and most people do not understand how serious they are. The GAO in DC estimates that youth athletes suffered roughly 400,000 concussions from 2005-2008. What people don’t realize is that this injury is not only a football injury. It can happen in basketball, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball, even track and field. </p>
<p>At the same time, I really have a hard time telling a kid that he or she can’t do something he loves because there is that inherent risk involved. I suffered concussions and knowing what I know now, I would have done things much differently in high school. But I’m not going to stop somebody without reason. If I believe a kid is suffering from concussion symptoms, absolutely I’m going to hold him or her out. Other injuries I’ve been known to let an athlete play through; concussions I stand my ground. I had a kid cry on me this summer when I told him he couldn’t play the rest of camp. </p>
<p>But CT scans, MRI, not going to get you far with a concussion. Running to the ER for a concussion is nearly pointless. </p>
<p>I encourage each and every one of you to do 4 things.
- Learn about concussions. Understand them. The signs and symptoms…
- Push for your school to have a full-time health care professional trained in the recognition and evaluation of concussions. Athletic Trainers are some of the best trained health care professionals when it comes to concussions in sport. They have greater training than many of your regular physicians.
- Push for IMPACT testing at your school. Really it’s relatively inexpensive and it’s a useful tool. It’s not a replacement for a trained health care professional, but a great tool for them to have available to them. IMPACT should be tested at the beginning of a season and then after a suspected concussion when the athlete is symptom-free.
- Support the “Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act” that was recently introduced in the House of Representatives. This could go along way in educating athletes, coaches, parents, and teachers about concussions. Also, it can establish a “standard of care” with regard to head injuries.</p>
<p>If you have any questions regarding what I have posted, feel free to PM me. I am following this very closely as it’s very important to me.</p>
<p>Even though our DS received a mild concussion and we now experienced this death, as weird as it may seem I am not going to stop him from playing. Granted, he gets another one then all options are off the table.</p>
<p>I know people may not understand our reasoning, but here goes.</p>
<p>Most posters know Bullet flew fighters for 20 yrs in the AF, and yes, many were combat missions over the badlands. The only way I survived that life was to place my hands into fate and faith. I had to convince myself if God was going to take him on X date, I could lock him in a closet and he would still die.</p>
<p>I am not saying, that I don’t take precautions and that is why if he gets another one than I will step in and say your life isn’t worth the game. Our DS will never be a recruited athlete, hs is about as far as he will get. Love the kid, but I call it like I see it. Football has brought him out of his shy shell and built a lot of confidence. I have had to weigh these two things, and right now football wins.</p>
<p>I am going to google “protecting student athletes from concussions act” and see how I can sign up. I know our school is doing everything they can n educating the kids about concussions, BUT, as a parent I know they are falling short there in educating the parent. It is a bit annoying since they send home so much paperwork to buy stuff (pictures, clothing, banners, etc). they could send home one more piece saying place on the fridge…WARNING SIGNS OF A CONCUSSION.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your sympathy. As many posters have stated they know this school personally. The FB team is a big player in the town. Every Friday night for home games the team walks down to the local restaurant in uniform before the game. It is an awesome sight to behold. Every telephone poll during the season has a football cut out tacked to it with the childs name and number. Another restaurant gives out free ice cream after each varsity home game. In other words, not only the school is behind the team, but the entire town.</p>
<p>They will be playing Friday night in honor of Austin. I am not sure if this is a smart decision because the funeral is scheduled for Saturday, but I do get it, that these kids need to move on with life. If it was my child that I lost, it would be what I would want for the school. I would want them to honor my child, by playing the game he loved and hoping that from heaven he was cheering on the team.</p>