Concussions: the Invisible Threat to Young Athletes
Do you know how badly a concussion can damage your child’s brain? Westchester county families spend countless hours taking their kids to sports practices and games, yet few parents know the long-term risks of a blow to the head. For instance, most don’t consider how often concussions occur, not just in high-intensity contact sports, but in low and non-contact sports and even everyday life. Even a mild concussion can temporarily halt development of the young brain, and that there are no definitive medical tests to diagnose them. They don’t show up on an MRI or CT scan unless there’s a brain bleed, and teen brains are much more fragile than adults’ because their neurons are not yet fully protected by myelin sheaths.
My parents didn’t know any of this until after I sustained three concussions as a lacrosse goalie for Hackley School and Westchester club teams. After the third one, I was diagnosed with Post Concussion Syndrome, which can persist for months or years. In my case, the hits to the head were never serious enough to knock me unconscious, yet I’ve battled years of headaches, nausea, fatigue and short and long-term memory loss. For a whole trimester my school had to grade me on a pass/fail basis just so I could get my work done.
I have asked many fellow high school athletes about their experiences, and almost everyone I’ve spoken to has sustained at least one concussion. It’s not surprising, given the CDC’s statistic that one to two million children and teens experience them in sports each year. What is surprising, however, is how little we players are told by coaches about head injury prevention or treatment. Why is that? The head of a nearby youth soccer league told me confidentially, “My coaches just don’t know enough about this.”
This is what spurred me to contact numerous Westchester youth sports teams to offer to give coaches and players a brief concussion awareness presentation. Also, I have established the Athlete Concussion Foundation, a website where young athletes talk about the head injuries they sustained and what they wished trainers and coaches had taught them about brain safety. Dean, an all-league football tackle for Tuckahoe, recounts that when he took his first hit to the head, the team’s trainer sat him out until he felt better. But two games later, an opponent collided with him and no adults saw it. He didn’t know to report it to them, and felt his team needed him to stay in the game. A year later, he says, “I still have trouble with short-term memory and piecing together words in a sentence. I wish someone would have given me more examples of student athletes getting concussions.”
Juliette, who played varsity soccer at Tuckahoe, admits that after a hit knocked her to the ground during a game, she lied to her coach and denied she was still experiencing concussion symptoms because, “I wanted so badly to stay on the field. I really regret that.” After she had another collision, she discovered the statistic that having one concussion makes you three to five times more likely to get another one, and the damage is cumulative. She spent several months recovering, enduring fatigue and a loss of motivation to be with friends.
Matt also played varsity soccer for Tuckahoe. He recalls “one diagnosed concussion and at least five undiagnosed ones. I’ve had ringing in my ears ever since, to be honest.” Why so many? He explains, “Everybody expects you not to be a baby and to not be soft.” Matt wishes that team culture for male athletes would encourage players to be safer and step out immediately after a blow to the head.
These kinds of stories are more common than you might think, and we players need adults to teach us the hard facts. As we head into pre-season training for high school fall sports, I urge all parents — and all adults volunteering for their children’s teams — to read up on concussion safety at the CDC’s website, and to educate young players about concussion risks. The most important thing we kids need for the future is a well-functioning brain. Take it from my fellow athletes and me, you don’t want to lose months of your life to head injuries.
