Study: Brain impairment in high school football

Just a matter of time before high school football players were diagnosed with the same sort of brain injuries discovered in college and pro athletes, I wrote this morning.

Looks like that prediction was a day late.

From today's Chicago Tribune:

Of 21 high school players monitored for a full season by a team of researchers from Purdue University, four players who were never diagnosed with concussions were found to have suffered brain impairment that was at least as bad as that of other players who had been deemed concussed and removed from play.

"They're not exhibiting any outward sign and they're continuing to play," said Thomas Talavage, an associate professor at the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue and the lead researcher on the study. "The cognitive impairment that we observed with them is actually worse than the one observed with the concussed players."

The report, published in the latest edition of the Journal of Neurotrauma, found that some players received more than 1,800 hits to the head during practices and games, some with a force 20 times greater than what a person would feel while riding a roller coaster.

A $59.6 million high school football field

The town of Allen, Texas has just broken ground on a $59.6 million high school football stadium. This sort of money buys a very nice stadium.

The field at Allen Eagle Stadium, scheduled to open in 2012, will be 15 feet below grade and covered with artificial turf. Seating capacity is said to be 18,000 including 5,000 reserved seats with seat backs. Other amenities that are unusual for high school fields: A video scoreboard, two-level press box and observation deck.

It is worth noting that Allen Eagle Stadium won't be the largest high school football stadium in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. The stadium in nearby Mesquite holds 20,0000.

Some may argue that spending this sort of money on a high school football stadium is excessive. But not everyone. Note this comment from a reader on the Dallas Morning News Web site.

I live in Rowlett and do not know a soul in Allen. What I do know is these people voted that they wanted this stadium and were willing to pay for it. What is wrong with that? That is the reason we vote. Do you want the people of Allen telling you what to do in your town? I doubt you do.

One hand up - way up - for trainers on the sidelines

 

This story, unfortunately, will be repeated a dozen times during pre-season high school football workouts. Brandon Burkes, a promising linebacker in Greensboro, N.C., cracked helmets with a teammate in practice and broke his neck in two places. This one ends happily. Thanks to a quick medical response, Brandon suffered no paralysis. His football-playing days are over, though.

The story raises two important questions: Should certified athletic trainers be present for all high school football workouts and games? (Check the video, it does a decent job talking about it). Second, should heart-function exams (ECGs) be mandatory for all high school athletes?

The answers are yes and yes. Yet in most states, neither is required. Not to say that a trainer or sports doc will be missing from sidelines at the neighborhood gridiron this fall. In my hometown, and maybe yours, trainers and docs in the big sports medicine practices voluntarily attend high school games. Not all. But as many as they can handle. It's a good business development thing - a way for a sports doc to get face time with future patients. But mostly it's a neighborly thing. Many of these folks truly do enjoy putting young athletes with wrenched backs and twisted knees back together.

To curb head injuries, a new law in Washington

In a move that will be applauded by parents groups - and should be copied by other states - Washington's senate last week passed a bill that requires young athletes with head injuries to get a medical assessment before being allowed back into games. The Washington state house had already passed such a bill.

Concussions among young players - how they are sometimes ignored by players and dismissed as inconsequential by coaches - have been getting much attention nationally. In Washington, the issue gained prominence in 2006 when a junior high school student, Zack Lystedt, suffered two head injuries one after another during a football workout. Zack suffered brain damage from the blows and still has trouble walking.

Troubling questions in cases such as Zack's are: Did the adults in charge recognize the signs of a concussion? Send a clear message to kids that blows to the head are serious business? Insist that they speak up at the first sign of a concession - dizziness, blurred vision and so on?

The best story I've read on the subject is one of the first, by Alan Schwarz of the New York Times. Alan has written about this issue at many levels of sports, from the National Football League to sports for kids. In this piece, he recounts incidents in which coaches clearly did not see the greater danger. In one case, after a football player suffers a suspected concussion and is ordered out of the game by a doctor, a high school coach instructs the player to change jersey numbers so he can re-enter the game secretly. A fine piece of reporting, and a disturbing story.

Thank you Doug Abrams.

Supreme Court won't hear case of praying coach

A followup: this week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of the N.J. football coach who was barred from bowing his head and leading his high school players in prayer. Earlier, a federal appeals court had ruled that the coach, Marcus Borden, was endorsing religious activity at a public school.