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Kelly Smithwick
Rhoda Lukens
UWRT 1101-071
28 October 2014

High school sports are all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Injuries can range from
a scab falling off to a broken arm to a serious injury or even death. While a few of the most
common injuries of any sport are meaningless, others pose a serious threat to the lives of the
athletes. Contact sports are the most dangerous sports young children and teens can participate
in. Contact sports put children and teens at risk for concussions, which can affect them later in
life.
Concussions are the athletic injury many people fear the most. They are a parents worst
fear, the rain on a coachs parade, and the players worst enemy. According to the Mayo Clinic,
A concussion is a traumatic brain injury that alters the way your brain functions. They can
occur when the body suffers any injury in which there is a blow to the head. Concussions do not
always lead to unconsciousness, and therefore, are sometimes unnoticed by the patient or peers.
The Mayo Clinic states that, [s]ome symptoms may be immediate or delayed in onset by hours
or days after injury, such as: concentration and memory complaints, irritability and other
personality changes, sensitivity to light and noise, sleep disturbances, psychological adjustment
problems and depression, disorders of taste and smell. Concussions can lead to bleeding in the
brain, which can be fatal, although this is not always the case. People with signs and symptoms
of having a concussion should be closely monitored and symptoms of one can last anywhere
from a week to a few months after the accident (Heads Up). Concussions are typically
temporary themselves, but can cause a number of side effects ranging from headaches to slurred

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speech that can last much longer than the concussion itself. They are a dangerous injury common
in most contact sports. They can cause damage to any fully developed brain, and even more to
the undeveloped brain of a child or teen. They are not fully preventable, and should be taken
seriously by the player, coaches, friends, and family. The risk of concussion for a particular sport
should be taken into account before starting play, especially with football.
Football is a favorite sport among many during the fall season. Concussions are the main
head injury in football. Zachary Kerr, director of the NCAA Injury Surveillance Program, says
"Something as simple as lifting their heads up when they're tackling can prevent fatal and
catastrophic injuries" (qtd. in Dotinga). The number of concussions from football every year is
declining with more athletes learning how to correctly tackle. Coaches for highs school athletes
and younger, are learning better tackling drills at conferences, through ongoing research, and
from learning new safety techniques. Two ways to help prevent concussions during football
practice and games are for boys to wear properly fitting helmets, including buckling the chin
strap; and to remind coaches and parents that helmets help protect the head and brain, but cannot
fully prevent a concussion (Centers for Disease...USA Football). Pee-wee football coaches are
first in the line of defense against concussions. The coaches are the ones who teach the young
boys the fundamentals of football that they carry with them for the rest of their playing career. If
the coaches for the young age group do not teach the proper techniques, the boys can suffer later
in life. Boys without the good fundamentals will continue to tackle incorrectly later in their
career, because it will become habit. These boys will then feel the pain they played through when
they are older. Men who played football in their younger days are often worried about the
possible symptoms they may start having as they get older due to concussions they suffered in
high school football. Mens Fitness states, If you start having memory or focus issues, balance

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problems, migraines or other headaches, or sensitivity to light or noise, pay attentionpast

concussions could explain them. Mens Health also explained that if an older man suffered
more than one concussion during his youth football days, then he is more likely to suffer from
one from a much less serious head injury when he is older. Football is a sport known for
toughness, but even the toughest become weak when a concussion is present. Both untreated and
treated concussions can lead to annoying, and possibly hazardous, health issues later in life.
Boys are not the only gender to deal with these traumatic brain injuries in a sport. Girls
soccer is not too far behind when it comes to the rate of concussions. Thirty-three concussions
will take place for every 100,000 girls that step on to the practice or game field (Sports).
That may not seem like a big volume of concussions, but it is. For the majority of high schools in
America, the girls soccer season is during the spring. There are over 19,000 schools in the U.S.,
and if there are only 9,100 high school girls soccer teams playing on one night, at least 33 of the
girls have a concussion by the end of the game. Most teams play at least twice a week and only
have 15-18 girls on the team.. That is a great deal of concussions by the end of the week, not
including practices or pick-up games. Most come from heading the ball. Kate Snow, in
collaboration with others of NBC News, says, When heading, players attempt to use their
foreheads to direct the ball, often with opposing players, a move that can lead to collisions
between players, bumped heads and strained necks. Two things can go wrong when heading the
ball: 1) she can collide with another player, and 2) she can head the ball incorrectly. With the
first point, girls often close their eyes when they head the ball, and therefore do not know where
they are going. She may not see the other girl coming who has the same idea. They both go up,
but hit heads instead of the ball. In some cases, two girls have gone to head the ball, and one girl
gets a black eye, because the other girls head hit her face. A hit to the face with enough force

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behind it can cause a concussion. Another possibility is one girl can attempt to head the ball by
herself, not do it correctly, and give herself a concussion. The correct way of heading the ball is
to meet the ball at the hairline, as this is the hardest part of the top of the head. Girls new to
soccer may try to head the ball with the very top of their head, and find out that it hurts. Other
girls that have been playing soccer for quite some time may never have learned the proper way to
head the ball. The very top center of anyones head is the softest, and when met with the force of
a falling soccer ball, can cause a concussion. Girls often make the mistake of letting the falling
soccer ball come to them, when they should actually be meeting the ball midair. Meeting the ball
with force will not only make it go forward, it will also help minimize the blow the head
receives. This does not apply to only girls, it applies to boys as well. Girls tend to be more
aggressive than boys when it comes to soccer. Either way, soccer is a dangerous sport for both
genders, and injuries to the head should be taken seriously and with caution.
Concussions are no joke. They cause dizziness, confusion, headaches, and other
bothersome side effects. A concussion, if not taken seriously and treated in the best way possible,
can lead to more concussions and that means more pain. Pain, no matter what the source may be,
does not go away with by being ignored. This goes for every injury, big and small, in every
sport. Playing in a game for five minutes, immediately after being subject to any injury is not
worth the risk of returning to the field, court, or mat and hurting that part of the body even more.
Injuries have to heal, and healing requires time. Games and practices come and go, but there is
only one chance for life. Everyone only gets one body, so take care of it while it is here.

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Works Cited
Diseases and Conditions: Concussions. Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education
and Research, n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2014. <http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseasesconditions/concussion/basics/definition/con-20019272>.
Heads Up: Concussions in Football. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
Football. http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/HeadsUp/pdf/Football_Fact_Sheet_Coachesa.pdf
Dotinga, Randy. The Most Dangerous Hits in High School Football. CBS News. CBS
Interactive, 11 Aug. 2014. Web. 24 Oct. 2014. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/themost-dangerous-hits-in-high-school-football/>.
Frantz, Jeff. Did High School Football Break Your Brain? Mens Fitness. Weider, n.d. Web. 4
Nov. 2014. <http://www.mensfitness.com/life/sports/did-high-school-football-breakyour-brain>.
Snow, Kate, et al. Concussion Crisis Growing in Girls Soccer. NBC News. NBCNews.com, 9
May 2012. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. <http://rockcenter.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/09/11
604307-concussion-crisis-growing-in-girls-soccer>.
Sports Concussion Statistics. Headcase. HeadcaseCompany.com, n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.headcasecompany.com/concussion_info/stats_on_concussions_sports>.