Concussions in Youth Football

Concussions an issue beyond NFL
“WARNING: No helmet can prevent the serious head or neck injuries a player might receive while participating in football.”
Every football player's helmet reminds them of the dangers they face each time they buckle their chin straps.
NFL football player Ray Lewis calls football a “man's game,” but the hazards of football, particularly concussions, don't discriminate between men and boys.
A 2011 study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital said over 8,000 adolescent athletes are treated for concussions each year.
Each day, an average of 57 six to 17 year-olds are treated in U.S. Emergency rooms for football concussions.
Such statistics have catapulted the concussion issue to the forefront of the American football community psyche.
Youth football players are at risk of incurring not only acute effects of concussions like loss of balance and dizziness but chronic effects like loss of long-term memory if they continue playing football on into high school and possibly beyond.
“Obviously the younger you start somebody getting little mini head traumas then the more opportunities there are for injury,” said LSU head team physician Dr. Jeffrey Burnham.
Greater awareness of the severity of concussion symptoms and effects has lead to increased emphasis on addressing player safety and well being at the youth football level.
Burnham believes the increased focus on concussions has lead to more detection of injuries.
“I think to some extent we may be seeing more concussions just because every year we're looking harder and harder, and we're making the athletes themselves aware of it,” Burnham said.
In 2008, the NFL began making concussions and player safety a higher priority.
The league released a pamphlet to players to educate them about concussions and opened a hotline to report instances of players being forced to play against medical advice.
The Louisiana Youth Football organization began taking action against concussions around the same time the NFL did three years ago.
Louisiana Youth Football sees kids between the ages of four and thirteen suit up to play football and director LeRoy Hollins believes the organization is ahead of the game on concussion safety.
“We’re getting NFL information at a youth level, and we’re getting it early,” Hollins said. “As soon as they get it, we get it.”
Because youth football players can start playing at such an early age, there's a greater chance to encounter the cumulative effects of concussions, despite the game not being as fast or physical as the collegiate or professional ranks.
According to Burnham, a player is more susceptible to concussions after suffering their first one and the consequences may be more severe.
“There's something called second impact syndrome, where an athlete can actually die on the field, almost immediately from a second impact that's added to a previous concussion,” Burnham said.
Herman Daigre coaches Louisiana Youth Football’s Baton Rouge Trojans and recognizes this fact.
“I absolutely think about it. Both of my kids play,” Daigre said. “Being a father I'm always thinking about the safety of the kids.”
Daigre and other coaches don't want to jeopardize the safety of the young athletes and choose to err on the side of caution when faced with a decision.
“Out here we just don’t take no chances. A kid gets hit hard, we believe it’s a head injury, under no circumstances whether he passes the test or not we just put him out just to be on the safe side,” Daigre said.
Daigre is a paramedic off the field and tests players himself to see if they show concussion symptoms.
“The finger test, eye coordination. We don’t have the actual staff to help the kids like in college or high school, we just play it safe and pull them out,” Daigre said.
While the organization doesn’t have the medical staff that high schools, college and professional teams have, every coach is trained to recognize and deal with concussions.
“All our coaches have to go through a certification program and within that certification program is a certification for the concussion,” Hollins said.
Coaches are able to recognize the symptoms of concussions so they can treat their players appropriately.
Football fans see concussions happen during games, but players can get hurt even when the stadium lights are off.
“They are sometimes an issue in practice,” Burnham said.
The Youth Safety Alliance reports that 62 percent of all team sports injuries actually occur in practice.
Daigre has structured his practices to make sure players remain healthy over the course of a season.
“I might have one day, maybe one day (per week), where we do contact,” Daigre said. “When I do contact, I do it very sparingly.”
When Daigre does conduct full contact practices, he stresses techniques that emphasize player safety.
“No head to head contact,” Daigre said. “We try to hit low, wrap up, put your head to the side of the player.”
A player that suffers a concussion may initially experience blurred vision and loss of balance and possibly loss of consciousness for a short period of time.
Burnham notes the acute effects of concussions can become bigger problems if a player doesn't take the time to fully recover.
“With your brain obviously, you want to make sure it's 100 percent back to normal because if you don't, you're going to get some cumulative effects over a period of time that can cause memory changes and mood changes,” Burnham said.
Football historically has championed toughness and playing hurt, and coaches for decades have been the ones telling players to “walk it off,” or “suck it up,” and stay on the field.
Along with being LSU's head physician, Burnham works with Episcopal high school in Baton Rouge and feels coaches at all levels are better educated to make informed decisions about player safety.
“I think coaches are better educated today and understand the consequences of some of those problems and I think they truly do want the best for their athletes,” Burnham said.
Daigre says some of the pressure for kids to play through injuries like concussions has actually come from parents.
“You might get some parents that might want to push you to put their kids in, them believing they're alright because they say they're alright, but we can't take that chance,” Daigre said.
Sometimes players are the ones pleading to get back on the field.
“They are so competitive and they want to be back in there and sometimes the symptoms are fairly subtle,” Burnham said. “We have to be strong with them sometimes.”
Burnham and Daigre both agree that safety ultimately comes first when they make a decision to sit or play an athlete.
“Sometimes you do have to make the judgment that's best for the athlete,” Burnahm said.
For Daigre that may mean player safety coming before team success.
“Safety comes first when it comes to the Baton Rouge Trojans and we'll win after that,” Daigre said.