Concussion seminars educate about new law

By CASSANDRA DOWELL
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Community High School District 117 is promoting student athlete concussion awareness following new state legislation related to student athlete concussions.

The legislation requires school boards to adopt a policy regarding student athlete concussions and head injuries that is in compliance with the protocols, polices and by laws of the Illinois High School Association.

Steve Schoenfelder, athletic director and assistant principal at Antioch Community High School, said he knows a concussion’s effects well.

Schoenfelder sustained his fourth sport-related concussion by the time he was a junior in high school, he said.

“They used smelling salts [to wake me up], I didn’t remember most of the plays from the game,” Schoenfelder said.

The same incident left him with a sprained ankle.

“Everyone was focused on the ankle,” he said, rather than on his head injury. “You got dinged [was the attitude]. That was 25 years ago; today, I’d be on a stretcher.”

“Times have changed,” he said.

Under the new policy, if an athlete exhibits any signs consistent with a concussion, the athlete must be removed from the game and cannot return to play until receiving clearance from a certified trainer or doctor, he said during a concussion seminar at Antioch on Sept. 13. If the athlete cannot receive clearance the same day, he or she will need written clearance from a licensed health care provider before being allowed to return to play.

“There’s serious ramifications if kids get back in before they’re fully healed,” he said.

During the seminar, Antioch athletic trainer Amanda Stoneback gave a presentation that provided information about the new legislation, ways to identify symptoms of a concussion and D117’s protocol when dealing with possible head injuries.

“It’s our responsibility that the individual has taken time to recover,” Stoneback said. “Symptoms can last for days [or] weeks. Everyone heals differently.”

“A person can sustain a concussion without losing consciousness,” she said. “And after one is sustained, a person is at a higher risk for a second concussion.”

Schoenfelder said that the law didn’t change much at D-117, as the district has been up to be speed with student athlete concussion prevention and treatment for a while, due to its employment of trainers from Accelerated Rehabilitation Centers.

“We were pretty much doing a lot of this,” Schoenfelder said. “Accelerated has a phenomenal program.”

Stoneback said that D-117 encourages all students to take a day of rest after a concussion is sustained.

The department also implements a five step protocol to determine whether a student can resume play, including riding a bike for 20 minutes to see if any symptoms reoccur.

“If the athlete passes the five steps successfully, [he or she] is allowed to play, but on the first day back [the athlete can practice but] with no contact,” she said.

She said that symptoms of a concussion don’t just affect a student on the field, but in the classroom as well.

“Symptoms include sensitivity to light, feeling sluggish [and] being unable to perform the way they did previously,” among others, she said.

For those reasons, D-117 athletic staff will provide a note to teachers asking them to accommodate the student, she said.

“Most of the teachers understand the importance and are very accommodating,” she said.

“We’ve been meeting with faculty,” Schoenfelder said. “They understand [if this happens] it’s not just a kid trying to get out of a test.”

Barb Regan, a mother of a sophomore student athlete at Antioch, said her son sustained a concussion while participating in a wrestling match as a freshman.

Although he is now back in sports and doing well, and was taken out of sports for about two months following the injury, she said she still questions whether he has fully recovered due to some changes in his personality.

“Is it being a teenager, or is it due to [the concussion]?” she said she wonders. “He’s very forgetful, his attitude changed. Did we put him back in too soon?”

“It’s the shoulda, woulda, coulda [sic],” she said when trying to figure out whether the right steps were taken following the injury.

As an ER nurse, Regan said that she knew about concussions, but that the new law will help get the word out.

“I think this law’s important,” she said.

Schoenfelder said the seminars are meant to promote an understanding of why concussions can be harmful and to make players, coaches, teachers and parents aware of the symptoms.

“If all of our youth programs are on the same page then there’s really no surprises and we’re all kind of doing the same thing,” he said.

He said it’s also important for parents to understand why their child may have to sit out of a game.

“It can be frustrating,” he said, especially if there isn’t a certified trainer of doctor on hand to give the OK to resume playing. “But it’s not worth [ignoring the symptoms].”

He said by sharing information about concussions with the athletes, they are able to identify any troublesome symptoms when coaches aren’t around, such as later in the evening or the following day.

“We’ve got the information out to the kids and we’re seeing results,” he said. “You got kids coming in and saying ‘I woke up with a headache’ [the morning after a game]. It helps the coaches.”

D-117’s next concussion seminar will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20, at Lakes Community High School in the school’s auditorium. The event is intended for parents and coaches of elementary and high school-aged athletes.

For more information about the seminar, call 847-838-7630. To learn more about sport-related head injuries visit www.cdc.gov/concussion/sports.

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