Concussion crisis: Young O.C. star forced to retire
Blake Ayles’ concussion history started in Pop Warner and continued through his time at Orange Lutheran and USC. But a hit in August at Miami, one he initiated, ultimately ended his career.
During a warm summer practice, Ayles lined up at tight end and delivered a huge block, knocking the defender’s helmet off.
Then everything went black for a quick second.
When he came back, Ayles was running down the field with his teammates, trash-talking and laughing. When the play ended and he got back to the huddle, his teammates were slapping him on his head.
After getting through that night with a slight headache, Ayles went back out to practice again the next morning. In a one-on-one blocking drill, Ayles took another blow to the head, and then another.
After a no-contact drill, he bent down to stretch, and his football career ended before his 22nd birthday.
“Right when we started stretching, all this pressure went to my head,” said Ayles, the Register’s 2007-08 boys athlete of the year. “I saw lights for a bit. It was a huge head rush. When I got out of it, a trainer was right there and asked me if I was good. ‘No. I’m not good.’
“That was it. They pulled me off right there.”
Ayles waited for weeks to get clearance to return. That clearance never came.
“I was like, ‘Is this really happening?’ I didn’t believe them at all,” Ayles said. “I thought it was a joke. I remember kind of laughing at it, like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ Then it just kind of set in every day since then. I don’t have football anymore.
“It’s going to be hard to get over, but I will sooner or later.”
While the sting from losing football might eventually subside, the long-term effects from his seven concussions are still unknown.
Concussions can cause problems with memory, reasoning, sensitivity with touching, tasting and smelling, speaking, expressing and understanding. Also, traumatic brain injuries can cause depression, anxiety and personality changes.
In the most severe cases, concussions can lead to epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other brain disorders.
“It’s scary,” Ayles said. “It’s in the back of my head, but I’m trying to find good people to get with and go through this process with them.”
The only effect of the concussion Ayles is still dealing with is trouble sleeping.
However, during previous concussions, he continued to play with little to no memory of what happened – which puts the brain at an increased risk.
“Maybe I should have seen the signs earlier,” he said. “It’s been pretty bad at some points.”