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Amanda Doheny
English 100 @ 8:50 am
Professor Cosand
December 4, 2013

Concussions are Killer

The magazine I will be writing for is Sports Illustrated. This magazine is based on sport related news such has game highlights, athletes’ biographies, and controversies within the game to name a few. I chose to write about the science behind concussions and why they are dangerous to our youth. Mainly based upon high school and college athletes that compete in high contact sports such as football, soccer, water polo, hockey, and lacrosse. I believe that this subject is important to be aware of because of the horrific results it can have on young student athletes. My target audience is going to be student athletes that play high school or college contact sports, the coaches, and the people who enjoy watching them. A lot of people already know how players get concussions, but not all of them know what a concussion can anatomically do to a players’ brain and the long term effects of this type of neurologically injury. Not only does the lack of care for concussions affect the players’ body, but they could be rejected from their sport. If more people have the knowledge of this injury’s repercussions, the science of the injury, and how to prevent it then we can save more young athletes lives. Sports Illustrated Writer Amanda Doheny Doheny 2

Concussions are the most common injury among contact sport athletes. Most of the talk about concussions comes from the world of football, but other sports such as soccer, hockey and water polo also experience serve head trauma. It can leave players’ dazed, confused and nausea to name a few symptoms. Some player’s and coaches don’t even know what to look for when it comes to a concussion. "The doctor said that one more shot and I could be a vegetable… "It's a tough thing. You never think about all that when you're playing... (Encina 1)” A young Ben Alford said after he was banned from playing on his high school team when he was 17. Coaches, players, and parents need to know what consequences can occur when a concussion happens and how school athletic programs can help prevent them. A concussion is when the brain receives a traumatic blow to head and the brain’s functions are disturbed. Some players cannot tell if they have a concussion or not and that is the scariest part of these injuries. The symptoms for a concussion can range anywhere from dizziness to loss of the senses (taste, smell, sight, hearing, touch). During a football practice researchers have found that kids are receiving more blows to the head then during a game. “Researchers placed instruments in the helmets of seven football players, ages 7 and 8, and examined a total of 748 impacts that they endured. They found that roughly 60 percent of all head impacts occurred in practice (Toproek 1).” When football teams practice, youth, high school or college, they were less protective gear then they do when they compete. The researchers performed 38 high impact drills, which were 40 or more the force of gravity, 29 took place during practice. “The study's authors suggest changing the structure of youth-football Doheny 3

practices to eliminate "high-impact drills that do not replicate the game situations." Instead, they suggest