High School Football Player Dies from Brain Injury

[Cackalacky]

Charles Youvella, Arizona high school football player, dies from brain injury suffered in game - ESPN

The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council two weeks ago called for a national system to track sports-related concussions and answer questions about concussions in youth and school sports, particularly football. The report revealed that the reported concussion rate for the average high school football player is nearly twice that of a college player, and far outpaces that of other high school sports.

The report said 250,000 people nationwide age 19 and younger were treated in emergency rooms for concussions and other sports- or recreation-related brain injuries in 2009. That was an increase from 150,000 in 2001.

Opinions on a database?

 

[IrishLax]

How telling is it that the rate for high school players is double that of college? Shows just how much football players hide concussions to stay on the field at the next level...

 

[Irishnuke]

How telling is it that the rate for high school players is double that of college? Shows just how much football players hide concussions to stay on the field at the next level...

Yeah for sure. Also, I don't know how big of a part, but I think poor technique by high schoolers probably plays a role.

 

[PANDFAN]

big differences in physical abilities and weights of players in High School...and 100% agree ^ technique

 

[FearTheBeard]

I think a part is poor equipment for some. My high school had helmets wayy outdated compared to the rest around us, we had some ****** equipment. I knew a few guys who chose one of the fewer new helmets we had just because it was a cool new helmet even though it didnt properly fit. But i definitely think the biggest part is people trying to play through concussions like you guys said

 

[ACamp1900]

^^^ A gentlemen I work with played at UNC in the 70's and has some coaching background on into the early 90s... he is of the opinion they need to seriously roll back the safety equipment like pads and helmets so players don’t have this false idea that they are protected to the degree they can basically make themselves into human missiles…

Not sure where I stand on that, but interesting idea.

 

[irishpat183]

^^^ A gentlemen I work with played at UNC in the 70's and has some coaching background on into the early 90s... he is of the opinion they need to seriously roll back the safety equipment like pads and helmets so players don’t have this false idea that they are protected to the degree they can basically make themselves into human missiles…

Not sure where I stand on that, but interesting idea.

I agree with that. If you TRULY want to eliminate head injuries...Get rid of helmets.

(sounds crazy, but it would work)

 

[irishpat183]

And stop making shoulder pads so small. Go back to when they came up to the ear holes.

 

[Hammer Of The Gods]

I am in know way making light of this tragedy or concussions. But I feel like concussions get tossed around like bullying. Make fun of someone, you're a bully, get your bell rung, concussion. OBVIOUSLY concussions are serious. But I feel like its s little over used.

 

[Hammer Of The Gods]

And stop making shoulder pads so small. Go back to when they came up to the ear holes.

Agreed. Bring back Mark Edwards pads.

 

[bigedefense]

Here is one that I bet most folks don't know... One of the main reasons that players are required to wear mouth pieces is to prevent concussions. They MUST be properly fitted in order to work properly. Every year, I will have players that will just stick them on their helmets right out of the pack. I have to hold them out of contact until that mouth piece is dipped in hot water and molded to their mouth. I would bet that over 75% of the folks that watch or play football don't know this fact. By the way, I was in my first year as a high school coach and our QB's dad was a neurologist. He informed our Head Coach quickly that First contact practice when he saw players that didn't have fitted mouth pieces.

 

[ThePiombino]

I am in know way making light of this tragedy or concussions. But I feel like concussions get tossed around like bullying. Make fun of someone, you're a bully, get your bell rung, concussion. OBVIOUSLY concussions are serious. But I feel like its s little over used.

Over used? Ummmm, a concussion is a concussion.

 

[Hammer Of The Gods]

Over used? Ummmm, a concussion is a concussion.

Is it? I'm a high school strength coach. You know who makes the call if a kid "thinks" he's concussed? A chiropractor. You think we're the only ones who use non doctors making doctor calls?

 

[PANDFAN]

Here is one that I bet most folks don't know... One of the main reasons that players are required to wear mouth pieces is to prevent concussions. They MUST be properly fitted in order to work properly. Every year, I will have players that will just stick them on their helmets right out of the pack. I have to hold them out of contact until that mouth piece is dipped in hot water and molded to their mouth. I would bet that over 75% of the folks that watch or play football don't know this fact. By the way, I was in my first year as a high school coach and our QB's dad was a neurologist. He informed our Head Coach quickly that First contact practice when he saw players that didn't have fitted mouth pieces.

i would say about the majority of people who have played organized football probably know this...hell we were taught this back in pop warner football when i was 9 or 10

 

[FearTheBeard]

Here is one that I bet most folks don't know... One of the main reasons that players are required to wear mouth pieces is to prevent concussions. They MUST be properly fitted in order to work properly. Every year, I will have players that will just stick them on their helmets right out of the pack. I have to hold them out of contact until that mouth piece is dipped in hot water and molded to their mouth. I would bet that over 75% of the folks that watch or play football don't know this fact. By the way, I was in my first year as a high school coach and our QB's dad was a neurologist. He informed our Head Coach quickly that First contact practice when he saw players that didn't have fitted mouth pieces.

Honestly ive never heard that, basically nobody molded theirs on my team.

I agree with that. If you TRULY want to eliminate head injuries...Get rid of helmets.

(sounds crazy, but it would work)

This is true, and im not sure how id feel about it.

Its really easy to feel invincible once you put a helmet and pads on, but take that helmet away and im sure everyone would play alot differently. I feel like im more inclined to say keep helmets and stuff and just know that youre taking that risk playing football. But its an interesting topic for sure, and if the biggest goal is to cut down on concussions thats something worth lookin into

 

[PANDFAN]

Honestly ive never heard that, basically nobody molded theirs on my team.


This is true, and im not sure how id feel about it.

Its really easy to feel invincible once you put a helmet and pads on, but take that helmet away and im sure everyone would play alot differently. I feel like im more inclined to say keep helmets and stuff and just know that youre taking that risk playing football. But its an interesting topic for sure, and if the biggest goal is to cut down on concussions thats something worth lookin into

well sh#t their goes my thought....i guess where i grew up playing football this was just common knowledge...how did 1 think they could have that big @ss chunk of rubber in their mouths cutting up the ridge of your mouth and choking you...i would have thought common sense would have taken over...guess not

 

[Cackalacky]

^^^ A gentlemen I work with played at UNC in the 70's and has some coaching background on into the early 90s... he is of the opinion they need to seriously roll back the safety equipment like pads and helmets so players don’t have this false idea that they are protected to the degree they can basically make themselves into human missiles…

Not sure where I stand on that, but interesting idea.

Lee Corso said as much. He said specifically to get rid of the face masks. People will not be launching themselves at others without a face mask.

 

[Hammer Of The Gods]

well sh#t their goes my thought....i guess where i grew up playing football this was just common knowledge...how did 1 think they could have that big @ss chunk of rubber in their mouths cutting up the ridge of your mouth and choking you...i would have thought common sense would have taken over...guess not

Kids these days are so helpless that we literally help them do it. We pass out gear and they walk to the cafeteria, a mom is there with a pot of water and our worthless get back coach shows them what to do. It's pathetic but a must.

 

[bigedefense]

i would say about the majority of people who have played organized football probably know this...hell we were taught this back in pop warner football when i was 9 or 10

You, my friend, are lucky. I must say, I held back on my last post because our Athletic Director here at my school is working on his Ph.D. He is currently writing a paper on this very topic. He sent out over 2000 questionnaires for his research and over 1400 returned them. Out of those, only 318 marked concussion prevention as the primary source for mouth pieces. The rest of the responses were the same, tooth loss prevention. That's where I got my 75% number from. I just didn't want to type all that. Haha! I am lazy today, what can I say!

 

[anarin]

I've always thought they needed to get with the people of NASCAR on safety, they seem to have their act together. I also remember someone saying they needed to make the field bigger like Canadian football, statistics show a much lower injury rate due to this. No source

 

[FearTheBeard]

well sh#t their goes my thought....i guess where i grew up playing football this was just common knowledge...how did 1 think they could have that big @ss chunk of rubber in their mouths cutting up the ridge of your mouth and choking you...i would have thought common sense would have taken over...guess not

Haha well i mean it makes sense. But i never associated wearing a mouthpiece with a concussion, more so making sure i didnt get my teeth knocked out. And the big thing is just him saying that having it molded was so important, i just figured itd make it fit a little better but not make any difference on concussions. I hated making a molded mouthpice i just left it the way it was and didnt think twice

 

[NDWorld247]

I am in know way making light of this tragedy or concussions. But I feel like concussions get tossed around like bullying. Make fun of someone, you're a bully, get your bell rung, concussion. OBVIOUSLY concussions are serious. But I feel like its s little over used.

Maybe, but it's better safe than sorry. As a football coach, if a kid "gets his bell rung" and says his head hurts (or if I see it), he's sitting out the rest of practice and seeing someone more qualified than myself to determine if it's a concussion or not. I can give him an on-site concussion test, but pass or fail, he's sitting out. I'd rather it be overused than underused.

And, the real issue with concussions (besides the welfare of the player) and the way coaches/schools handle them is lawsuits. It's only a matter of time before schools start cancelling their football programs because it's not worth the risk of paying out millions in lawsuits/settlements if they aren't handled properly.

In high school, we didn't know about concussions and neither did our coaches. If you "got your bell rung" and wanted to sit out, you were a pussy. And if you got your bell rung and wanted to keep playing, you were tough. I'm pretty sure I had 10+ concussions in my 4 year high school career, but no one ever diagnosed it or wanted me to sit out. The culture is changing, but there are still too many 'dinosaur' coaches that put winning and 'toughness' ahead of the health and welfare of their players.

 

[Hammer Of The Gods]

Maybe, but it's better safe than sorry. As a football coach, if a kid "gets his bell rung" and says his head hurts (or if I see it), he's sitting out the rest of practice and seeing someone more qualified than myself to determine if it's a concussion or not. I can give him an on-site concussion test, but pass or fail, he's sitting out. I'd rather it be overused than underused.

And, the real issue with concussions (besides the welfare of the player) and the way coaches/schools handle them is lawsuits. It's only a matter of time before schools start cancelling their football programs because it's not worth the risk of paying out millions in lawsuits/settlements if they aren't handled properly.

In high school, we didn't know about concussions and neither did our coaches. If you "got your bell rung" and wanted to sit out, you were a pussy. And if you got your bell rung and wanted to keep playing, you were tough. I'm pretty sure I had 10+ concussions in my 4 year high school career, but no one ever diagnosed it or wanted me to sit out. The culture is changing, but there are still too many 'dinosaur' coaches that put winning and 'toughness' ahead of the health and welfare of their players.

Agreed. You just took it way further than I did, In terms of legality and all that lol. Im a strength coach at the highschool level working specifically with Football and Wrestling. Ive seen my share of concussions and seen my share of " fakers". the fakers aka REAL pussys are what I was talking about in the sense of being over used, that and our gun ho chiropractor and intern athletic trainer, its really a cluster ****

Like you I really would hate know how many concussions ive had. Hell I walked to the wrong huddle one time and the ref said " son, you can't go over there" totally oblivious to the fact I was basically out on me feet.

 

[Wild Bill]

IMO, there is too much contact during practice in high school. I think it happens for a couple reasons: (1) Most high school coaches do not know enough about technique, Xs and Os to "teach" better technique and scheme so they overcompensate with contact drills; (2) the contact drills increase a team's toughness, concentration after fatigue has set in and builds team camaraderie. Those three attributes, alone, win a lot of high school football games.

I also think there was a ton of misinformation out there with respect to concussions. I played in the early 2000's. Concussions, especially during summer camp (two-a-days) were very prevalent. I had a few myself. Generally speaking, we received little or no treatment, were told to tough it out and went back to practice immediately or the next day, depending on the severity of the headache. Our coaches, IMO, didn't know any better. We know a lot more now and I doubt this is still very prevalent.

Most guys knew mouth pieces would prevent concussions and stingers. Some people chose not to wear them.

The size of shoulder pads have little or nothing to do with concussions, IMO. Bigger shoulder pads are hard to fit on a high school kid's body. They move around and expose players to neck, shoulder, chest and back injuries. Sleeker shoulder pads still provide a ton of padding and it would have to be an absolute perfect shot to penetrate the shell of the helmet with your shoulder pads. It's possible, but I doubt even the biggest pads would prevent the concussion if you connected with a huge hit.

Knee, thigh and hip pads are a greater issue. Knees, specifically, are a huge issue. If the knee pad is worn, it absorbs the contact and would prevent the concussion. Some guys simply refuse to wear them and others trim them down to nothing. Have refs check them and eject players that do not comply. That would solve the problem.

 

[irishpat183]

i would say about the majority of people who have played organized football probably know this...hell we were taught this back in pop warner football when i was 9 or 10

Yep! I couldn't wait to go home from our first team meeting and boil my mouthpiece to mold it! LOL

Stove top, boil the water, and dip it in for 30 secs...

 

[irishpat183]

IMO, there is too much contact during practice in high school. I think it happens for a couple reasons: (1) Most high school coaches do not know enough about technique, Xs and Os to "teach" better technique and scheme so they overcompensate with contact drills; (2) the contact drills increase a team's toughness, concentration after fatigue has set in and builds team camaraderie. Those three attributes, alone, win a lot of high school football games.

I also think there was a ton of misinformation out there with respect to concussions. I played in the early 2000's. Concussions, especially during summer camp (two-a-days) were very prevalent. I had a few myself. Generally speaking, we received little or no treatment, were told to tough it out and went back to practice immediately or the next day, depending on the severity of the headache. Our coaches, IMO, didn't know any better. We know a lot more now and I doubt this is still very prevalent.

Most guys knew mouth pieces would prevent concussions and stingers. Some people chose not to wear them.

The size of shoulder pads have little or nothing to do with concussions, IMO. Bigger shoulder pads are hard to fit on a high school kid's body. They move around and expose players to neck, shoulder, chest and back injuries. Sleeker shoulder pads still provide a ton of padding and it would have to be an absolute perfect shot to penetrate the shell of the helmet with your shoulder pads. It's possible, but I doubt even the biggest pads would prevent the concussion if you connected with a huge hit.

Knee, thigh and hip pads are a greater issue. Knees, specifically, are a huge issue. If the knee pad is worn, it absorbs the contact and would prevent the concussion. Some guys simply refuse to wear them and others trim them down to nothing. Have refs check them and eject players that do not comply. That would solve the problem.

That's not the point. The point is, players would lead with their shoulder, not their head.

 

[nlroma1o]

^^^ A gentlemen I work with played at UNC in the 70's and has some coaching background on into the early 90s... he is of the opinion they need to seriously roll back the safety equipment like pads and helmets so players don’t have this false idea that they are protected to the degree they can basically make themselves into human missiles…
Not sure where I stand on that, but interesting idea.

^^^
100% agree

I've mentioned this somewhere a while back, but I started playing rugby in college and still play currently. You honestly don't see that many concussions. WHY? Because without any padding, (espcially with out a helmet) you have to tackle with technique, or else you break youre neck. There's usally a thought that goes off in your head when you play that says," hey dumba$$, if u go flying in at that guy at this ridiculous angle, at this speed, your'e gonna be in a wheel chair!" So you combat that urge, and you have to tackle with accuracy and technique. It really not that hard, and is very coachable. But as you can imagine, it would probably cause a massive split in the sport of football.

 

[nlroma1o]

And for the record, I am fairly certain that the number 1 cause of concussions in rugby is from accidental high shots by forearms. Its NOT from these ridiculous shoulder charge type hits where someone comes at you full speed from 10 yards away.

 

[Wild Bill]

That's not the point. The point is, players would lead with their shoulder, not their head.

Why would the size of the shoulder pads matter? Players are not leading with their head b/c their pads are too thin to protect the body.