Concussions, a type of traumatic brain injury due to a blow to the head or body that causes the brain to move quickly back and forth, are a frequently occurring injury in athletes.

Athletes at Woodland Regional High School (WRHS) suffer from them more often than you would think, but not often, according to Jill Spiwak, the athletic director at WRHS.

Spiwak says that the most concussions are usually reported from football players at Woodland, however there were many this past year in swimming.  Athletes can suffer from a variety of symptoms including a headache, nausea or vomiting, dizziness, and much more due to a concussion.

But how dangerous is a concussion to a teenager’s developing brain? According to Dr. Francine Testa, a pediatric neurologist, a concussion does not affect brain development as long as it is taken care of appropriately.  Testa also notes that a concussion does not damage brain tissue.

At WRHS, when an athlete is diagnosed with a concussion, they must stay home and recover before returning to school and sports.  Recovering involves complete brain rest, which means sitting in a quiet and dark spot for a few days with no phone, TV, lights, thinking, or reading.  After one to two weeks, the headache, nausea, dizziness, and vertigo caused by the concussion should go away.   The athlete is given time to finish any missed work and his/her teachers and guidance counselor are notified of the concussion.  Future health complications can be avoided by following a treatment plan.  Once treatment is completed, the athlete can return to school with no residual.

Once the athlete begins to feel better and is symptom free for twenty four hours, he/she begins a five-day return to play protocol.  The protocol involves a slow return to sports, with an increase in physical activity each day over the course of five days with a minimum of one day elapsed between each step.  Once the protocol has been completed, the athlete can return to play after being cleared by a licensed health care professional who has been trained in the evaluation and management of concussions.

Matthew Iannone, a member of the soccer and track teams at WRHS, has sustained three concussions throughout his life.  Although he has not sustained a concussion at Woodland, he did while at Long River Middle School (LRMS) and Community School. Iannone’s latest concussion was sustained in seventh grade at LRMS.  He says it was difficult to keep up with school work and extracurricular activities with a concussion.  He did not go to extracurricular activities and focused completely on school work and resting his brain.  Iannone says that the hardest part of having a concussion is having to rest and not do anything.  Advice that he would give to someone suffering a concussion is to avoid future injury, rest, and you’ll be healed shortly.  To try to protect himself from getting another concussion, Iannone wears a concussion band while playing soccer.

Concussions can have a detrimental effect on an athlete, but with the proper recovery, concussions will not end an athletic career.