There’s this girl who was on one of my teams, good little player, great kid, always happy and ready to play. She’s a bit of a crash-test dummy, though. She goes hard and doesn’t back down and not just on the soccer field. She’s had knee surgery, a broken leg, broken arm, and I’m sure other injuries I don’t know about.
She doesn’t play anymore because she has had multiple concussions. She’s 13. One of the concussions, believe it or not, was suffered while doing homework. She leaned back in her chair, tipped over and hit her head.
After her last concussion — suffered during a game when the ball popped up and hit her in the head — she couldn’t go to school for weeks. It was more than two months before she could go for a full day. She couldn’t go to the lunch room because of the noise, or come watch her friends play because of the sun and noise.
Surprisingly, she got little support from teachers, who argued against making concessions for her during the school day and with assignments. It took several doctor’s notes and an irate mom to convince them.
There’s a girl on my other team who got hit in the head. She fell down, and while getting back up, another girl tried to jump over her and her foot caught the back of my player’s head. We got her out right away and I called the parents over and said, “Don’t mess with concussions.” Fortunately, they didn’t.
There is plenty of information out there today about concussions and youth sports. Whether you believe what is being circulated about the causes or the recommended precautions, is not important. You don’t have to know why concussions occur; you just have to believe that the effects are not good.
Every coach should know the symptoms, and medical staffs should be aware of a player’s progress. That’s where DRIVN comes in. With its flexible technology, DRIVN allows players with concussions, or any injury, to answer a series of questions on an on-going basis so coaches and medical personnel can monitor the situation closely. Questions can cover areas like headaches, appetite, mood, energy, vision, or whatever is deemed important. That information is stored to provide a historical look at progress or lack of progress, which is used for the player’s continuous treatment.