More Southland schools add ImPACT system

Updated: March 22, 2011 4:30PM

The guessing games and crossed fingers and lingering doubts will disappear at Oak Forest in the fall. They'll also fade away at Rich Central and Shepard, and at 14 more schools across the Southland.

From this point forward, when a football player, or athlete in any sport at those schools, suffers a concussion, there already will be a snapshot of his or her brain activity on file.

Because of that, anxious parents will be able to breathe easier. Their child still will be injured, but thanks to the ImPACT concussion management system, there will be a guide, rather than guesses, however educated, as to whether he or she can play again.

This is great news for the players, coaches, trainers, doctors and parents connected with Andrew, Hillcrest, Homewood-Flossmoor, Marian Catholic, Oak Forest, Richards, Rich Central, Rich East, Rich South, Shepard, Thornridge, Thornwood, T.F. North and T.F. South.

Those schools have the ImPACT system, donated to them by Ingalls Health System through their sports medicine program. Thornton, which had used the system on a case-by-case basis with recovering players, also will have full-time use of it. They join Lockport, Argo, St. Rita, Sandburg and Stagg as ImPACT-equipped athletic departments.

It's costing Ingalls about $10,000 to cover what the schools had not covered to this point. With the rest of Ingalls' sports medicine program in place, it seemed a logical addition.

"We want them to be safe," said Julie Carlson, manager of Ingalls Sports Network. "If a second test is required, they should be seeing their primary care physician or come to us."

Dr. James Krcik, a specialist in pediatric and adolescent sports medicine, helped spur Ingalls' expansion of the program. Krcik, who played baseball at Brother Rice and for two years at Illinois-Chicago before medical school beckoned, saw a huge need for it.

"This is probably the gold standard in concussion management," Krick said of ImPACT. "It's not a return-to-play criteria, but a guide to giving them the right treatment."

With Ingalls' help, 20 of the Southland's 51 schools, and half of the 40 that offer football, are now equipped with ImPACT.

So here's a question for the other schools.

What are you waiting for?

At $500 for the first year to cover 300 athletes, it comes out to $1.67 per test.

A buck sixty-seven.

Yes, times are tough and budgets are tight, but any athletic program will spend more on tape to wrap ankles in the first month of the season than it would on this program.

Parents, coaches, trainers and athletes from unequipped schools really ought to attend the free concussion information seminar Ingalls is holding at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. It's at the Tony Bettenhausen Recreation Center, 8125 W. 171st St., Tinley Park. Call (800) 221-2199 to reserve a seat.

Over at Richards, football coach Tony Sheehan, whose career ended at North Park because of back-to-back concussions, is delighted his training staff will have access to ImPACT.

"It takes a little off our shoulders," Sheehan said. "Now we have a baseline for how a kid is."

Subsequent tests taken after head injuries will help determine when a player will play again. Plus, Sheehan and the Richards' training staff will have a definitive answer for parents wondering why their child isn't back in the lineup.

District 218, like other school districts, has been hit by the sour economy. Costs for extracurricular programs have been cut 10 percent this year. Sheehan has lost one paid assistant coach. But thanks to Ingalls, the ImPACT testing has moved forward.

Andrew had considered using the program, and the donation by Ingalls made it easy to do so.

"It's very exciting to have that piece of mind going into this season and future seasons," Andrew football coach Jim Zimmer said. "At the end of the (last) school year we were told we were receiving it. It's very beneficial to our athletic program."

Wednesday, every Andrew football player will take the test that will establish the baseline. When someone is concussed, they'll take the test again. The difference, and subsequent tests, will help establish how well they're healing.

That's worth at least $1.67, is it not?

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