New rules in play for concussions

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:24PM

For the last four weeks, Waubonsie Valley has been without starting quarterback Tommy Kolzow, who suffered a concussion during the Warriors' 17-6 victory over Bartlett in Week 3 and remains day-to-day.

In just three games this season, Kolzow had been a dual-threat weapon in the Warriors' option attack. He completed 39 of 69 passes for 398 yards and four TDs while carrying the ball 45 times for 253 yards and two scores.

In anticipation of playing last week against Neuqua Valley, he was able to practice but wasn't cleared.

"He practiced all week and the doctor said (last) Thursday he didn't feel comfortable letting him play," Waubonsie coach Paul Murphy said of Kolzow. "Nothing you can do when the doctor says you can't play. Doctor has told us all week that he was gonna clear him and then on Thursday decided not to. That's where we're at with that. Until the doctor clears him, he can't play. He feels good enough to play, but it's all up to the doctor."

On Tuesday, Kolzow was given the OK by the doctor to suit up for Friday's home game against East Aurora.

With head injuries and concussions becoming all the more frequent, the National Federation of State High School Associations established new guidelines in February for dealing with concussions.

The new rule regarding concussions states that "any player who exhibits signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion, including but not limited to loss of consciousness, headache, dizziness, confusion or balance problems, must be removed from the contest immediately and shall not return to play before being cleared by an appropriate health-care professional."

The previous NFHS concussion rule required that a player lose consciousness in order for an official to be able to remove that player from a contest.

According to Murphy, the concussion wasn't diagnosed until after the game.

"The IHSA stuff has to do with on the field during the game. His concussion was diagnosed after we played Bartlett," Murphy said. "He played the whole game, so there was nothing. There were no symptoms at all during the game. It was after the game. He took the ACT test the day after the Bartlett game and that's when the headaches came. So we don't know if it was a combination of the hits he took plus the ACT test he took.

"Then all of a sudden, he developed symptoms. He's gotten rid of the symptoms for over a week now, but the doctor still won't clear him. I think a lot of that has to do with what's going on in the NFL. (With) all these other concussions going on, no doctor is gonna take a chance if he doesn't think the kid's 1000 percent. I can't blame the doctor for that."

As of Oct. 1, the IHSA had received 71 instances where athletes left competitions because of possible concussions, according to IHSA Associate Executive Director Kurt Gibson.

Of those 71 cases, 14 of them eventually were able to re-enter the competition in which they were injured.

"The reason this rule was put into effect (by the NFHS) was because there was a much greater body of evidence out there when it relates to concussions than there had been," Gibson said. "We know a lot more about them. The National Federation wanted to create the safest playing environment for student-athletes that they could. The desire was to develop a rule that could be applied across all sports."

In the NFL, Chicago Bears linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer was placed on injured reserve on Sept. 14 after sustaining a concussion against the Arizona Cardinals during the preseason.

Hillenmeyer, a member of the NFL Players Association's concussion committee, previously sustained a concussion in the Bears' 2006 season opener and said he respected the team's decision because of the fickle nature of concussions.

Five days after Hillenmeyer's season ended, Dallas Cowboys' tight end Jason Witten suffered a concussion late in the Cowboys' Week 2 loss to the Bears.

Shortly after, Witten was shown on the sideline repeatedly expressing his frustration with not being able to go back into the game to a member of the Cowboys' medical staff.

Purdue University just conducted a study that was recently published in the latest edition of the Journal of Neurotrauma that looked at the helmets of 21 members of the Lafayette Jefferson High School football team in Lafayette, Ind.

The study concluded that four players had concussions, but four others who weren't diagnosed with concussions were found to have some brain damage considered worse than the four who were diagnosed with concussions.

One of the 21 players studied, Joel Ripke, a 17-year-old offensive lineman, estimated that he got hit in the head about 1,800 times during the 2009 season.

"Kids don't take 1,800 hits to the head during the season. They might take 1,800 hits, but they don't take 1,800 hits to the head," Murphy said. "Who's the idiot who wrote that because there's no scientific fact to prove that. It's a scare tactic and it gives the game of football a bad name.

"There are no coaches that are teaching tackle with your head. The problem is they let the pros get away with it. These kids see it on TV and they emulate what they see on TV. It has nothing to do with how they're taught. It has to do with what the pros are doing. Now the pros need to clean up their game."

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