Alarming Numbers In High School Football Injuries Inquires Safety Precautions for Athletes

An annual study conducted last April 2012 by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina discovered the number of brain injuries without complete recovery suffered by football players at the high school level in 2011 was the highest ever recorded.

The study, titled the Annual Survey of Catastrophic Football Injuries, was created in 1977 by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NCAA initially and currently funds the research. The purpose of the study is to help make football a safer sport by reducing the increase of head and neck injuries.

The annual study from the researchers at UNC reported in the 2011 season thirteen athletes suffered brain injuries with incomplete recovery at the high school level According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, approximately 1.1 million high school players in grades 9-12 competed in 2011. Although thirteen injuries may seem small compared to the total number of high school football players that participated in 2011, this is an alarming increase of nine recorded brain injuries without recovery from the previous year.

Concussion injuries have become a major concern for high school football players as well. According to a study reported in the Journal of Athletic Training from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the estimated number of concussions suffered on average ranged from 45,000 to 67,000 a year. This number could possibly be higher as a result of players not reporting their injuries to athletic trainers or any doctors.

The Annual Survey of Catastrophic Football Injuries also revealed high school players with thirteen brain, head and neck injuries that fully recovered. However, there were six athletes that suffered cervical cord injuries without complete recovery. Jacob Alvarez, a three year varsity football player from Lockhart, Texas, was inches away from becoming one of the non-recovery statistics reported by UNC.

Jacob Alvarez was seriously injured in the second scrimmage of his senior year of the 2010-2011 football season. He recalls the play very distinctly. While playing the quarterback position, two defenders tackled him from the back and front as he ran with the ball. Alvarez felt a pain in his neck shortly after the play. Because of his competitiveness he decided to stay on the field. Several plays later, the severe pain in his neck forced him to step off the field.

 “I pulled myself out, thinking it was nothing”, says Alvarez.

However, it wasn’t just “nothing” as he soon found out. Alvarez and his family decided to go to the hospital after the pain in his neck caused him few sleepless nights and a sharp sting every time he turned his head.  X-rays showed Jacob had fractured his #3 and #4 vertebrae, which are right next to a main vein that runs through the spine.

The doctor told Jacob he was extremely lucky not to be paralyzed from the neck down. As Jacob reminisces about the doctor’s visit, he remembers the thoughts that rushed to his mind as he realized he was so close to being paralyzed for the rest of his life.

 “Having that feeling that I wouldn’t be able to walk, move my hands, people taking me to the restroom…it was pretty scary,” says Jacob.

Alvarez had to sit his senior year of football on the sideline with a neck brace, watching his fellow teammates play the sport he was so passionate about. In four months Jacob had a full recovery and was luckily able to play a few minutes in the last game of the season.

With the 2012 high school football season in progress, it’s important to recognize and reassure the safety of high school football players. What are coaches and athletic trainers doing to help keep the number of injuries, such as the one Alvarez suffered, from escalating to higher numbers?

Coach Jim De La Cruz, in his 32^nd year as Lockhart High School’s Head Athletic Trainer and Assistant Athletic Director, explains that his staff creates emergency plans for many different emergency situations and stores them in folders. These folders are given to all coaches, including at the junior high level, which contain all of the athletes’ medical consent forms that contain phone numbers of parents and their doctors. The folders must travel with the coaches for out of town games in case of an emergency.

“You’re not going to prevent them”, says De La Cruz. “What you have to do is take steps to be prepared for them when they happen.”

In addition, De La Cruz includes that the University Interscholastic League has implemented a PowerPoint safety training program, in which all athletes must watch before the season starts. This presentation informs the athletes about CPR, cardiac problems, diseases and disorders of the heart, asthma, hydration, and goes into great detail about the signs and symptoms of concussions.

Matthew Sandoval, former assistant coach at Lockhart High School and now the head basketball and assistant football coach at El Campo High School, explains how the coaches at El Campo are trained in concussion awareness, which is a requirement for all coaches. He adds that practicing proper techniques of tackling and blocking aren’t the only thing coaches do as a normal routine.

 “We must continuously check equipment for missing parts, [proper level] of air in helmet, appropriate equipment, etc,” says Sandoval. “This is a weekly task at the least.”

Coaches and athletic trainers are not the only ones who can help reduce the chances of these injuries from occurring. According to the researchers of the annual report at UNC, many of the injuries were a result of helmet to helmet hits. These types of hits are illegal, which makes the responsibility of the referees to penalize these hits even greater.

The USA Football website provides their very own Health and Safety Resource Center, where parents and athletes can visit for more information and articles on football safety. The website has a concussion awareness section called Heads Up Football covering the right equipment fitting, proper tackling techniques, the signs and symptoms, and several other articles covering concussions. There is also an application for smart phones that has more of this information and is free to download.

Football has and will always be a very physical, dangerous contact sport. It’s the reason why most Texans look forward to Friday night: the stadium lights, the thrill of playoffs, the loud hits that send echoes through the crowd. Unfortunately, these ferocious hits have the possibility of resulting in serious injuries for young athletes.

Practicing proper techniques, following safety requirements, and continuing to be educated on ways to make the game of football safer may not be able to prevent catastrophic injuries from occurring. But they can certainly help to reduce the increasing number of injuries from the Annual Survey of Catastrophic Football Injuries report.

 No one wants to see high school athletes suffer serious injuries. It’s just an unavoidable aspect of the sport.