By: Nick Austin
High school sports have become more popular than ever with the advent of social media and sports networks broadcasting more and more high school games. This newfound attention from the professional world has given way to an untalked part of high school sports. The concussions and severe injuries that happen in high school sports.
A study from Jacob Vanlandingham, who is the founder of Prevacus (a company developing new treatment for concussions) states that highschool athletes suffer around 300,000 concussions a year. That may sound like a small number compared to the nearly 8 million high school athletes in America, but if we compare that number to the size of vacaville, CA, which has 100,032 people. The amount of highschool students that get a concussion per year is 3 times the size of that.
Although concussions are a definitive problem in the U.S. , a lot is being done to help slow the rate of them, for example in football (where the majority of highschool concussions occur) companies are constantly developing and making available new helmets that reduce the chances of getting a concussion. Helmets can only do so much though. It is up to the coaches and players to teach and practice good technique to help lower the chances of causing or getting a concussion.
Once a player gets a concussion he or she is almost three times as likely to get another one. Which means the more high schoolers that get a concussion now, the more that are prone to them later on in their careers, whatever they may be.
The thing to understand is that these athletes that are getting these serious concussions and other sports related injuries are teenagers, teenagers with lives, school, and many other things. Their lives shouldn’t be put on hold because of a concussion due to lack of awareness, quality equipment and proper technique.
