By Zach Hicks

These days in football, “getting your bell rung” on a helmet-to-helmet collision isn’t met with raucous applause from observers.

Instead of a roaring stadium, a silence falls over the crowd. That’s because fans know the danger football players face today.

According to the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Neurological Surgery, 42 percent of student athletes who suffered a concussion, re-entered the game too soon after the injury.

UW-Whitewater’s Head Athletic Trainer Steve Hillmer, said the athletic department follows strict protocol when determining a player’s status after being concussed.

“All of those individuals have to do some neurocognitive testing before they can practice,” Hillmer said. “We have our neurocognitive tests on the computer called ImPACT. A lot of the professional leagues use that test as well.”

According to Hillmer, a concussion is when there is a de-acceleration of the skull, causing the brain to smash into the skull. In severe cases, there might be swelling, bleeding or twisting of the brain, which can be life-threatening.

Hillmer also noted that although football helmets prevent skull fractures, they cannot prevent concussions because they have no way to halt the de-acceleration that leads to the injury.

“The helmets do a nice job of preventing skull fractures and lowering injury risk, but the helmet itself doesn’t do anything to stop the de-acceleration force of the brain,” he said. “Even the football helmets that are designed through research aren’t going to prevent every concussion.”

At the beginning of the season, each member of the football team takes a baseline cognitive test.

This test gives the training staff an understanding of the normal cognitive ability of each player, so that when a concussion occurs, trainers can compare the player’s test results while recovering from a concussion to what they previously scored on their baseline test.

Hillmer stressed that unlike ankle and knee injuries, concussions and head injuries require a trust that the student athlete will report any symptoms.

“With an ankle sprain or a knee injury, obviously you can kind of see swelling,” Hillmer said. “There are special tests you can do to study the integrity of the ligaments and the joints. With a concussion, though, I can’t tell if someone has a headache or sensitivity to light.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, concussion symptoms include the following: headache, temporary loss of consciousness, confusion, foggy feeling, amnesia, dizziness or “seeing stars”, ringing in the ears, nausea or vomiting, slurred speech and fatigue.

Head football coach Lance Leipold was quick to praise the job the medical staff does in treating head injuries.

“If any of our players show signs of concussion-like symptoms that they report, our training staff takes over,” Leipold said. “There’s a protocol that they follow as how many days they’ll be out, when they can re-test and how long before they can go back in. I think you see that more and more across the country today.”

Leipold also praised trainers Courtney Stefanski and Chad Kelsey as well as Doctors Dennys Maldonado and Bradley Fideler for getting his players back on the field after a concussion, while also following UW-Whitewater protocol and that of the NCAA.

The NCAA this year did its part to reduce concussions by changing the touchback rules from the 20-yard line to the 25 and the kickoff point from the 30-yard line to the 35. This measure was put in place in an effort to reduce kick returns and increase touchbacks. Injuries often occur on kick returns because of the speed the two teams when collisions occur.

After a player is diagnosed with a concussion, they are required to have 24 hours of active rest. Hillmer said this means no prolonged laptop time, no listening to iPod’s, etc.

The first day after the concussion, the student-athlete must be symptom-free to participate in 15 minutes of light cardio to get the heart rate up. The second day is 30 minutes and the third day is 45 minutes to an hour. The fourth to fifth day would be a return to activity, according to Hillmer. Any setbacks or reoccurrence of symptoms will trigger the process to start again.

Concussions dominate football today. Former NFL players such as Junior Seau and O.J. Murdock, have committed suicide, shooting themselves in the heart so their brains can be studied.

Despite the black cloud that concussions have cast over football, UW-Whitewater’s concussion policy ensures that no player will be cleared for contact after passing both a trainer’s and physician’s approval.

Although it’s inevitable players will “get their bells rang,” at least the university’s athletic department and training staff is doing all they can to ensure a healthy recovery. At least they’re answering the bell.