A new concussion protocol was put in place this past Saturday, October 8th. This comes after the Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was in a paralyzed position on the field for seven minutes after being hit by another player. Only days before he suffered a concussion, their injury consultant cleared him to play, leading to an even worse brain injury for Tua.

“Our union has agreed to change the concussion protocols to protect players from returning to play in the case of any similar incident to what we saw on September 25,” the NFLPA said. The new rule added says that any player who shows symptoms of gross motor instability, poor balance, or coordination, will not be able to play.

At Niles West, concussions aren’t unusual, according to athletic trainer Laura Gorski.

“A concussion is defined as a mild traumatic brain injury, and it is basically a forced trauma to your head that causes your brain to hit your skull and bruises your brain,” Gorski said.

The symptoms of a concussion are usually really bad headaches, dizziness, memory issues, and a problem with light or noise.

“I had a really bad headache like horrible just so much pressure, and I couldn’t really focus well on anything, I slept a lot and had sensitivity to noise, when there were loud noises it made my headache even worse,” said junior Zoe Czupryna recalling her experience.

Czupryna is a part of the pole vaulting team, she messed up a jump and landed wrong on her head, “I remember feeling like an instant headache and then pain then it was fine but the day after everything was so much worse,” Czupryna said.

Checking for a concussion is going through many tests and the trainers ask a series of questions. Though Czupryna passed all of the tests with flying colors her headache would not go away, and because of that, she was banned from going to practice.

“It was a long time before I could go back, I would say four to five weeks, it was painfully long,” Czupryna said. It matters how bad a concussion is before the player could go back, a rapid recovery consists of seven days out and a medium recovery consists of one to two weeks according to Gorski.

“This past fall we have had almost one every single week,” Gorski said. Many of the concussions at West come from the football team or girls soccer team. “In some instances, you can’t prevent them, “A lot of the times you can’t, like football you wear a helmet and do all the safety things that you are supposed to they know they are not supposed to hit with their heads, they are supposed to lead with their shoulders, but honestly it’s like a fluke,” Gorski said.

Don’t hit your head is one of the main pieces of advice Gorski gives to the athletes.