GLENDALE, AZ — With fall sports in full swing, one West Valley school district is already reporting a number of concussions. There’s been more awareness and preventative measures being taken in recent years over concussions in high school sports.
When playing any sport, students and their families know the risks. Ryland Sikich, a Mountain Ridge High School sophomore who plays football, tells ABC15 he got a concussion on his first game this season.
“I was just confused. I was very dazed, unfocused. My vision was kind of zoning out. That was one of the biggest indicators that I thought I had a concussion, and I was also feeling very tired,” Sikich explained.
Parents and their students have to participate in concussion education and sign statements as well, knowing the risks of the sports their kids play.
When student-athletes get a concussion, there are procedures they must follow.
Kim Rodgers, the athletic trainer at Mountain Ridge High School, says students have to be evaluated by an athletic trainer and also go to the doctor to be diagnosed.
Schools work with the student’s doctor, school nurse, counselor and their teachers get involved after finding out about the student’s injury.
Students go through neurocognitive testing and have a slow return to play, too.
“During those initial symptoms, there’s no participation in sports, no participation in physical activity classes. They can work with the athletic trainer on the rehab recovery pieces as well,” Rodgers said. “Every parent has the option to take their child to the doctor. Not everyone does, not everyone needs it, but if they do, we combine the doctor’s guidelines with our policies and procedure as well.”
While the rules are detailed for return to play, they are not as detailed for students to return to the classroom.
The Arizona Interscholastic Association oversees high school sports and has minimum guidelines for them. Recently, its board voted against updating its return to academic policy, which would detail its rules even more.
An AIA spokesperson sent the following statement detailing why they went against codifying a more detailed return to academic policy:
The Executive Board felt that this should not be put in policy codifying it, but rather as an advisory from the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee to the member schools. Schools will always have the best in mind for their students, and each school is a little different from the next. So the Board felt the schools are best to determine how and when students return to academics after a concussion based on the SMAC advisory and recommendations.
The Deer Valley Unified School District and a few other Valley districts don’t have a detailed return to academics policy either. However, Rodgers says there are protocols for children returning to the classroom.
When athletic trainers and coaches work with the student’s teachers, they also outline some guidelines. That would include helping the teacher understand what the student can and can’t do and what should be limited. For example, they’d advise reducing screen time, possibly reducing workload and even extending due dates if needed.
“We’re talking with the athletes, asking how they’re doing in their classes and if they’re falling behind in work, making sure that they’re returning to full class load and they’re back on par with their academics before we progress to the final stages of the return to sports,” Rodgers said.
ABC15 asked DVUSD about why it wouldn’t just put the protocols into words. The district offered this statement:
At DVUSD all of our athletic programs and trainers follow our district policy that coincides with the Arizona Interscholastic Association-SMAC-sports medicine committee policy put in place.
Athletic trainers on each high school campus work with the family, teachers, nurses, counselors, and coaching staff when an athlete is concussed to get them back to a place where they are not only successful and safe athletically but academically as well.
There are preventative measures schools and coaches take to keep students safe. It varies from sport to sport, but nonetheless, it’s all a collaboration with different school staff, families and student-athletes to get back onto the field, court, and in the classroom.
“Talking with my teachers and making sure I was understanding everything, since everything was a little slower but that was about it,” Sikich said.
