Johny Phillips wants to attend Fruitland High football games this fall. He wants to cheer on his friends, wants to be there for the Grizzlies.
After all, Phillips was a Grizzly until the first contact day of fall practice. That’s when the junior free safety suffered a career-ending concussion.
“It’s too tough (to go to practice). I told the coaches I won’t be seeing you until (the season opener),” Phillips said. “It’s tough for me to even go to that.”
It was Phillips’ “fifth or sixth” concussion, he said. He tried to tackle a ballcarrier with the outside of his shoulder pads, but came up with a headache.
Phillips didn’t tell coaches immediately, though his teammates — aware of his concussion history — urged him to tell someone. He continued to practice, his head hurting more and more.
“It got worse. My head went throbbing,” Phillips said. He finally told a coach, who sat him out. “It took an hour for it to go away.”
A doctor later confirmed what Phillips had feared — his career was over.
“I almost started crying. It sucks,” Phillips said.
Phillips plans to do plenty of hunting and fishing this fall and return to the baseball diamond in the spring.
“Life goes on,” he said. “I’ve got other things I planned on doing with my life.”
Thanks to improved education, ground-breaking research and a changing attitude toward head injuries among coaches, players, parents and trainers, concussions are being treated with more attention, making cases like Phillips’ more and more common around the Treasure Valley and the nation.
Former Skyview and Boise State running back Matt Kaiserman walked away from the game before spring practice because of repeated concussions. A Borah player was not cleared to return to the field after suffering a concussio
in the middle of the 2010 season. Sam Hart, a former running back at Centennial, ended his career in 2009 because of lingering effects from a concussion.
“People are understanding that it’s not a sprained ankle. It’s not something relatively safe to play through,” said Caroline Faure, an Idaho State professor and the director and founder of the Center for Sports Concussion. “It’s something more significant that can affect an athlete.”
PUSH FOR EDUCATION
Faure has been leading the in-state effort to educate decision-makers about concussion protocol. She produced legislation to mandate procedures for handling concussions, including the immediate removal of players who exhibit signs of a concussion and written clearance from a healthcare provider before returning to the field.
The legislation did not pass, but lawmakers instructed the Idaho High School Activities Association to post concussion information on its website.
“When in doubt, sit ’em out,” is the headline on the IHSAA site filled with links to concussion information. The State Board of Education website includes a prominent link to Faure’s site: knowconcussion.org.
Faure hosted a concussion symposium — Kaiserman was a speaker — in Boise earlier this month. About 150 coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists, medical students, parents and players attended.
“The culture surrounding sports is changing. Bell ringers and dings, those are a big deal. It’s not going to happen overnight,” Faure said. “The ‘suck it up and play mentality,’ we’ve got to change that.”
And it is changing in many places, including area high schools. For the second year, the Boise School District is performing pre-season baseline tests on its athletes. The tests serve as a reference point for post-concussion tests, one step in a tough process of getting back on the field. Players must be symptom free for consecutive days before taking the test.
Hart, the Centennial player, took the test about four times before he finally passed after his concussion, which occurred when he banged heads with a linebacker in practice.
“I would forget everything,” he said.
Hart, then a junior, never returned to the field. He graduated from Centennial in May.
“With the kids, we’re stressing, ‘It’s your brain. You only get one.’ We don’t know what the longterm effects are,” said Greg Mitchell, who is in his 12th year as the head athletic trainer at Borah.
IDAHO TRAGEDY
The culture is changing.
At Vallivue, players are familiar with the disclaimer sticker on their helmets. Coach Layne Coffin makes sure of it.
“Every year, we have to read the helmet warning over and over and over because our coaches stress it a lot. They just don’t want us to get a concussion and not tell them. They are real serious about that,” Vallivue running back Mike Burk said.
At Boise, which suffered a rash of concussions last year, players have better helmets and there has been a point of emphasis on wearing mouthguards at all times.
“Coaches have made it a crucial point. If you think you got hit really hard in the head and you’re just not all you right then you should go and talk to the trainer,” Boise wide receiver Louie Gremp said.
National stories about the effects of repeated concussions on former NFL players have focused attention on the issue. In Idaho, there is the story of Kort Breckenridge.
On Oct. 7, 2005, Breckenridge took the field for Teton High, still demonstrating the effects of a previous concussion. During the game, when Breckenridge struggled to get up after a tackle, coaches removed him. Minutes later, he went into violent seizures and was unconscious. He needed surgery to remove part of his skull to relieve pressure. Six years later, his speech is slurred, he walks with a limp and has basically no short-term memory. He hardly resembles the strapping four-sport athlete he was before the incident.
The legislation that Faure introduced was labeled “Kort’s Law.”
“I’m so thankful I didn’t have to go through what some of these other athletic trainers have had to go through — kids being debilitated for life or even losing their life,” said Eric Taylor, Centennial’s athletic trainer.
“If it ends a kid’s career, that’s one thing. They still have the rest of their lives. Permanently brain injured or passed away? I don’t know how I could live with myself.”
LARGER ROLE FOR TRAINERS
Many schools in the Valley, though not all, have trainers on the sidelines at practices and games. Volunteers from a local therapy center attend Fruitland games.
Coaches have put their trust in the trainers when it comes to who can — and who cannot — play.
“The best thing is utilizing trainers to keep coaches out of it. Coaches are emotional. It’s empowering the trainers, which is great,” Emmett coach Jerry O’Mahony said.
Said Nampa coach Scott Wooldridge: “I have a lot of confidence in our trainer and her judgment. If she tells me someone can’t play, I listen to it — even if it makes me mad.”
The key is that communication. Sometimes concussions are obvious. Other times, they’re not. It’s up to the players like Phillips, the Fruitland safety who tried to play through his headaches, to alert someone.
Here, too, the culture is changing.
“Kids are growing up in an environment where they hear about concussions,” Faure said. “It’s not a negative. There’s not a taboo associated with the injury.”
Brian Murphy: 377-6444 Statesman reporters Alex Calinsky and Rachel Roberts contributed to this report.
