“Coach, My Head Hurts” — The Continual Threat of Head Injuries in Football

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Spring is arriving, and even more importantly for sports fans, baseball is just around the corner. But even with just weeks after the Super Bowl, the football world is never quiet. This past week prospective NFL players displayed their skills in the NFL Combine, and soon, before we know it the NFL Draft will be upon us. Everyone in the NFL and college football realm; coaching staffs are working on their playbooks, athletes are busy training for the fall season, and even officials are hard at work rethinking the issues of the game.

One of the hot-button issues that officials are re-thinking is the unavoidably common helmet-to-helmet collision. Rules, such as the Targeting Rule, have been established in the collegiate and NFL level, penalizing players performing deliberate helmet-to-helmet contact with immediate ejection from the game and a 15-yard loss. While this is an important rule implemented, it only takes away the intentional action from a collision that is bound to happen in the game of football.

In further response to this issue, there has been an outcry for coaches to reform teaching methods on proper tackling and hitting techniques, to which coaches have complied. Coaches have since been teaching players to not lead their helmets when tackling, which has changed the game for the better. But other factors are at large here. According to Coach Mike Swider, head coach of the Wheaton College Thunder Football team, “I can see why there are so many concussions today. It’s because of good helmets and bigger stronger, faster players–it’s totally inevitable.” He goes on to say, “The better you make the helmet, the more emboldened you make the athlete.”

Then are helmets the problem? Wheaton’s Head Athletic Trainer, Greg Evans doesn’t think so. “I think as much technology as possible is going into helmets and there’s only so much helmets can do. No matter what helmet is out there, you can cushion the blow as much as possible but it really is just decelerating the brain from hitting (the skull). I can’t think of anything that’s totally going to prevent that.”

With all this being done to prevent traumatic head injuries in football, it’s hard to imagine what else can be done. The combination of superior athletes and protective gear has created a game that’s defined by hard hits and pressing blows. It’s not as if head injuries are the only prone to football players; concussions are found in plenty of other sports including soccer and wrestling. Coach Swider states, “It’s a problem. And it’s a frustrating problem not just for football. The soccer coaches will say it, the basketball coaches say it, the wrestling coaches- they’ve all lost players. Every sport has lost players within a year.”

Still, good coaching, proper sports gear, and knowledge of potential threats are what prevent more head injuries from happening. For more information check out usafootball.com/headsup, a site devoted to supplying young athletes with information on health and safety in sports.

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.