concussions

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Neurological Diseases Cost The U.S. $800 Billion Each Year

Over 100 million Americans ― close to a third of the total population ― suffer from neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, migraines, epilepsy and spinal cord injury.

These conditions put an enormous financial strain on the health care system, totaling nearly $800 billion in annual costs, according to a new report published in the journal Annals of Neurology. To put that into perspective, the figure exceeds the U.S. military budget by over $100 billion.

That number reflects the total cost of the nine most common neurological diseases, but the total costs related to the more than 1,000 known diseases of the nervous system would be much higher, the researchers noted.

Neurological Diseases Cost The U.S. $800 Billion Each Year
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/neu ... ac709308cf?

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Meghan at Notre Dame

"Senior permanent IR (injured reserve) Meghan put in first shift since her career ending concussion Sophomore year #GoIrish"
https://twitter.com/NDWomensHockey/stat ... 0554938368

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Jessica

"got a head CT. no bleed, "just" a concussion, so I guess i'm hockey fine. i'm grateful for health insurance.”
"the doctor said "no contact sports" when i was discharged. bruh."
https://twitter.com/yayponies/status/829931293781618688

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Auburn Goalie

"Sadly this game ends after 2 periods as @auburngshockey goalie was unable to return due to concussion protocol Final 5-2"
https://twitter.com/LHSGirlsHockey/stat ... 3139230720

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Maddie O’Neil

"to the girl who gave me a concussion in hockey, thanks for doing it around exam time"
https://twitter.com/maddieoneill_/statu ... 1790661632

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Morgan Smith

Mark and Morgan Smith are having a ton of fun coaching youth hockey together, and they're more than coaches: They're also father and daughter.

Morgan, 18, a senior at Rush-Henrietta Senior High School, began coaching alongside her dad two years ago. This year, she was a student-coach for the Rochester Youth Hockey Bantam House team Mark leads.

“We have a rivalry as far as NHL teams we like,” said Morgan, semi-jokingly describing her relationship with her dad. “But other than that hockey has brought us closer. It’s neat to coach with him.”

Morgan can’t remember a time she wasn’t holding a hockey stick. She began playing in her Henrietta driveway with her brother, Graham, as a preschooler and for Rochester Youth Hockey when she was six.

Mark, who never played organized hockey as a kid growing up in Rochester, began helping out as a coach when Morgan was in middle school.

“I’m self-taught,” Mark said. “I learned through lots of skate and shoots and Amerks' clinics. I just love to coach; I find it fun, especially running into older players at the rink who were my players and at the end of the season when parents talk about how their kids have grown.”

It was Mark’s idea to have Morgan join him on the bench.

“I thought it would be great for her and help her out with her own skills, too,” said Mark.

Morgan, who plans to attend Palm Beach Atlantic University next year to study physical education, has enjoyed every minute of coaching. The players on the team are ages 13 and 14, and there’s never a shortage of emotions of all kinds on the ice or in the locker rooms.

“I am able to relate to them in many ways,” said Morgan, who stopped playing hockey last November due to a concussion she suffered during a game. “On the ice, I can relate because I’ve been a player; and off the ice I can relate, too.”


Henrietta hockey coaches are dad and daughter
Read more: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/sto ... 100094244/

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Karen Thatcher Update

"Conversely, she continued, “Through the many injuries sustained over a 25-year career in hockey, I discovered a love for physical therapy. I loved learning about how the human body moves and how to manipulate this movement to facilitate recovery.

“Each time I sustained an injury, it was always my physical therapist that helped me heal both physically and emotionally. I knew this was how I wanted to help others.”

The last of Thatcher’s injuries aborted her bid for a passport to Sochi one year ahead of the 2014 Games. In a Blades road bout with the Calgary Inferno, she endured what she characterized as “the third time I had sustained a concussion where I lost consciousness.”

Two months later, the Olympic team began its first phase of preparation by assembling its candidates for 2013 summer tryouts. When Thatcher got the call that April, she reluctantly declined the offer.

“It’s been four years since that concussion, and I still notice lingering deficits,” she admitted. “While I never wanted to retire while injured, I didn’t feel that I could take that risk with my brain given the new information begin released regarding concussions and long-term consequences.”


Karen Thatcher Reaching Delayed Grad-ification in Physical Therapy
http://pucksandrecreation.com/karen-tha ... l-therapy/

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Mackenzie Mamers Concussion

Mackenzie Mamers
"Halfway through the first period, Sydney Cole found the back of the Napanee net with Scout Young assisting on the set up. Mackenzie Mamers was a welcome addition back to the defense squad after being sidelined with a concussion. The star of the defense though was Lily Flesch when she burried the puck behind the Napanee netminder in the second period which was assisted by Keira Eagleson. The defence team played a tremendous game, keeping Napanee out of the zone as much as possible but when they were able to force the play, goalie Olivia Dawe made some amazing saves and earned herself a shutout.”

Playoffs Underway for West Northumberland Wild
http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/2017 ... rland-wild

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Molly Tissenbaum
"As part of My Legacy and Brain Pledge Month, I'm encouraging my friends, teammates, and anyone who wants to make a difference alongside me to pledge their brain to support research. My story is below. You can join me and pledge at ConcussionFoundation.org/pledge.

I never thought that at just shy of 23 years old I would have spent so much time thinking about my legacy. And yet as my hockey career ended just four short days ago (at the time of my writing this) I’ve spent a significant amount of time thinking about what my legacy will be. We have a saying in the Harvard Hockey program that our ultimate goal is to leave the jersey better than you found it for those who follow you. I now realize that leaving the jersey better than I found it does not stop with the Harvard Hockey program. It extends into the wider world of sports, and leaving that better than we found it. By telling my story, I hope that I can leave the jersey, and the sport at large, better than I found it.

I was an athlete from before I can actively remember. Everything my older brother did, I wanted to do too. That’s really why I started playing hockey. When I was eight years old I got my first chance to play as a goalie and fell in love with it. The rest, as they say, is history. It became part of my identity, and something that I was proud of. I was a goalie; one of those slightly crazy people who defies human nature and puts herself in the way of fast moving objects. And I loved every second of it.

When I was 13 years old, I suffered my first concussion. I was wearing a junior level mask because it never occurred to my parents or me that I should have been using anything better. I was training on the ice with a group of guys who were a few years older than me when I got hit in the head with an errant slapshot. I always loved the challenge of keeping up with older, faster athletes. The instant that the puck hit me, I knew something wasn’t right. I had been hit in the head before, but this felt different. When my friend and the goalie coach came over to see if I was okay, they discovered that the cage of my mask was dented, and that there was a red welt forming on my right cheek. My friend apologized countless times, asked me if I was okay, and in true athlete form, my response to his question was, “Where’s the puck? Did it go in the net?” Once they assured me that no, the puck had not gone in the net, I left the ice and called my mom. She came and picked me up from school, and took me home. I remember sitting with an ice pack on my face and head to try to keep the bruising at bay. I was home from school for about a week, and when my symptoms cleared, I went back to school, and within 2 weeks I was back on the ice without symptoms. I was young, it was my first concussion, and I was incredibly lucky to heal so quickly.

The second time I suffered a concussion was in a playoff game when I was 15. In the second period of a 0-0 tie against a team we were expected to lose handedly to, I got hit in the head with a stick across the left side of my head. I was in a butterfly (on my knees to cover the bottom of the net), when a puck was flipped in the air towards me. The girl on the opposing team took a swing to try and bat it out of the air and missed, but made clear contact with me. Having suffered a concussion at 13, I knew immediately that I was not okay. I remember looking up to see who hit me and struggling to determine if the number was 13 or 31. The numbers looked like they were dancing.

But it was only the second period, and we had to win this game in order to advance to the provincial championship tournament. My competitive instincts took over and told me that I shouldn’t say anything. If I told the coach that I wasn’t okay, they would take me out and we might lose the game. I couldn’t do that. So I finished that game. We ended up winning that game, although I can’t remember it, and advancing to the championship tournament. I remained silent. I only had 2 weeks until that tournament. I was a leader. I was the starting goalie. My team needed me, so I had to be tough. I had to suck it up for the team’s sake. At no point did it occur to my 15-year-old self that I might be hurting myself, or even the team, by playing through a concussion.

The decision to play through it was one that I suffered the consequences for. For almost six months following that decision, I was a different person. I was a shell of the chatty, competitive, smart, outgoing teenager those around me had come to know. My friends noticed that I wasn’t smiling as much. My teachers noticed that the quality of my work had dropped significantly. My family noticed that I was different, but none of us knew why. We know now. It was most obvious that I was still suffering in my math class. I went from being in the top of my class to having my teacher tear up an exam because he knew there was something wrong because I had done so poorly. And it lingered after freshman year of high school had finished. In September of my sophomore year in the review of what we had learned the previous year, I had absolutely no recollection of learning certain concepts. I had to go back and learn them from scratch while my classmates went ahead and built on the concepts they had already mastered. My decision to try and play through this concussion impacted not only me, but everyone around me for many months.

And yet eventually I healed and found my new normal. Anyone who has suffered a concussion knows that healing means finding a new normal. It’s a new version of 100%, but it's not the same as who or what you were before. It can’t possibly be. But that doesn’t mean the story has to end. Mine certainly didn’t. My new normal was good enough to be the class valedictorian in high school, get me into Harvard, and onto the Harvard Hockey team.

On move in weekend of what should have been my sophomore year in college, my parents and I were involved in a serious car crash. We had stopped at a red light, and I was on the phone with my aunt making plans to see them for dinner when we were finished unpacking, when I saw the light turn green. My dad, who was driving, pulled out into the intersection, preparing to make a left turn. There were three lanes of traffic before the turn lane we were in. I remember looking out the window of the back passenger seat and seeing the dark color Jeep speeding at us. I tried to say something to warn my parents, but nothing came out of my mouth. The impact of the car was unlike anything I had experienced, despite having been run over more than once in my hockey career. Our car tipped up onto its side and came back down onto the road; airbags were deployed, the front passenger door was dented beyond recognition, and the front driver tire was parallel to the ground.

In the chaos of my parents both whipping around from the front seat to make sure that I was okay, and telling me I had to get out of the car immediately, I remember thinking to myself, “My hockey career is over. I won’t recover from this”. The flurry of activity that followed included a neck brace, being taped to a backboard, the trip in an ambulance, and a brief visit to the pediatrics unit of a local hospital. My memory of the weeks that follow is spotty at best. I remember watching my team do fitness testing because the trainer knew I had been in a serious car accident and didn’t want me to participate. I remember feeling like I was going to fall off the bridge and into the Charles River walking from my dorm to the rink to watch fitness testing. I remember not being able to leave my room without a baseball hat and my dark sports sunglasses on. I remember the pounding headache, the sensitivity to sound and light, and feeling like my world was closing in on me. On a continuous loop in my head I heard the screeching of the tires, saw the look of terror in the faces of my parents, and couldn’t escape the feeling of the impact against my body that had certainly spelled the end of my career.

A few weeks after the car accident, I met with my academic advisor because I still couldn’t go to classes. She kept the blinds drawn to keep the sunlight out of the room for me. I remember her telling me that if I had done something stupid and wound up concussed that the college might not be so open to preserving my eligibility. Ultimately, she advised that I take a medical leave of absence and go home to give my brain some time to heal. In the third week of September, I packed a suitcase and I flew home for the year.

The next few months were some of the worst in my life. Not only was I suffering from the symptoms of a concussion, but I was now isolated from my teammates and my friends at school. I truly felt like my life had been taken from me, and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t get angry, because that would raise my blood pressure and make my headache worse. I definitely couldn’t cry because that would make the pressure in my head even more unbearable. I couldn’t escape into a book, as I usually did when I was sad, because I couldn't focus or comprehend what was in front of me. I watched Gossip Girl. There were no explosions or loud noises and the plot was easy to follow. As a self-proclaimed bookworm who loves music, it was particularly hard to be happy because I was unable to do all the things that I loved the most. I couldn’t play hockey, I couldn’t read, and I couldn’t listen to the music I liked.

Somehow I recovered from this too. It’s truly amazing how resilient the body can be. I worked with no fewer than three therapists to get the concussion symptoms under control, to manage the neck and back pain, and to help me regain the mobility I had lost from sitting on the couch for months at a time. Once again, I had to find a new definition of normal. I could move without serious back and neck pain. The headaches eventually went away. The sensitivity to sound eventually subsided. I began to be able to walk for 15 minutes without feeling sick, then 30 minutes, then bike and workout. Slowly but surely I started to feel like myself again. I had a new normal, and it was just fine with me. In late March I got a job, and I was finally seeing the light. Maybe I wouldn’t be exactly how I was before, but I’d be damn close, and I wouldn’t stop trying to get back everything I felt I had lost.

I am now a second semester senior in college. I played four years on the varsity women’s hockey team. I still get headaches when the weather changes, and I am still sensitive to light, I still have neck pain and I have jaw problems that I wasn’t aware I had from the accident. My new normal is about to get me to graduate from college and start the next journey of my life, but not before I do some serious thinking about how to leave my sport better than I found it.

Suck it up. Play through it. Walk it off. These are the statements that float around constantly in the mind of the competitive athlete. The culture that we’ve created that surrounds sports doesn’t allow for any other thinking. It endorses the idea that no one and nothing is more important than the team, and helping the team win. I’ve had to learn the hard way that this simply isn’t true. The health and protection of our brains is more important than any game.

There is a fine line between giving up everything you are, and everything you hope to be, in order to avoid being labeled soft or told you’ve let your team down. I do not believe that anytime an athlete gets hangnail that he or she should be excused from competition. Quite the opposite actually. I’ve learned a lot about the strength of the human body and the strength of a team, by playing through a broken finger, a sore arm, gimpy knees among other things. But the visible injuries are the easy ones. Your teammates see you limping, see your finger bent backwards, see the slings and casts, they see the blood you’ve shed for them. The seemingly invisible injuries are the dangerous ones. Outwardly there’s very little evidence. No sling. No cast. No limp. But the functional trauma is real, and doesn’t get the attention and support that it should.

I’ve decided to join the Concussion Legacy Foundation and pledge to donate my brain because I want my story to help inspire others to take better care of their brains. I don’t want to watch any more of my teammates suffer in silence because they are afraid to speak up about their concussions in fear of lost playing time, or worse, for fear of being labeled soft or selfish. As athletes, it is our responsibility to have our teammates’ backs in competition, but we’ve fallen down on our responsibility to look out for each other’s brain health. The culture of playing through concussions needs to stop. I want to give back to the game that brought me so much joy.

My legacy will not be in the number of saves I made, or the number of games I won. I hope that my legacy will be in finding a way to leave the game I love better, safer, and healthier than I found it.

This is my legacy. I hope that you’ll make it your legacy too."

MY LEGACY: MOLLY TISSENBAUM PLEDGES BRAIN
http://concussionfoundation.org/story/m ... dges-brain

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A.G. Griswold

"It wasn’t until the tail end of her playing career that AJ Griswold noticed a change toward concussions. She was in Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympics and, for the first time she could remember, the team took a baseline test to help diagnose concussions. It wasn’t something she and her teammates spent more than a minute thinking about. They knew to avoid getting a concussion, but mostly because you never knew how much time you would miss if you got one.

Griswold was a force on the ice. She led the U.S. women’s hockey team to a historic gold medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, and a silver medal at the 2002 games in Salt Lake City. In between, she captained the Harvard University women’s hockey team to a National Championship in 1999. That same year she was named the USA Hockey “Women’s Player of the Year” and won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award which is presented annually to the nation’s top intercollegiate varsity women’s hockey player.

Now Griswold has noticed a dramatic shift in her thinking. The mother of four kids, she says concussions scare her more now than they ever did when she was playing. Griswold cares about women’s hockey because it’s given her so much and she hopes by pledging her brain to research, she can leave a legacy of safety.

Why are you pledging your brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation?

What the Concussion Legacy Foundation has done is fantastic. Just bringing awareness to the unknown – the risks and dangers of brain trauma and concussions is great. For me, I care about all sports, but I specifically care about women’s hockey because it was the sport that gave me so much. I want parents to be excited about have their children learn to skate and play hockey. I don’t want them to be fearful for their child’s future.

I have four kids, all four are playing hockey and they’re playing other sports, like soccer and lacrosse, where concussions exist. It’s scarier now, as a mom, than it ever was as an athlete. There is so much great research being done, but there is still just so much that’s unknown about what’s going on. As an athlete, you just sort of play through it and don’t think about the consequences, especially in high school and college. Now, I look at my kids playing and it’s really scary to think that I could be putting them at risk without even knowing.

What do you want your Legacy to be?

I have never been diagnosed with a concussion. So I think it will be important to see what damage had been done with no diagnosed concussions. I think we’re getting better and better at recognizing when someone has a concussion than when I was playing.

As a coach now, if a kid gets hit in the head, I don’t put them back in there. If he or she comes off with a headache – they aren’t going back in. They might say it hurts and then ten minutes later, they’re saying they’re fine. And it really might not be anything, but it’s not my responsibility to take that risk. I mean, it’s youth hockey, they’re only ten. It’s not worth it.

I want to do anything I can in my years after playing to help future generations, whether it be my kids, my friends’ kids, or my kids’ friends. That’s My Legacy.

What has been your experience with concussions?

I was never diagnosed with a concussion in my career. I don’t think I’ve had one, but we really didn’t know much about them and it wasn’t something we were overly concerned with. There were unknowns about it. There was a feeling of ‘you don’t want to get a concussion because then you don’t know how long they’re going to keep you out.’ I don’t think anyone knowingly played through them, but I also don’t think concussions were diagnosed nearly as often.

What’s the major difference between how we view concussions now and how we viewed them when you were playing?

I think there’s more awareness – obviously there’s still so much we don’t know, which is why the research is so important, but there’s definitely more awareness now which is a start.

It’s interesting to me how much more information there is on concussions and head trauma than when I was playing. Which is crazy because there’s still not nearly enough! It wasn’t until 2002 before the Salt Lake City games, the very tail end of my career on the national team, that we did baseline testing. And even then, I don’t know that anyone actually used it. There weren’t as many concussions diagnosed when I played. Looking back on it, I’m pretty sure people had concussions and just didn’t know it.

Unfortunately, it’s taken high profile athletes from the NFL and NHL that have had concussions and tragedy to bring light to the risk of repetitive head trauma.

How does the hockey community view concussions?

Within hockey, Sidney Crosby has brought a lot of attention to concussions and brain trauma and recovery. I think that’s been great because he’s a star and he’s been smart enough to take the time to fully recover from the concussions he’s suffered. That’s the good part. The hard part is when the players who aren’t Sidney Crosby get concussions. They don’t have the same name recognition – they need more protection. There needs to be more player education and awareness of the dangers of concussions.

Would you like to see other prominent athletes step forward and pledge their brain to research?

Of course. I would love to see more athletes, men or women, make the pledge. Men have had the opportunity to play professional and Olympic sports much longer than women, so the pool of retired male athletes is much larger. We’re getting to a time with the Title IX generation – women who played in the ‘90s, a big time for women’s sports – that they’re getting older. I’m hoping more and more women see the benefit of research and are willing to do it. It’s incredibly beneficial."


MY LEGACY: AJ GRISWOLD PLEDGES BRAIN
http://concussionfoundation.org/story/m ... dges-brain

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Amanda Janowicz

"Against Duxbury, the Rebels were still missing junior forward Amanda Janowicz, who has missed two weeks with a concussion, and was also missing sophomore forward Meghan Hamilton and another skater from the bench."
Walpole Girls Hockey Positioned Well for Postseason
http://walpole.wickedlocal.com/sports/2 ... postseason

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Brenna Forbes Concussion

"Medford High student-athletes Brenna Forbes and Adrian Arnold represented the Mustangs at the Massachusetts Celebration of Girls and Women in Sport Day, Feb. 3 at the Great Hall at Faneuil Hall in Boston.

Genevra "Gevvie" Stone, 2016 Olympic Silver Medalist in Single Sculls was the special guest speaker at the three-hour event, which ran from 10 a.m. to noon.

It was a formal but fun recognition day for high school female athletes and the adults who support and inspire them.

"I was honored to be chosen to represent Medford High School," said Brenna Forbes.

"It was pretty cool. There were a lot of people there and every speaker was really inspirational. They really hit it home that girls in sports really have to work hard.”

This year's theme was "Expanding Opportunity." The event was co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) and the New Agenda: Northeast.

The morning's celebration recognized two honored female athletes from each ng high school with certificatesArnold is a member of the Medford High girls basketball team. Forbes is a three-sport athlete competing in cross country, hockey and softball.

"It was pretty cool," said Forbes, who missed significant playing time this season after suffering a concussion. "There were a lot of people they could have chosen, but it was really cool to take part in it."

Medford’s Forbes, Arnold take part in Girls and Women in Sport Day
http://medford.wickedlocal.com/sports/2 ... -sport-day

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Ella Lindsay
"The incredible shrinking Lebanon-Stevens girls hockey team moved on Tuesday, pinning an 8-1 defeat on visiting Keene during an NHIAA Division I tournament opening-round game at James Campion Rink.

The eighth-seeded Raiders fielded a full roster several years ago but have had barely enough players to compete the past two campaigns. They skated with six forwards and three defensemen against the ninth-seeded Blackbirds. They’ll likely use the same number to challenge top-seeded Exeter on the road at 4 p.m. Friday in a quarterfinal clash.

Lebanon-Stevens coach Brad Shaw said that despite Tuesday’s score, his team was not at its best.

… Lebanon freshman forward Ella Lindsay is out for the rest of the season with a concussion. … Exeter beat Lebanon, 11-4, during the teams’ first meeting on Jan. 10."

Short-Handed Raiders Skate Past Blackbirds
Read more: http://www.vnews.com/Lebanon-High-girls ... ne-8380343

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More teen knowledge about concussion may not increase reporting

High school athletes with access to a certified athletic trainer are more knowledgeable about concussions and their consequences, but that doesn’t make them more likely to report a concussion, a U.S. study finds.

“The underreporting of concussions is estimated to be high, and the No. 1 reason athletes do not report a concussion is because they do not want to lose playing time,” lead study author Jessica Wallace of Youngstown State University in Ohio said by email.

More teen knowledge about concussion may not increase reporting
Read more: http://whtc.com/news/articles/2017/apr/ ... reporting/

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Concussion and hockey

"That, though, is a side note. What’s important, at the moment, is the words the NHL can’t afford to have lumped together — Sidney Crosby and concussion — join each other in headlines as Game 4 awaits. Concussions are, by a wide margin, the hot-button injury across sports. Crosby is, by a wide margin, the face of hockey, its most important figure.

The only times that hasn’t really been the case: when he has been lost to head injuries. Fans here can’t extract what happened on Monday night with Niskanen from the original hit that caused Crosby a concussion, that from then-Capital David Steckel in the 2011 Winter Classic at Heinz Field. Crosby played four days later, but not again that season. He played just 22 games in 2011-12 after another concussion was complicated by neck issues. Last fall, he suffered yet another concussion in practice."

Sidney Crosby’s concussion shakes Pittsburgh, and all of hockey
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/c ... 9cfc4c0dbd

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What message does this send to kids?


I'm Not Sure Sidney Crosby's Brain Is OK
http://deadspin.com/im-not-sure-sidney- ... 1795048580

Already-Concussed Sidney Crosby Smashed Headfirst Into Boards
http://deadspin.com/already-concussed-s ... 1795034990


“That was nearly the nightmare scenario experts worry about. Playing so soon after a concussion, he may have been a step slower, or made a bad split-second decision, or was just unlucky, and he nearly had a catastrophic neck or head injury. He certainly appeared to meet the criteria for a full evaluation as he held his head with both hands and didn’t immediately attempt to stand back up. I’m not comfortable that he was allowed to continue playing.” Chris Nowinski, Concussion Legacy Foundation on Sidney Crosby’s crash into boards in Game 6.

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Take the number of concussions a player has said they've had and double it.


The time may be approaching, doctors suggested Wednesday, for Crosby to take a hard look at not when — but if — he should return to the game.

"When there have been multiple concussions, the chance of having persisting symptoms goes up terrifically," said Dr. Charles Tator, the director of the Canadian Concussion Centre at Toronto Western Hospital. "So we're especially careful about helping people avoid further concussions.
"If he were an amateur, we would probably tell him to hang up his skates.”

...Another big problem, Tator noted, is that many players suffer knocks to the head in their younger days and don't count it as a concussion or head injury. For high-collision sports, he'll often take the number of concussions a player has said they've had and double it.

"The most important thing is the likelihood of recovery because the likelihood of recovery goes down as the number (of concussions) goes up," Tator said. "There are lots of players who have had to hang up their skates or hang up their cleats because they didn't ever get over them.”

Primeau, doctors question whether Crosby should return after fourth concussion
Read more: http://www.brandonsun.com/national/brea ... html?thx=y

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Malena Pilipow

"The girls are starting to realize where we are and what's stake," he said. "The girls who were on the ice last year for the championship game, it's starting to have some filter-down effect and people realize it's playoffs now it's not just another game, so hopefully that maturity will come through."

Only the Comets, with 131 goals, scored more than the 84 goals the Capitals collected this season. Mellott, with 20 goals 11 assists and 31 points, finished second in the scoring race to Vancouver's Jann Gardiner (15-19-34). Two other Capital forwards - Shanks (12-10-22) and rookie Braxtyn Shawara (14-6-20), finished in the top-12, while Danielle Corrigan (7-9-16) and Jarvis (4-11-15) also cracked the top-20. Cassidy Wait (9-9-18) led the Rush offensively and finishing 20th in league scoring.

Johnston didn't name his starting goalie for today. Olivia Davis (8-6-1 record, 2.83 goals-against average) put up better numbers than Nicole Kay (6-6-1, 2.83 average) but there's a good chance Kay, a native of North Vancouver, will see action in the series playing a Fraser Valley team which cut her in training camp last summer.

Defenceman Malena Pilipow (concussion) won't play today. The Capitals are otherwise healthy to start the playoffs."
Defending champs in for a Rush this weekend
Read more: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/spor ... 1.11427910

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Baile Lazarus
"Coming into the season, we lost 12 seniors from last year," Seabury said. "We played a few weeks without our starting goalie [when Lazarus was sidelined with a concussion]. We proved a lot of people wrong about us.”

Canton Edges Winchester Girls Hockey
http://winchester.wickedlocal.com/sport ... rls-hockey

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Emmie Thompson

"Steamboat Springs tennis player Emmie Thompson acknowledges she is a little frustrated that she has had to spend the first part of her senior season on the sidelines, but she also knows it could be worse.

“It’s been frustrating, and it’s been hard,” Thompson said Thursday, before taking her place in a crowded Suburban for a trip to Glenwood Springs, where she took the court for the first time this season in matches against Vail Mountain and Aspen. “I thought that I was going to be out a lot longer. The doctors didn’t think I was going to be able to play at all this season. I’ve have had shoulder injuries in the past, so they were not sure that I was going to be able to play at all.”

Thompson already missed most of her final season with the U19 girls hockey team. She took a bad fall and landed awkwardly on the ice at the MLK Tournament in January and spent most of the winter with her arm in a sling.But almost as soon as Thompson learned the shoulder had been dislocated, she started working hard with the hope of salvaging her final year on the tennis court. She said she has been through extensive physical therapy, and the strength training seems to be paying off.

On Thursday, she joined Natalie Simon and took to the court as part of the Sailors No. 1 doubles team. It was a little later than she had hoped, but she was glad to be playing competitively again.

She still has limitations. Her doctors have not cleared her for overhead serves at this point, but life on the court is better than life on the sidelines. So Thompson has agreed to serve underhand, for now, but is eager to get back to full strength — hopefully by the end of the season.

“I’ve been practicing the past three weeks,” Thompson said. “It’s great to get back on the court, even if I have to serve underhand.”

Sailors coach John Aragon is also happy to have one of his top seniors back on the court and expects her to grow stronger with each passing week. He joked that he has been trying to get her to give up hockey for the past several years but knew that wasn’t in the cards. Thompson missed several weeks of her sophomore year with a concussion and didn’t get on the court until the regional tournament last season, the result of another concussion she suffered in hockey season.

“I think I have just had some bad luck the past few seasons,” Thompson said.

But despite that string of bad luck, she said she has never really considered skating away from hockey."

Injuries can't keep Steamboat Springs senior off tennis court
Read more: http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2017 ... or-tennis/

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Concussion Reduction

Researchers at the University of Calgary say ban on body checking in peewee hockey has led to a dramatic decline in concussions.

Hockey Canada voted in 2013 to do away with the practice for 11- and 12-year-old players.

Kinesiology professor Carolyn Emery, who chairs the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre at the university, says researchers followed players before and after the policy change.

They found there was a 64 per cent decline in concussions and a 50 per cent drop in overall injuries.

She says kids in the peewee age group are still able to learn skills that prepare them for body checking later on.

Emery and her colleagues will be presenting their research at a major International Olympic Committee injury-prevention conference in Monaco next week.

She said the drop since the policy amounted to 4,800 fewer concussions across Canada in a year.

"So that's a pretty huge public health impact," she said Friday.

Emery said while preventing injuries is important in all age groups, there was a reason to focus on peewee players.

"We see such a huge disparity in size of players in this age group," she said.

"And in terms of growth and development, these are developing kids with developing brains and they're trying to really learn many, many skills within the game of ice hockey."


Peewee bodychecking ban has reduced concussions, study finds
Shows a 64 per cent decline in concussions and a 50 per cent drop in overall injuries
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/pee ... -1.4020700

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Kids, Sports, and Concussions

The Journal of Pediatrics reports that a respondent-anonymous electronic survey was distributed to members of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section of Bioethics, Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention, and Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. Of 791 eligible pediatricians, 227 responded. Of the respondents, 85 percent treat sports-related concussions. Overall, 77 percent of the pediatricians surveyed would not allow their son to play tackle football and 35 percent and 34 percent would not allow their son or daughter, respectively, to participate in ice hockey. And, 48 percent of the pediatricians were in favor of counseling others against youth participation in full-contact sports.

Kids, Sports, and Concussions
Read more: http://www.natlawreview.com/article/kid ... oncussions

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Jess Scott

"Scott’s scoring marks could have been higher if not for concussions she suffered in each of the last two seasons, forcing her to miss about seven total games.

“That’s the incredible part. Her points per game are astronomical,” Bessette said.

Mentally, Scott didn’t take long to put the head injures behind her.

“It’s definitely hard and it was nerve-wracking to come back,” Scott said. “Like the first game, ‘Am I going to get hit again? Am I fully recovered?’ But once I got out there I knew I was fine, then those thoughts didn’t last long.”


Spaulding's Scott named Free Press' Miss Hockey
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/stor ... /99685956/

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Natasha Savage
“Individually, Savage put together an impressive first campaign with Worcester Academy.

A concussion towards the end of the regular season served as a bit of a setback, but when she was on the ice, she had no problem adapting to the level of play at the prep school level.

“It’s so much different,” Savage said of the change from high school to prep. “The game’s so much faster and more skilled.”


Savage helps Worcester Academy win prep title
Read more: http://cranstononline.com/stories/savage,122924

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Lindros says body contact unnecessary

"Body checking in youth hockey is an unnecessary risk depending on the age and level of play, says former NHLer Eric Lindros, whose own career ended after he suffered a number of concussions."

Contact in youth hockey unnecessary unless at elite level, Linnros says. Most kids aren't going to play for the National Hockey League so should not be risking their health, says Hall of Famer
Read more: https://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/2 ... -says.html