Damage Done

By: Ty Setty
English 1000
Mrs. Mansfield

Ty Setty
English 1000
Mrs. Mansfield
October 27, 2015
Damage Done
With any sport you run a risk of getting hurt. In high school you can run the risk of
hurting the development of your body. This is especially true with brain injuries when you are in
high school. Concussions are a serious thing to deal with and if you dont know how to tell if you
have one or not, or you dont do anything about it if you have one, the consequences can be life
threatening. I have found three different resources on this subject and they all are about being
aware of a concussion and what steps that you need to take if you have one or if you believe you
have one. One of my three sources is a scholarly journal from American School Health
Association wrote by doctors on the subject of high school concussions. The other two sources
are a Sports Illustrated article and an informative handout over concussions from the CDC.
Concussions I believe are a real problem in the US and I have found three sources with three
different ways to approach this problem.
With the scholarly journal the doctors wrote about a study that was done that sent out
tool-kits to high school coaches about concussions and later sent out a mail questionnaire to
those coaches to follow up with them on how the results were with the tool-kit they received. In
the tool-kit the coaches received there was a booklet, wallet cards, clipboard stickers, a video,
posters, athletes facts sheets, parents facts sheets, and a CD-ROM. With having access to all of
these tools the coach then had to put the kit to use by letting anyone and everyone around them
about the problem with concussions, and how serious that problem can be and also what steps
need to be taken if you believe you have a concussion. This research was done to better the

knowledge of concussions with anyone around high school sports and to help improve the
attitudes and behavior of coaches toward concussions. Based on the survey the doctors felt this
was a good way to get people informed about concussions and to share some of their knowledge
on concussions.
My next resource is a Sports Illustrated article that was wrote about a group from Purdue
University did a study on hits to the head that football players take and the result of these hits can
have on them. Before the season started the group implanted 23 helmets with accelerometers and
gave players both the ImPACT test, a computerized neurological exam that test memory and
concentration, while also testing their memory will getting an MRI. Using NFL based research
they concluded that any hit that exceeds 80 times the force of gravity would cause a concussion.
In this study they concluded by doing a test after the football season on different players that
some people even a lot of people cant play these sports without getting brain damage. They
further concluded that even if you dont get hit hard once or twice, the repeated hits to the head
can be just as dangerous and leave the same impact on your brain.
My last piece of resource is a handout from the CDC on concussions. It isnt a very big
handout but the information in the handout can be very useful. It gives you facts on how you
might get a concussion, the symptoms of a concussion if you believe that you may have one, and
how you can get checked out if you feel you have a concussion. One piece of information I
picked up that I didnt know is that you can hurt your brain development if you keep playing
with a concussion.
All of my sources were good in my research in concussions, but why were they different?
My first and last resources were trying to inform and persuade the readers that concussions are
bad and everyone needs to be told about them and the symptoms that go along with concussions.

My second source actually talks about the problem with football and other sports and what
getting hit in the head can actually do to you, whether it be really hard once or twice or multiple
times, it can all have the same effect on your head. My first and second sources were studies
done on high schoolers when the last source should be something that all high schoolers read. In
this paper I think I made it aware that concussions are a serious problem in the US and all three
resources found different ways to approach this information.

Works Cited
Kelly, Jane Mitchko, Cynthia Klein, and Sharon Wong. "Evaluation of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Concussion Initiative for High School
Coaches: Heads Up: Concussion in High School Sports." Journal of School Health
80.3 (2010): 112-18. American School Health Association. Web.16 Oct. 2015.
Epstein, David. "The Damage Done." Sports Illustrated 1 Nov. 2010: 42-48.
EBSCO. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Cdc's National Center For Injury Prevention And Control. Concussion: A Must
Read for Young Athletes (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.