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Head games
Gary AHUJA/Langley Times
A series of concussions may have slowed Amber Brown, but they couldn’t stop her GARY AHUJA Times Reporter
It was a crippling pain that sent Amber Brown to the darkness of her bedroom. It happened on an inconspicuous play during volleyball practice: a teammate spiked the ball, striking Brown in the back of the head. This was her sixth documented concussion. The first concussion came at age six while on the ski hill. She also suffered concussions playing hockey, in a car accident, on the basketball court, and one playing a game called garbage ball. The problem was serious enough that she saw a Calgary Flames’ team doctor who specialized in concussion. He advised her to give up contact sports. Eventually she did, winding up on the volleyball court, both indoor and beach.
Through high school, Brown played at the indoor club level in Calgary, making a 90-minute trip from Three Hills to practice, and then returning home. She came to Trinity Western University in 2008 and after her first couple of seasons, right when most players begin taking on a bigger role, the injury woes began. Brown missed the 2010/11 season because of a dislocated kneecap and a torn MCL (medial collateral ligament) and suffered the concussion the following season. She felt fine for a couple of days and kept practising, until headaches forced her off the court. Brown began skipping class, spending time in the darkness of her bedroom, either curled up in a ball on the bed, or reading scriptures from her Bible. “It was so frustrating, it was so weird,” Brown said.
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“I could barely even go to school; I wouldn’t go to practices, so you don’t see your teammates, you don’t feel like you are part of the team. “I just laid there.” “I had a headache for five straight months and ringing in my ears every time I went to bed and when I woke up,” she said. At one point, doctors told her she may never play again. Brown remembers sitting in her car and crying upon hearing that news. “It wasn’t a very good time in my life,” she admitted. “I was quite depressed, sad. “After the last concussion, they said I developed post-concussion syndrome, so basically there are mental side effects and psychological and physical.” Brown used her faith to get through the difficult times and also threw herself into her studies.
“My first two years, I like to say I majored in volleyball and in my second two, it was school,” she said with a laugh. “So I decided that I wanted to help people my age get better at the sport I love.” Brown went to work with a good friend, Maddy MacDonald, and the pair schemed ideas on how to make training in Vancouver better for elite beach volleyball players. So Brown founded WestCoast Beach Volleyball as a way to help elite level players and as a way to make an impact on others. It opened last year with 28 players — from either the college, university or just-graduated ranks — who would practice twice a week under the guidance of five coaches. continued, PAGE 12
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