esigned my life, but affected it greatly. I couldn’t go to school for several months,” Grisham said. “I have effects everyday, and I will have them the rest of my life.” The risks of soccer are far less widely discussed, though they are just as significant, particularly for women. Sydney Spadafora, a St. George’s alumna and freshman on the Carson Newman women’s soccer team, said she has received multiple concussions during her soccer career. In women’s soccer, players are at risk of sustaining a concussion through player-to-player contact, heading the ball or hitting their head against the ground or goal posts. A study published by JAMA Pediatrics found that 52 percent of concussions in girls’ soccer were caused by player-to-player contact. “I’ve had four in three to four years, and my first three were
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within a year from each other,” Spadafora said. Her most recent concussion put her out for six months. “At the time, I couldn’t remember what had happened. My mood changed tremendously,” Spadafora said. According to Dr. Brandon Baughman, who is board certified in Clinical Neuropsychology and an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, mood swings like Spadafora’s are not abnormal. “People who have concussions may get more emotional than normal,” Dr. Baughman said. “They may get depressed. They may get real stressed out. They may get more irritable and frustrated above and beyond any kind of normal.” Mood changes aren’t the only effect of concussions. Spadafora also experiences memory problems now because of her
FROM MY RESEARCH, FROM MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, LITTLE CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE PLAYING TACKLE FOOTBALL, AT ALL
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10 the Lodge
concussions. “Trying to remember to do simple tasks, when someone asks me to do it later on in the day, [I] completely forget to do it,” Spadafora said. “I used to not be able to drive at night. It was really hard. I’m learning how to work with that.”
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Sports organizations have struggled to adapt to the rising awareness of concussion risks, making changes to their rules, teaching new techniques, and adopting new headgear, though it remains to be seen how effective those changes will be. The governing body for youth football, USA Football, has begun to implement new rules, including a shortened field and matching players of equal size, in select youth football programs across the nation. Youth soccer organizations
have made it against the rules for players 11 and under to head the ball and limited the amount of time older players can practice the skill. The introduction of padded headbands is a different approach designed to try and reduce the number of concussions in soccer. While these are supposed to prevent concussions, some argue that they might actually increase the chance of receiving a concussion. “Often times, when the students that I know who’ve worn [soccer headgear] put [it] on, they feel like they can play a lot more aggressive and loose, so they’re not as careful,” Dr. Baughman said. “That in it of itself is kind of paradoxical, even though you would expect the headgear for soccer to reduce concussions.” “In terms of the scientific research, the clinical research on wearing protective headgear in soccer, there’s no evidence
Alumnus Austin Grisham celebrates after the St. George’s varsity football team wins a game in 2012.
Grisham suffered several concussions
throughout his football career and
they still affect him today.
Photograph by Mrs. Suzie Cowan