Football from Pop Warner to the professional level faces the same harsh reality: the collisions that make football so prominent across the country could be the sport’s very undoing.
The omnipresent threat of concussions has made several appearances at Pace. According to the records of team physician Dr. Les Mayers, Pace had diagnosed 106 concussions from 103 different student athletes over 13 years. Also, Mayers stated that approximately one third of student athletes at Pace have suffered a concussion at some point in their playing career.
Mayers had been faced with concussions throughout his career as a sports physician. The doctor made it a point when he came to Pace to arm himself with concussion knowledge.
“I realized I didn’t know much about it (concussions) when I first came here so I became a student of them,” Mayers said. “There are no minimal injuries in the brain.”
As Mayers expected, football has been the most common sport where concussions occur. According to his records, 50 of the total concussed athletes in the past 13 years have been football players.
The rise in concussions across the nation can be contributed to athletes returning from injury to soon. According to Mayers, concussed players at Pace returned to play their sport 15 days after the devastating hit. Still, the doctor, and the school takes their patients very seriously.
Each athlete who suffers a concussion at Pace has to undertake a 19 question evaluation. Then, concussed athletes do not work out with their team or practice unless they are symptom free for five days.
Even after being cleared, Mayers and his staff follow up with concussed athletes one year post-concussion. And out of the 106 concussed athletes at Pace over the last decade plus, only 8 have had short term memory problems.
If a player suffers a second concussion at Pace they are done for the year. No exceptions. Yet when it comes to athletes going back to class early, Mayers is a bit more lenient.
“You are a student athlete, student comes before athlete,” Mayers said. “I push the envelope when it comes to education, it is mostly black and white and it is up to them whether or not they want to return to class.”
The safest in game adjustment that Pace and other colleges can make is to tackle correctly. Sportsconcussions.org states that the second best precaution an athlete can take to curbing concussions is to stop contact of the helmet or facemask.
Not every player on the Setters is ignorant to the imposing dangers of horrid tackling. Sophomore biology major Christopher Archibal is sure the team can be doing more to stop dangerous tackling habits from seeing the field.
“We should practice tackling more,” Archibal said. “We aren’t necessarily doing in a way that would injure us, it is just execution wise we can do better.”
Archibal also made it clear that Setters defensive coordinator Ted Florio does preach proper technique in practice. Even though Florio does not spend extra time on weekdays making sure that his defenders are wrapping up as opposed to becoming human battering rams.