Woodbury Concussion Testing

Photo: Emily J. Davis

Cory Kiger, an East Ridge High School wrestler who suffered a concussion during a match.

If a coach holds up a hand and asks a player how many fingers they see, there’s a good chance that young athlete is spending the remainder of the game on the bench.

Heated competition, coupled with the natural ‘toughness’ embodied in driven athletes (and their teammates, coaches and parents), makes it easy to overlook the sometimes devastating effects of what may seem a simple bump to the head. “If you hurt your knee it’s obvious,” says pediatrician Dr. Shelly Strong of Central Pediatrics. “The problem with concussions is you can’t see them—it’s funny to explain to kids.”

A rapid jolt of the head can force the brain to move back and forth inside the skull, pulling apart nerve fibers and causing damage to brain tissue.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, 336 athletes statewide reported suffering a concussion between 2004 and 2007. Football led the statistics with under a third of the total number. Boys’ hockey, baseball, basketball and soccer followed in numbers. Female athletes sustained 11 percent of the total, playing hockey, soccer and basketball.

Cory Kiger, a ninth-grader at East Ridge High School, came to understand the effects of concussions the hard way. During a wrestling match, his opponent picked him up and returned him to the mat head first. “I was feeling dizzy immediately after the match was over,” remembers Kiger. A medical professional soon confirmed Kiger’s trainer’s suspicion, and the concussion settled into a weeklong headache.  

Sports concussions are accidental but intentional actions taken afterwards can prevent further injury. With this knowledge, Minnesota recently passed a law requiring that coaches train in concussion awareness, that officials make brain injury information available to athletes and their parents, and that players be removed from competition when they exhibit signs of head trauma.

Both East Ridge High School and Woodbury High School protect their athletes beyond the requirements of the law. Along with his team, Kiger started the season by taking a test that he never imagined would be important. The test establishes a baseline, so head trauma can be measured if the need were to arise.

Trent Hanson, activities director at East Ridge, says “parents, students and coaches are open to the testing because it takes pressure off all of them. Pulling a student from a game has become a non-personal, objective decision,” he says.

East Ridge absorbs the $500-$1,000/year total cost of testing athletes in contact sports (including cheerleading)—about two-thirds of all athletes. The 30-45 minutes away from practice time proves a good investment.

While a concussion is serious business, a second concussion can turn a temporary setback into a permanent brain injury. Dr. Strong is positive that, prior to impact testing, health professionals were sending kids back into play too soon. “With a baseline test, we can measure if the athlete is having memory loss or trouble focusing,” she says.

Kiger was distraught after his injury. “I felt very stupid because I miserably failed the test,” he says. “Some of my friends said, ‘That test is so easy. How did you not pass that test?’ I simply said, ‘If you had a concussion, it’s a lot harder to pass a memory and reaction test.’”

He took the test every week for five weeks before he returned to his baseline and to the mat.

Not since the advent of the dreaded college entrance exam has a single test impacted the future of so many student athletes. If a player “gets their bell rung,” they can be glad they took that first baseline test, because their entire athletic career may rest on the results of the second test.

Test Yourself

Wondering what a baseline concussion test is like?

Visit this website and experience a sample.

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