Quinte coaches preach concussion awareness

By Shelden Rogers

After trying to make a normal tackle during a rugby game, Dylan Hawley saw blackness. He doesn’t remember anything after that, but he knows he suffered a concussion.

Two years ago Hawley stumbled off the rugby field with a severe concussion. That’s the only thing he can remember until he regained consciousness later on the sideline.

“I was dizzy, had some memory loss, I was definitely out of it,” said Hawley.

Two years later, Hawley still isn’t the same.

“When I play without a scrum cap I am definitely more reserved in my tackling, without it I am held back a little bit,” said Hawley.

Hawley and many other athletes suffering from concussions are now in the spot light. Concussions have become a hot topic this year.

This week is Parachute Safe Kids week around the country. This year’s program is focusing on the dangers of concussions.

A concussion is a trauma or bruising to the brain. The brain is crushed against the skull during impact.

Dave Whitney, rugby and football coach at Bayside Secondary School, said when he sees one of his athletes with concussion symptoms, he doesn’t take any chances.

“The bang on the head, whether or not it is or isn’t a concussion is always the problem. To me it’s very simple, you air on the side of caution. If the kid is complaining about a headache, the kid doesn’t play anymore. You always have to make the decision thinking safety first,” said Whitney.

Player safety is always Whitney’s number on concern.

“There is nothing more important than player safety, particularly in high school. The whole experience is that they are a student athlete, and you want to make sure that they continue being a student by being safe, and being able to play forever and ever,” said Whitney.

Whitney knows that hitting is part of the game. He knows that those big hits to the head will happen. It’s all about training to show player how to properly hit and be hit.

“Hits are inevitable, it does happen. So we spend a lot of time in practice with hitting, how to give hits, how to take hits. The importance of where your head should be and more importantly where your head shouldn’t be.”

When it comes to practising, Whitney has very strict rules.

“I know all schools may not have the same policy that we have here, but if you miss practices, you don’t play. We firmly believe that you’ve got to be at practice,” said Whitney.

Scott Dewar, also a rugby coach at Bayside, takes safety practices very seriously.

“Every drill is designed for an eye towards safety. You would never teach someone to do something dangerous or inappropriate on the field. You always work through drills with players to try and correct bad habits before they happen on the field,” said Dewar.

Dewar has seen a lot of his players come to the sideline with concussions and he has learned how to deal with them.

“You see everything from a kid just saying I don’t feel right, at which point they are pulled from the game and they don’t go back in that game for sure. Then we try and hold them out as long as possible,” said Dewar.

Bryan Dunham, athletic therapist at Loyalist College said concussions are a difficult injury because they are not clearly visible.

“The problem with a concussion is that it’s not clear cut. If you break a leg you can look at it and say that’s broken. But with a head injury you can’t see it, can’t visualize it, it’s all based on signs and symptoms,”

Dunham said whenever a player takes a hit to the head, it should be treated as a concussion until proven otherwise.

It is common to see concussions in rugby. Chris Wigley has been around the sport his whole life. From playing when he was younger, to now being a provincial referee. Wigley had to stop playing the game he loved due to concussions.

“It really affected my playing because the concussions were so frequent, I would never be able to finish a game anymore. I had a lot of input from friends and they just told me that I’m done,” said Wigley.

Wigley knows all about the feeling of a concussion and how serious they can be.

“The best way to describe it is that your eyes don’t seem to follow where your brain thinks it’s going. You would turn your head and a couple seconds later your eyes would catch up. It’s foggy, you feel sick to your stomach,” said Wigley.

Now as a referee, he makes sure that concussions are limited, and the game is as safe as it can be.

“Safety is front and foremost in our mandate as referee’s. We have the law book that we follow, but the law can only take you so far. That’s when the referee comes into play and if it’s not safe then we are blowing the whistle,” said Wigley.

But concussions don’t just happen in contact sports. Volleyball coach at Queens University, James Masterokas has seen a lot of concussions in volleyball.

“Sometimes with players chasing balls they hit the ground, whiplash will happen. “In some extreme cases, even getting a ball to the head. What happens is it’s a spike from one team and someone is just sitting in the wrong spot at the wrong time,” said Masterokas. 

Masterokas said that 80 to 90 percent of concussions he sees are accidents. He has even seen them during practice.

“There was one time I gave a player a concussion by just hitting a ball, the girl wasn’t paying attention, hit her in the head, it gave here a concussion and cost her the rest of the season,” said Masterokas.

Masterokas wants concussions to be eliminated from sports, but he knows that won’t happen. He knows it’s all part of the game.

“They can be limited, but there is nothing you can do to stop them, anything can happen,” said Masterokas.