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Wednesday — December 5, 2012
Basketball concussions on the rise SAMANTHA FORESTER STAFF WRITER
Basketball is a constantly evolving contact sport. Concussions in basketball put players at high risk for short and long-term head trauma effects. “There is a greater risk once you have had one concussion,” university physician, Keith Williamson said. “Look at Muhammad Ali for example, how much was boxing to blame?” Boxing, football and soccer allow more contact than basketball. In the last few decades however, the game and players are changing, which is contributing to the dangers of concussions. Contrary to the degree of contact seen in men’s basketball, there is equal number if not more, in women’s basketball. According to a study by the National Athletic Trainers Association of all divisions of the NCAA sports, there is an increase of head and facial injuries in basketball by an annual average of 6.2 percent. Of all the injuries reported 3.6 percent were concussion related. The study also showed women basketball players were three times more likely to get a concussion than men. “Any contact sport puts you at risk for a concussion,” Williamson said. “Sports are inherently at risk activity, you recognize it and accept it. We are now seeing more contact in women’s sports.” The women’s basketball team has had its own share of concussion experience with players. Skyler Warrick, a junior in mass com-
munication, plays forward for the Mustangs and is no stranger to concussions herself. “With the first one I thought I was having an off day, and it just kept getting worse,” Warrick said. “My first concussion was my freshman year in the second week of workouts during a block out drill.” Warrick has sustained four concussions in her college basketball career and is familiar with the rigorous testing that is required before a player is cleared. Typically, for a concussion to be diagnosed, the player is asked a series of questions and then put through a series of balance exercises. “After a player concusses, there should be a side-line evaluation,” Williamson said. “If you concuss in a game you should not go back in the game.” A balance test would include standing on one leg with eyes open then closed or lifting both arms. Some of the exercises are similar to a sobriety test and ironically the symptoms of a concussion are similar to inebriation. “There are several signs and symptoms; disorientation, physical skill, nausea, ability to articulate and the content of speech,” Williamson said. “The obvious would be unconsciousness but also visual accuracy and amnesia are other signs as well.” Warrick has experienced symptoms such as these however her first few concussions neglected proper diagnoses right away. Her first concussion she was elbowed in the face, immediately follow-
ing this her head hit the floor, then the player who elbowed her fell on top of Warrick’s head. “The day after my first concussion I ran all of practice, by the end of the day I couldn’t walk straight,” Warrick said. Later in practice Warrick ran into a wall and fell. The coach approached her to scold her for falling, and then she realized something was wrong. “I did not do well in any of the balance test,” Warrick said. “At practice when running my head felt like it was going to explode.” This was only the beginning to multiple concussions, Warrick would sustain in her first three years of college basketball. Warrick is no longer allowed to play unless she is wearing a protective helmet, which has become her signature as a Mustang. “I am not as self-conscious of my head hitting anything, now I can play without worrying about it,” Warrick said. “A downside of the helmet is it is hard to hear because the helmet has small holes and it is hot.” Other college teams are also taking preventative measures with their players who have sustained concussions. The University of Louisville men’s basketball team uses helmets during practice. The team’s trainer, Fred Hina, made the decision for the team as a precaution. We are just trying to be proactive and keep our multiple concussions down to a minimum, limit our risk Hina said. It may be overkill, but I really think you
Head coach Vanera FloresStafford said, “It was hard. These kids were expected to play and play significantly. It affects them, the team as a whole.” Because of all the injuries, nearly half the girls were out at one point, causing practice issues because the rotation was always changing and players were miss-
ing. At one point, the coaches had to practice with the girls because there were not enough players on the court. “Injuries happen, and it was unfortunate. They affect rotations, line up and game strategy because you’re playing without people in your mind that you
Skyler Warrick, who has suffered from a concussion during block out drill, scored four points against Incarnate Word and eight points against Texas A&M Kingsville Saturday night. File photo by Hanwool Lee
are going to see it more and more with the focus being on head injuries he said in an interview with The Associated Press. These helmets are not mandatory for the whole team but Hina is smart in taking such preventative measures.
Warrick is the only player for the women’s basketball team that is required to wear a helmet while playing, however, she does see a positive side to it all. “I call it my crown because I am the queen of concussions,” Warrick said. “When I walk in
the gym with it on, all eyes are on me and I like the attention because people think who is this girl in the helmet?”
Volleyball injuries hinder season Skye hera STAFF WRITER
The volleyball team struggled this season with seven out of 14 eligible players injured at one point or another, leaving the team with an overall average of seven wins and 23 losses among other things like mental and physical pain.
counted on,” Stafford said. The lineups anticipated for the season, did not make it on the court because of the way these injuries affected the team. For instance, one of the players went down with a knee injury right before the conference tournament. After this, the Mustangs had a six-game losing streak. Coach Stafford had not experienced this since last year when she had a starter out from the beginning of the season until the end. This is Stafford’s 14th year coaching. Before this year, she only had one player’s blown knee on her record. This season however, there were five major injuries that affected the team, including a pulled oblique muscle, torn cartilage, a knee injury, shoulder injury and a back issue. Some of the injuries stemmed from previous surgeries. However, there is no way the coaches can screen the girls for these because Stafford said before they sign people, they do not conduct physicals. “It’s hard to deal with. Lineups that you put out there aren’t the lineups that you want for the season,” Stafford said. This made the teams efforts more difficult in the regard of reaching most of the volleyball fans’ expectations for the season. “It definitely wasn’t a season that we envisioned for ourselves, but it will make them stronger and fight. I think everything happens for a reason. To have to go through this adversity, it will make us stronger for next year,” Stafford said. She anticipates doing more recruiting for next season to help with the goal of making the team stronger. “I’ll probably have tons of kids on the sidelines. We will recruit more people because as a division two school, we have eight full scholarships,” Stafford said. As a coach of a division two school, she said she has to split up the money, find the right group of
kids and hope they stay healthy. “If a kid gets injured, I can’t take away their money. That wouldn’t be fair. It’s like you don’t mean for a car accident to happen, it just happens because it’s an accident,” Stafford said. This season, 12 of the 14 players had athletic scholarships. However, Stafford said, the cost for treatment of the injuries was minimal because the players have their insurance cover it, and whatever else is left is taken care of by the school’s insurance. “I don’t think these injuries could have been prevented, they just happen by a weird turn or awkward move,” Stafford said. However, the players still coped with sitting on the sidelines, and supporting each other throughout the season. “Nobody likes to be on the sideline,” Stafford said. She said athletes at this level know the importance of their health, so they go to Tatum Carroll, the trainer as soon as they feel pain they cannot take. Then, they go to rehab if the pain is persistent. One of the players, Scout Wonsang, a freshman majoring in psychology and minoring in biology, did not get a chance to play in any games during this season because she was hurt right before pre-season. “I got to play in the first scrimmage, but then I noticed I couldn’t move anymore. My leg was hurting whenever I played,” Wonsang said. The injury was from a previous torn meniscus surgery on her left knee where her knee was completely scoped out, so she barely had any cartilage left. As she squatted more and more weight, part of her knee cap chipped off. The effects grew progressively got worse, chipping away whatever cartilage was left. “The doctor did a very good job on the previous surgery, but what killed it was the heavy lifting. I was working out three times a day and squatting 350 pounds,”
Wonsang said. However, she did not realize what was happening to her knee. “I thought being an athlete, you’re always going to hurt or be in pain,” Wonsang said. During the season, the girls did not have the best mind-set about their struggles. The assistant volleyball coach, Natalie Rawson, said she agrees it was a tough season for the Mustangs, but also thinks the team benefitted from the season. “Record-wise it was a terrible season, but I feel like we almost accomplished more than a regular season,” Rawson said. When the team was always down a starter, they had a different kind of fight going into practice. Despite this, she said all of the seniors said, “Although it was the worst season, it was the best season yet.” However, Rawson also said, these kinds of seasons force the girls to appreciate the sport more and the opportunity to play at this level. But, girls on the team started to doubt themselves over the course of their repeated losses. “Losing seasons is hard in a more mentally and emotionally exhausting way. The hardest thing is to continue to convince them to believe in the future of where the program is going and believe in what they’re doing,” Rawson said. To improve the team’s outwardly confidence, she and Coach Stafford are trying to find recruits that fit the right pieces inside their puzzle. “The girls this season are amazing. That’s why wins or losses, I would not trade one girl on this team for anyone else. I never for one-second felt like they weren’t capable,” Rawson said. In regard to the girls being back on the court, they will start training heavily in strength conditioning the second week back from Christmas break.
