Francesca Missella
Concussions are the most common type of injury among athletes competing in contact sports as well as the most common type of traumatic brain injuries overall.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, a concussion is defined as a mild traumatic brain injury caused by a bump, jolt, or blow to the head. This movement causes the brain to be shaken around or to become twisted inside the skull.
“I’ve had two concussions, and I do still struggle with long term effects. I still have vision problems and struggle with vestibular, otherwise known as balance issues,” senior Sydney Allendorf said.
These actions lead to the stretching and damaging of brain cells which cause chemical changes in the brain making it more difficult for cells to function and communicate.
A concussion is a “functional” brain injury, which means injury affects how the brain works, but the damage is only temporary and they can resolve on their own within one to six weeks without medical attention.
The Center of Disease and Control estimates as many as 3.8 million concussions occur in the U.S. annually through sports, but only 5-10% are recognized and diagnosed by coaches, parents and athletic trainers. Physical symptoms of a concussion can consist of headaches, blurry vision, nausea, vomiting, dizziness balance problems and sensitivity to noise or light.
Symptoms of concussions can be dangerous, such as seizures, not recognizing people or places, and unusual behavior. According to the Cleveland Clinic, adolescents are at a higher risk of seizures because of their developing brains. Most concussions can happen while on the playground, bike riding, or when playing sports such as football, basketball, or soccer. Before an athlete can return to play, he or she must be totally symptom-free and return to their pre-concussion scores.
“After my first concussion I had vestibular therapy for 6 months, visits with sports medicine for over a year and regular visits with a neurologist. My second one, I went to eye therapy as well as vestibular therapy for six months. My first concussion took me over a year to recover to 90% and be able to return to soccer. My second concussion took me four months to recover but I had to give up the game,” Allendorf said.
According to The Center of Disease and Control, once the athlete has returned, he or she begins a five-day program in which they increases activities while any symptoms are monitored. Once a person has a concussion, they are at a three to five times greater risk for a later concussions. One in five high school athletes will sustain a sports concussion during the season with 33% of all sports concussions occurring at practice, according to headcasecompany.com.
There are several long term effects of multiple concussions and not allowing a person’s brain to fully heal. Post-Concussion Syndrome is when patients who suffer a concussion take longer than usual to recover, which is found in between 10% – 30% of concussion patients. Second Impact Syndrome is when a second concussion occurs during, recovery which causes the brain to undergo swelling. Approximately half of all Second Impact Syndrome patients die from their injuries, and the survivors often suffer from lifelong irreversible disability.
The most well known long term effect of multiple concussions is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a progressive disease that has symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s. CTE was first discovered by neuropathologist Dr Bennet Omalu in the brain of Mike Webster, a former NFL player. When Omalu looked at Webster’s brain tissue under the microscope he observed concentrations of tau which is a protein.
“Having a concussion was a difficult experience for me because for two weeks I had to sit in the dark. I was not allowed to play on my phone, do homework for long periods of time or even watch TV. My head felt like it was gonna explode and I could feel my brain move when I took the blow. I felt like the whole world was spinning and all sounds immediately got extremely loud,” Allendorf said.
The 2015 movie “Concussion,” starring Will Smith, is the story of Dr.Omalu who challenges the NFL on the repeated hits to the brain from playing football can cause brain damage. As neurons die, large areas of brain tissue become affected, causing symptoms to appear including: memory loss, confusion, Parkinson’s-like tremors, walking problems, impaired judgement, depression and personality changes.
Repeated head trauma does not always lead to CTE and the only way to diagnose CTE is post-mortem by an autopsy. CTE has been found in the brains of 76 out of 79 former NFL players who have donated their brains to research. According to the Concussion Foundation, repeated concussion have been linked to increased risk of neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, as well as CTE.
“My advice is to genuinely listen to what your body is telling you. If you don’t feel like your ready to go back to everyday life yet that is okay. At the end of the day you will feel a lot better if you don’t rush the natural healing process,” Allendorf said.

Lauren Rayman
This past week, northeast Ohio has been hit with snow, rain and freezing cold temperatures. Some areas, including Stow, had six to ten inches of snow dumped on them this past weekend.
A lot of snow fell in a very short amount of time between Saturday and Sunday. Although it slowed down on Sunday, it continued to snow on and off throughout the day and going into Monday.
Monday night, the school district made an all-call announcing a snow day for Tuesday, January 22 due to rigid temperatures and unplowed roads, sidewalks and parking lots throughout Stow, Munroe Falls and other areas.
When they returned to school on Wednesday, many students began to wonder if one day off was enough to get everybody to school safely.
Upon pulling into the parking lot Wednesday morning, students were greeted by huge mounds of snow. At this time on Wednesday, it had also began to rain.
This rain started to not only cause leftover snow that was not plowed to turn into slush, but also started to form some ice in the parking lot. The combination of the slush and ice on the ground made for a very unpleasant walk for teachers and students alike into the building for the day.
Along with the slush and ice, parking in the student lot was limited as soon as students began to arrive at school. Many spots were blocked by the snow that had piled up, but many others were blocked by huge puddles of a combination of water, slush and ice.
Students were not the only ones affected by the poor conditions in the parking lot on Wednesday. Teachers parked in a certain area of the teacher lot were very badly affected too.
The parking lot is designed so that there is a pretty wide aisle in between the teacher and student lots, with aisles that are roped off so people can walk on, but not drive through, connecting the two main lots.
Because of this design, the people who were plowing the snow had very limited space to put it. The majority of the snow ended up surrounding the teacher lot, with some of it pushed against the perimeter of the portion of the student lot not connected to the teacher lot.
Monday night and all day Tuesday, temperatures did not reach much above 20 and 25 degrees. Wednesday, however, temperatures reached almost 45 degrees.
The spike in temperature started to cause the snow mounds pushed up against the parking lots to melt. Since the runoff had no place to go, it started to flood the teacher lot- pretty significantly.
Administration emailed teachers at around 11:00 informing them of the flooding that had started to occur. Many teachers parked in the back corner closest to the student lot opted to move their cars so they would not have to walk through a giant puddle just to leave school.
Not only were their issues with flooding in the student and teacher lots, but there was a significant amount of flooding in the library. There was also a little bit of flooding in the art loft, particularly the ceramics room, and the ceiling continued to leak.
The flooding in the library significantly bad because of the fact that it is carpeted throughout the whole thing. Fans have been placed around the spots where the flooding was the worst and have remained there in hopes of completely drying the carpet.
As for the rest of the snow piles that are still in the parking lot, there really is not much that anyone can do to prevent them from creating puddles in the parking lot. But, hopefully the people responsible for plowing the parking lot can figure out an alternative place for the extra snow so that the parking lot does not become flooded.