Illinois coaches, doctors urge awareness as girls face higher concussion risk in sports
Girls face higher concussion risk in sports, how Illinois teams are responding
A closer look at concussions in girls soccer—why rates are higher, and how Illinois teams are responding.
CHICAGO - Football has long been known for causing concussions—no matter what level you are playing at—and when it comes to youth sports, the CDC says boys tackle football has the highest rate.
In a FOX 32 special report, Cassie Carlson looks at what sport is next in line when it comes to kids and concussions.
"Obviously accidents do happen, but we try our best to not get hit in the head," said Alyssa Watson.
Watson is a junior on Hinsdale South High School's top-ranked girls varsity soccer team. The CDC ranks girls soccer as number two on the list of youth sports with the most concussions.
"I haven’t had any concussions. I think I'm pretty smart with handling it with my head. I try to. I think a lot of people on our team try not to hit it with our head because it’s just easier to control it with our feet," Watson said.
But Watson has seen other players get a concussion while on the field. So has her coach.
"I saw one of our girls was going up for a header in a game on a corner kick, not a goalie but another player went up at the exact same time and they hit heads, and that happens often," said Jen Belmonte. "If they hit heads in the exact right spot, it’s pretty painful."
Belmonte has been at the helm of Hinsdale South's girls varsity soccer team for eleven years now. She says she's not surprised where girls soccer ranks when it comes to concussions.
"It’s rough out there when we’re doing as many headers as we are, going up for as many 50/50 balls as we are," Belmonte said.
"What we see as the most common cause of soccer concussions is when kids are jumping to head. What they do is hit each other. They jump up and their arms hit each other," said Dr. Elizabeth Pieroth of Rush University Medical Center & Midwest Orthopedics at Rush. "I am the director of the concussion program for the National Women’s Soccer League and the Professional Women’s Hockey League."
She's also the concussion program director at Rush University Medical Center and a consultant for several other Chicago sports teams.
"So we see a lot of concussions in soccer in general, but when we look at sports that both males and females play – soccer, hockey, lacrosse – we see higher rates of concussion across all sports in females compared to males," Pieroth said.
When it comes to why, Pieroth says there are a number of theories.
"One of the theories is that it is a neck muscular issue. That women have weaker necks. So if there is more contact to the head, more movement to the head because of a weaker neck, more movement to the brain," Pieroth said.
She says research has also shown that hormone changes can affect both a woman’s predisposition to receive a concussion and her ability to recover from one.
"There’s also some behavioral issues. Women are more likely to report a concussion than men," Pieroth said.
"I think it’s helping because we don’t have that many concussions. On the other hand, I would like to see parents, really, take this more seriously," said Mary Jane Bender.
Bender is the executive director of the Illinois Youth Soccer Association (IYSA). It has roughly 79,000 players statewide, all age 19 and under.
"We distribute this form to our leagues and our clubs and we require them to follow this protocol," Bender said.
She says IYSA started using this concussion reporting form back in 2011. Anytime one is suspected, the form is given to the player's coach and parents.
Before the player can return to the field, the parents must have their child examined by a doctor who specializes in concussions and return the form to the coach.
"I would like to see parents be more proactive regarding head injuries. And that may be the reason why we don’t have that many complaints or claims regarding concussions," Bender said.
But she says she has had some pushback from parents over the association's concussion protocol.
"We’ve had situations where we had a player injured. We told them to go get their child diagnosed by a medical professional and they weren’t happy about that," Bender said.
"When I see athletes, I always tell them that the research shows us that when someone has a concussion and they go back to play before they are recovered, their performance drops and this is true across sports," Pieroth added.
Belmonte tries to protect her team against concussions by getting the ball rolling early in the season.
"We are talking about it by the second day," she said. "And then we are just very careful not to do drills that would cause or put us into a situation where we would have that collision."
If anything happens during a game or practice, Belmonte says the players get checked out by a trainer before they return to play.
"Anytime the ref sees there’s a 50/50 ball and a player goes down with a possible head injury, they have to come off the field and be checked by a trainer to go back in," she said. "I can’t check for them. The trainer has to."
While it comes with a high risk for head injury, that doesn’t seem to change some players' love for the game.
"I like being part of a team. I think it’s really fun to be in a full girl setting and be passionate about playing a sport," Watson said.
Girls soccer has been on the rise since the U.S. Women’s National Team won the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1999. But when it comes to concussions in female athletes, that area is said to be understudied.
Pieroth says about half of all NCAA athletes are female and only about 19 percent of sports concussion research subjects are also female.
The Source: The FOX 32 Chicago Investigative Team reported on this story.