Limited Resources Put Club Athletes At Risk For Concussions

Since Aug. 1, 2015, there have been 47 concussions reported in club athletics at Miami University

Kristen Wooten's softball career ended two and a half years ago.

A lifelong catcher, she took a fluky pitch to the mask during a club game at Miami University. She convinced her coach to let her stay in the game -- that is, until a trainer arrived to pull her out in the next inning.

Wooten was diagnosed with a severe concussion, told not to drive, and benched indefinitely. During her long path to recovery, she failed the baseline tests administered by the university nine separate times.

Though Wooten's extended recovery has been out of the ordinary for Miami club athletes, she is part of a larger trend of sports-related concussions. Trainer Matt Wood of Mercy Health says that, since Aug. 1, 2015, there have been 47 reported concussions in club athletics here.

"We usually see about seven to eight concussions a month during the fall semester and about one to two concussions a month during the spring," Wood says. "Most of these clubs are in season during fall semester."

Gabby Kinnamon, assistant director of club sports, says Miami offers 54 club sports. The club teams are not required to have their athletes take baseline tests like varsity athletes are, but they have the option to do so when they join a team.

"We highly encourage it," says Kinnamon, "and [the teams] understand the importance of that."

Not As Regulated

Though Kinnamon says Miami provides more resources to club athletes than some other universities do, clubs are not as regulated as varsity athletics.

Unlike varsity sports, club teams aren't required to submit injury statistics to the NCAA. While trainers are at every home game and easily accessible at home practices, Kinnamon says some other schools can't garner a big enough force of trainers to man games that Miami athletes travel to.

Over the past two years, Wood says, men's and women's rugby and hockey take up four of the top five spots for club concussions. Women's rugby is the most dangerous with 10 concussions in that time frame -- men's ranks third with four.

Meanwhile, both men's and women's club hockey teams saw four concussions apiece, and one athlete on the women's team quit playing as a result of her concussion.

Club football rounds out the top five, in second place, with five concussions and two athletes who stopped playing due to their head traumas.

Kinnamon says she expects that the concussion rate for club athletes is higher than that for varsity athletes, despite the fact that varsity athletes play at a higher level. Kinnamon says that, out of necessity, club athletes neither get the same levels of daily athletic training nor receive the top new equipment, which might put them more at risk for concussions.

Wooten knows that disparity well. She says she was surprised that she wasn't required to take baseline tests when she joined the team at Miami.

Though she has few complaints about how Miami's concussion management program and the school's trainers handled her injury, Wooten says she wishes that they would have impressed the real seriousness of her concussion on her. She admits she was not an ideal patient, but said the severity of her head trauma was never explained.

Nearly three years later, Wooten still experiences post-concussion syndrome, occasionally feeling sensitive to bright lights and having difficulty focusing and remembering things.

"It's frustrating, because I know I'm not as quick-minded as I was before, and I really miss playing."

But would Wooten do anything different on that life-changing day if she could go back and live it again? Would she have come out of the game sooner and left her team without a catcher?

"No. No regrets."

Original story at Patch.com