Concussions have been a significant problem over the past decade, but recently, the issue has become more controversial than it has been in the past. Many extremists on the opposing side of football may think that football is barbaric and too violent for a modern day sport. This problem has grown and not just in the professional league, but also at CHS, where parents’ concerns are growing over children’s safety while being involved in the physical sport of football. If this dilemma continues, this will result in major changes for the football team in the upcoming years.
A concussion can affect people in many negative ways, including haziness, blurry vision mood changes, and other major effects. They may also face increased sensitivity to light and sound, and behavior changes. These effects can be fatal and are the probable cause for freshmen and sophomore players to move up onto the varsity team.
Due to the fact that there will be fewer players than usual on the football team due to the risk of head injuries, some JV players will have to move up to the varsity football team in just their second year of high school. It is just something an athlete will have to accept when playing football. Many football players experience multiple of these concussions, making it very dangerous to play football. As doctors learn more about how concussions affect athletes, more and more parents are pulling their kids out of football. The risks and effects of these injuries are what worry parents the most. The risk of not being able to play football anymore is a scary thought.
In one way, one can think of a younger team with less people being less skilled, but on the bright side, at least those kids get to have a good amount of experience so they can be stars in their senior year.
“If a kid is there and dedicated to the weight room and the practice and also has the ability, then yes he will be with us,” Hiles said.
The most dedicated athletes get to go to varsity, so if they are motivated and play for a long time in a competitive league, then varsity will become a great team in a couple years. The idea of younger players moving up may seem like a good thing for these players, but they come at a cost.
One other effect of the injuries is the potential lack of players on the JV team. The JV team is doing decently for now, but they already have a very limited number of players. The football team will always have enough freshmen because anyone can join, but the situation for JV could eventually mean that any sophomore who wants to join can join, which will not make CHS the greatest team in the world.
The football team is trying to stick together and cope with this issue until the end of the year, and so far, they have been doing better than average. If the team can keep up the good work even with these misfortunes, they believe they will be able to end the season on a good note knowing that they got through the issue of concussions. And with this in mind, they are confident in getting through many seasons in the future despite any issues.