Calisthenivs weights and brain scans round out modern preseason

High school athletics are gearing up for fall, with volleyball and football players hitting practice sessions to get ready for a new season.

For student athletes at LaCrosse and Garfield/Palouse high schools, the preseason regimen includes weight lifting, wind sprints and brain tests.

Those schools are among 4,000 in the nation that require students undergo Immediate Post Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing, or the ImPACT test.

“There’s no test that can give you a verbal or physical answer to how a kid’s doing after he gets a concussion,” said LaCrosse Principal Doug Curtis.

The ImPACT test provides doctors and school officials baseline information about a student’s brain activity. That information can then be compared to tests administered in the event an athlete sustains a concussion.

LaCrosse took special interest in concussion safety after Valley Christian football player Drew Swank died of concussion-related injuries suffered in a game on the Washtucna field in September 2009.

Swank suffered a concussion against LW Sept. 27, 2009, one week after suffering a prior concussion in another football game.

“What happened to Drew definitely makes you deal with things differently when you go through a thing like that,” said Curtis.

GP Athletic Director Tim Coles also cited Swank’s death as a factor in his school’s decision to give students the ImPACT test.

“Ever since that kid died, we’ve all kind of turned more of a focus on making sure our kids are healthy,” said Coles. “The brain is nothing to mess around with.”

Both schools began administering the test in the spring of 2010. Students are required to take the test before they are allowed to participate in sports.

Curtis said numerous media reports about Swank’s death included interviews with Dr. PZ Pearce of Champion Sports Medicine.

Curtis said he called Dr. Pearce to ask what the school could do to prevent injuries like Swank’s in the future.

So Dr. Pearce set up a program at LaCrosse where students take computerized tests of their brain functions. That information is then relayed to Dr. Pearce who is consulted every time school officials suspect a student has suffered a brain injury.

Curtis said each test costs the school $10.

GP sends their results to a sports medicine clinic in Pullman.

The test measures students’ memory, verbal, visual and motor speed skills, reaction time and impulse controls.

If a student suffers a head injury, they take the test again and are not allowed back on the field or court until a doctor determines the results match the initial baseline test.

“It takes out a lot of the guess work,” said Curtis. “Other than a test like this, you’re basically down to asking the kids a couple of questions.”