DAMAGE CONTROL

Nearly a year has passed since two Southern California high school athletes died from head injuries sustained on the football field.

The off-season saw much discussion of the issue and at least one instance of significant research into brain trauma.

But athletic administrators have been slow to react. They insist no sweeping rule change, no improvement in equipment, could eliminate such injuries from football. As one administrator quipped: “We’re passing a rule that you can’t hit anybody too hard.”

So, with a new season beginning next week, the concern over head-impact injuries is evident in subtler ways.

At a high school in the Antelope Valley, players are taught to recognize the symptoms of a concussion so they can keep an eye on each other in the huddle.

At a Los Angeles television studio, school district officials are taping a half-hour program that includes a promise to quickly notify parents if their children are hurt during practice or games.

Coaches say they are more vigilant.

“When we pat backs and shake hands after that game, we’ll have a tendency to look into the players’ eyes,” said Bob Francola, Kennedy High coach. “We want to see if they’re looking woozy.”

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The study of head-impact injuries is relatively new and there is much to learn. At the Institute for Preventive Sports Medicine in Ann Arbor, Mich., Dr. David Janda offers a layman’s description:

“Put a piece of saran wrap over a bowl of jello,” he said. “That jello is your brain. Now shake the bowl pretty vigorously. You see the bits of jello stuck to the sides of the bowl and the saran wrap? That’s the bruising that occurs, the tearing of the nerve tissue. That’s how folks get injured.”

These injuries have been a prominent topic in professional football for several years, with players such as Merril Hoge of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Al Toon of the New York Jets forced to retire because of lingering effects.

In regard to high school football, the issue came to the forefront in Southern California last fall.

Reseda running back Eric Hoggatt died in his sleep after a Sept. 12 game at Chatsworth. The 18-year-old senior did not absorb any unusually hard hits but was tackled a dozen or more times during the game.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office determined he suffered from a buildup of blood inside the skull, apparently the result of accumulated blows.

One week later, Coronado quarterback Adrian Taufaasau was knocked unconscious against Costa Mesa and died of severe head and neck trauma.

“It’s a violent sport, there’s no getting around that,” Francola said. “The whole intent is to knock people out of the way.”

This fall, 1.5 million youngsters will take the field for teams ranging from Pop Warner to high school varsity, Janda said. He estimates 600,000 of them will be injured.

“But that’s not the scary part,” Janda said.

According to various forecasts, 100,000 or more of those youngsters will suffer head-impact injuries.

Last March, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology published a report suggesting schools adopt uniform guidelines on how to assess and respond to concussions. Athletic administrators nationwide expressed interest in these recommendations.

But the National Federation of State High School Associations, which issues safety guidelines, has chosen not to relay the recommendations to member schools until its medical advisory board convenes for an annual meeting in October.

“It’s not that we’re insensitive to what is taking place,” said Jerry Diehl, the association’s assistant director. “But we don’t want to make the situation worse by having a knee-jerk reaction. [We] want to make sure that the information that comes out of this office is accurate and complete.”

Closer to home, City Section Commissioner Barbara Fiege called the recommendations “of great interest” but has yet to contact the academy for any information. Similarly, the Southern Section has not acted on the published guidelines.

Experts say the safety of young players continues to depend on a fragile cooperation between coaches, parents and the players.

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These days, it is not unusual to see coaches stalking the practice field with air pumps in their pockets. During water breaks, they check the pressure in the inflatable liners in their players’ helmets.

“The job of a football coach is part trainer, part equipment man . . . and maybe if there are enough hours in the day, we can coach,” St. Bonaventure Coach Jon Mack said.

Most schools have volunteer doctors on the sidelines during games, but few can afford full-time trainers. It often falls upon the coaches to make rudimentary diagnoses.

The neurology academy has devised simple memory and exercise tests coaches can administer. Last week, a number of coaches in the Antelope Valley attended a seminar on head and spine injuries.

“That’s the big problem now,” said Highland Coach Lin Parker, who has been coaching for 30 years. “These concussions are much more serious than we old-timers believed.”

Minor concussions have long been referred to as “dings” or “getting your bell rung.” But some coaches who used to treat such injuries lightly now know better. And they are teaching their players, too.

At Highland, Parker has told his players what to look for: dilated eyes, slurred speech or erratic behavior in the huddle.

“Sometimes a kid is trying to prove he’s a macho man,” Parker said. “He won’t tell the coach he’s hurt. So I tell the other kids, ‘If you see these symptoms, don’t let Johnny be a hero.’ ”

The rules mandate that any player knocked unconscious may not return to the field without authorization from a doctor. But coaches are left to use their discretion in less-severe incidents.

The academy’s guidelines identify three grades of concussions ranging from temporary confusion to loss of consciousness. Even with the least-severe grade, the academy recommends that the player be removed from the field and examined every five minutes until he is symptom-free.

Such caution is vital as researchers learn that the effects of concussions can be cumulative over a long period of time.

“We keep exposing these kids to repetitive trauma,” Janda said. “You can take a minor injury and make it major, if not catastrophic, by continuing to play.”

At Chatsworth last year, Hoggatt came out of the game in the fourth quarter and--according to some accounts--complained of dizziness and numbness. After the game, he was placed on a bus for home.

His parents are suing the Los Angeles Unified School District, claiming they should have been informed of his injury.

In cases of a suspected concussion, parents are often instructed to check on their child every few hours during the night, doctors said.

On a television show that will begin airing Sept. 15 on KLCS-TV, school district officials promise to make such notification.

“We want to hit on that several times,” producer Richard Cochran said. Yet neither the City nor the Southern sections have firm procedures for notifying parents.

Added Fiege: “We’re leaving it up to the individual schools to determine the best way to do that.”

Experts recommend parents take matters into their own hands by attending games and even some practices. They can also question their child each night, asking if he or anyone else on the team was hurt that day.

“A lot of times, parents see sports as a baby-sitting service,” Janda said. “They need to be more interactive.”

If a youngster is hurt, he needs to seek the proper medical attention.

“Make sure they go to a doctor who is trained in sports medicine,” said Dr. Clarence Shields, former orthopedist for the Los Angeles Rams. Going to a general practitioner, he said, “is like someone asking me to deliver a baby. Even though I’m a doctor, I wouldn’t be very good at it.”

Shields heads a volunteer program that provides full-time trainers at Crenshaw and Dorsey high schools. He would like to see the program expanded to every campus in Southern California.

“You can’t prevent every injury but there is a certain level of safety,” he said. “People are beginning to see the needs.”

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No one believes football will ever be entirely safe, especially when it comes to head injuries. But experts suspect that a significant percentage of those injuries can be avoided with prompt diagnosis and treatment.

Predictably, last season’s deaths have served to increase awareness. Coaches and administrators are scrambling to understand risk factors they largely ignored before--not only concussions but things like dehydration.

“We started out with leather helmets and no facemasks,” said Bill Clark, a Southern Section assistant commissioner. “What impresses me is that we’re evolving. It is becoming a safer sport.”

Despite his belief that some injuries are unavoidable, Francola has seen a change for the better. When asked about safety precautions, the Kennedy coach recalls an incident from his own playing days.

It was 1966 and he was playing for Valley College against Bakersfield. Midway through the second quarter, he injured his shoulder.

“I was evaluated in the locker room by a veterinarian,” Francola said. “For the trip to the hospital, I was put in a pickup truck and driven a mile and a half by a cowboy.

“Would I say things have improved?” he asked. “You bet.”