Julie M. Stamm - The Brain on Youth Sports: The Science, the Myths, and the Future

The Brain
on Youth Sports

Julie M. Stamm, PhD

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Why I Wrote This Book

This is a book about kids and the consequences of hitting their heads repeatedly while playing contact sports. Sports are ingrained in our culture, making this a controversial topic. I have never played organized tackle football, hockey, rugby, or any other collision sport, but I have spent a great deal of my life around sports, first as a fan, then in a medical role, and later as a researcher. Before we get into the science, I want to tell you why I wrote this book.

I have been a fan of sports for as long as I can remember. My family watched Wisconsin Badger football and basketball religiously. Though I lived in Packer country, I joined a friend on the Miami Dolphins bandwagon. It was the Dan Marino era, and they were in the playoffs consistently throughout my childhood. I was thrilled in 2001 when they drafted both Jamar Fletcher and Chris Chambers, who had been stars for my Wisconsin Badgers.

Im not just a fan; Im an athlete. Growing up as a three-sport athlete in a small town in central Wisconsin, sports were my life. Nights were filled with practices or games. Weekends were consumed by tournaments, camps, or open gyms. I played little league baseball with the boys, then softball when a league formed in my town. I joined the volleyball team in middle school, and I still play today. From a young age, basketball was my greatest passion. We didnt travel much, but parents drove me four hours one way to Chicago for basketball camp in the summers. It was a chance to play with some of the best competition in the Midwest, including Candace Parker, one of the best to ever play the game. My junior year of high school we reached the state tournament. This is a big deal in Wisconsin, with local and state media coverage and games airing on television statewide. The entire community rallied behind our team, and we felt like celebrities for a few weeks in our small town.

I chose to attend the University of WisconsinMadison over playing a sport at a smaller college, but my love for sports still carried me through my undergraduate years. I began as an intern in strength and conditioning as a freshman. I was a shy, small-town girl working with NHL-drafted hockey players who had just won a national championship. It was intimidating, but this experience gave me confidence and intangible skills that Ive carried with me through life.

I became a student in the athletic training program my junior year, and my first clinical rotation was with the Badger football team. I learned a lot about sports medicine while providing care to the football players. You see almost any type of injury in football, from lacerations to fractures to concussions and everything in between. I also learned a lot about the football environment: the culture, the athletes, the attention, and the daily grind.

I had clinical rotations with a variety of other sports at the University of Wisconsin, and I worked with many incredible athletes. Some went on to be stars in professional leagues, and some became Olympians. Yet the athlete that had the greatest impact on my life and career was a young high school football player. One day he came into the athletic training room saying he just didnt feel right after a hit in practice. Nothing was overly concerning on his exam, and we determined that he had what I would have called at that time a mild concussion. But unlike most concussions, this athletes symptoms lingered for months. He was just out there playing a sport with his friends. Yet he suffered an injury that significantly altered his life, impacting his academics, social life, and ability to live a normal day. It was such a heartbreaking scene to watch unfold, and it plays out all too often in young athletes.

This case sparked my drive to study concussions and their consequences on the young brain. I moved to Boston and spent a year as a graduate assistant athletic trainer, learning from the incredible staff at Boston University. I met Dr. Robert Stern, director of clinical research at the Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center at Boston University, and, with some persistence (a skill I learned through sports), found my way in as an intern there. I earned a spot in a PhD program in anatomy and neurobiology the following year and became dedicated full-time to studying CTE and the long-term consequences of concussions and repetitive subconcussive impacts in sports. I focused my dissertation research on the consequences of repetitive hits to the head during childhood, when the brain is still developing. The findings of that research are one reason I am writing this book.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I want you to know that I get it. I understand the importance of playing sports. Like so many other people, sports are a big part of my story. I am an avid sports fan and athlete from a small town who become a neuroscientist, anatomist, and researcher. Athletics have played an immeasurable role in making me the woman I am and helped me develop so many of the qualities that have allowed me to be successful: leadership skills, work ethic, grit, determination, teamwork, and more. The skills and qualities I developed in the venue of sports were critical to get me where I am today.