Hopatcong High School PTO Funds Post-Concussion Assessment Program

Mike Hangley dropped the down marker and ran to his son, Kyle, who lay near motionless on the ground. The Hopatcong High School sophomore football player had collided head-on with an opponent, their helmets causing a loud thwack the father heard from the sideline.

The son's responses to his dad's questions were slow and deliberate. Kyle Hangley was later diagnosed with a concussion.

"You just knew it was a good hit," Mike Hangley said at Monday night's Hopatcong High School Parent Teacher Student Organization meeting at high school library. "I just saw my son. He just dropped. He didn't know who he was or where he was or anything."

Soon, his wife, Jacki, began researching concussion prevention. Around the same time, high school Athletic Director Tom Vara and trainer John Canzone also looked into it after a rash of concussions hit the football team.

 "We had a significant number of injuries last year, and many of those injuries were concussions," high school Prinicipal Emil Binotto said.

Jacki approached Vara and Canzone with ImPACT, a computerized neurocognitive assessment program used to determine an athlete's fitness to return to sports after a concussion.

The HHSPTSO, of which Mike is president and Jacki is vice president, offered to fund the program's implementation at the high school. Binotto couldn't turn it down, and the sports programs used it in August to determine its players' preseason cognitive abilities.

So far, Binotto said, ImPACT has had an impact.

"It's a real serious thing," the principal said of concussions.

Binotto said athletes went to the school's technology center—a computer-filled room—and took the tests before stepping onto the field.

"You answer a series of questions," he said. "Your times are recorded. Your answers are recorded."

Then the results—called a "baseline"—are stored, Binotto said. They're brought back as a measuring tool when a player attempts a return from a concussion and retakes the exam. If the results are close, the player passes.

Binotto said ImPACT is just one of many stages a player must pass before making a comeback. He added the school has done plenty to educate its players and coaches on concussion safety.

"We took steps to review how we train our athletes," Binotto said. "We took steps to review how the athletes hit out on the field. We took a look at our conditioning program.

"It was the whole package. We made some improvements. Everybody is significantly more aware of the possibility of concussions. I'm not sure whether or not we have more concussions now or whether or not we're just more aware."

Binotto said this fall the football team has already seen three or four concussions and a torn ACL.

But he said he believes the high school is ready to deal with injuries.

"We're on the cutting edge," Binotto said, referring to ImPACT. "Not  too many [high schools] are currently doing that.

"What we're doing, we're ahead of the game."