Ryan Lavender
Sports Reporter

The sports injuries clinic has seen an increase in the number of students suffering from concussions, says the clinic’s athletic therapist.

“We’ve had quite a few concussions this year,” Lydia Henry says.

“We’ve made an effort to really notice them and pull athletes out and follow a strict protocol with them. So maybe because we did that this year people are coming out more and saying we’ve had them. But this year I would say we’ve had a record number of concussions.”

One difficulty when dealing with concussions is keeping students and coaches aware of when an athlete is suffering from the symptoms, says Henry.

“Often a person looks normal, speaks normally, feels fairly normal and then you start asking the concussion questions and they are positive to that. So that is frustrating for the athlete, the coaches, and the therapist.”

“We’ve always felt that you can’t run a varsity athletics program properly without the proper therapy facilities,” said college athletic director Doug Fox.

The clinic has four athletic therapy students assigned to assist varsity teams.

“Each one is assigned two teams over the year that they follow,” said Henry. “They go to the practices, they do all the taping. They go away for the games and tournaments.”

One team in particular is making use of the clinic.

“Rugby by far,” said Henry. “They’re not easy on themselves.”

While a great deal of time is spent with the varsity teams, all full time students and staff can make an appointment to use the clinic’s free services, which include patient education, assessment and rehabilitation.

“I thought it was only available for varsity athletes,” said Bruno Matta, 23, a first-year paramedic student. “Having it on hand probably makes recovery for the athletes a lot quicker than if they were going out to get help from somewhere else.”

The clinic is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Thursday and between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Friday and is located by the gym.

Students can also take advantage of the clinic’s massage therapy service.

“We have a massage therapist. Now she is not a free service, where as everything else is,” said Henry.

“But through HSF they have some coverage with the insurance company they provide students, so a lot of our varsity athletes have taken advantage of that.”