before recalling the five words told to him earlier. Broekhuis was diagnosed with a concus-sion, so by NCAA policy, he was not allowed to return that day.

Broekhuis was watched care-fully that night. Air Force policy is to take the athlete to a hos-pital if he loses consciousness or symptoms worsen, but nei-ther happened with Broekhuis. When an Air Force player suf-fers a concussion, his roommate is asked to monitor symptoms to make sure they don’t get worse. Broekhuis’ roommate on the road trip was given those in-structions, Sedelmyer said.

Air Force has a six-point proto-col for players diagnosed with a concussion. The first step is no activity. Sedelmyer said sleep is important, and small things like text messaging, watching televi-sion or reading can aggravate a concussion. That’s why play-ers are sometimes pulled out of class for a few days if they’ve suf-fered a concussion.

Patience is necessary but didn’t come easily to Broekhuis.

“To me it was frustrating,” Broekhuis said. “With most in-juries, when you’re hurt you can rehab. With a concussion, you really can’t do anything because you don’t want to aggravate it.”

Next on the list for Broekhuis was light aerobic exercise, which is usually on a stationary bike or elliptical machine because the head stays stable. When Broekhuis rode the bike to get his heart rate up the day after his concussion, the symptoms

afa: Honesty about symptoms aids recoveryfrom page 1—

concussions

rehabbing the brain

Concussion:� Test reveals injury on Christmas Day. Per NCAA policy, he’s done for day. No activity, including watching TV, and overnight observation is required. Step 1:� On Day 1, Broekhuis does light aerobic exercise on a stationary bike (because the head stays stable). His symptoms return, so he does no activity again on Day 2. Step 2:� Light aerobic exercise again. This time symptoms do not return. Step 3:� Sport-specific exercise, in Broekhuis’ case some shooting. Step 4:� Broekhuis is given and passes a baseline test by a trainer when the team gets back to Colorado Springs on Dec. 30. Step 4:� Noncontact training drills. Step 5:� Full-contact practice after getting medical clearance. Step 6:� Return to game action, which happened on Jan. 2.

Like Air Force center Taylor Broekhuis found out last season, the road back from a concussion isn’t easy. Here’s a look at the steps on the Air Force training staff’s protocol list that he had to complete in order to be cleared to play:

came back. Air Force immedi-ately ruled him out of any games in El Paso, and readjusted the plans so Broekhuis could return for a Jan. 2 game against Florida A&M if he felt better.

Broekhuis didn’t do anything the second day after his concus-sion. On the third day, he tried light exercise again and felt fine, passing Step 2. Step 3 on Air Force’s list is a sport-specific ex-ercise, in Broekhuis’ case doing some shooting or noncontact drills without any defense, like a fast-break layup drill. When the Falcons got back to Colorado Springs on Dec. 30, Sedelmyer

gave Broekhuis a baseline test, which he passed.

Broekhuis then passed Steps 4 and 5, which are noncontact training drills and a full-contact practice after medical clearance. The sixth step on the training staff’s protocol list is return-ing to game action. Broekhuis played as usual against Florida A&M, and scored a team-best 15 points.

Athletic trainers have to trust that the athletes are giving them accurate information about their symptoms, and in Broekhuis’ case that helped the trainers get him back on the court.

“He was very understanding of the process and didn’t want to rush anything, and was upfront with us,” Sedelmyer said.

Broekhuis didn’t necessarily want to go through the process — he admitted his first thought was maybe he didn’t have a con-cussion, or he would wake up the next day feeling great and play. But after Air Force suffered so many concussions last season, he said he was more aware of how important it was to be cautious.

“I definitely wanted to play, but I had to take into account what Ernie was saying,” Broekhuis said. “We had to be careful.”

olympic athletes tested after head injuriesOlympic athletes who suffer

concussions should wait four days before resuming practice and six days before resuming game action, according to inter-national standards endorsed by the U.S. Olympic Committee and prescribed for Olympic national governing bodies.

The “Sport Concussion As-sessment Tool,” invented by in-ternational experts in 2005 and updated in 2008, determines whether an injured athlete has suffered a concussion, with an evaluation of symptoms, cogni-tive assessments and a battery of physical examinations.

For athletes 10 and older, the concussion test, recommended by the International Olympic Committee, uses a mathematical formula to decipher how an ath-lete feels after an on-the-field in-cident, with numerical ratings for side effects including headaches, confusion and irritability. Ath-letes also are graded based upon eye response, verbal response and motor response, and they’re sub-ject to balance tests and upper-limb tests to gauge coordination.

For the cognitive part, athletes are asked easy questions. “Who scored last in this match?” is

by bRIAN GOMEZbrian.gomez@gazette.com—

If you have a concussion and it is not resolved and you sustain a

second concussion, the effects are usually amplified.”BIll Moreau — director of sports medicine clinics for the Colorado Springs-based u.S. olympic Committee“

one. “Did your team win the last game?” is another. Then they’re asked to recite words read in a grouping — one set consists of “candle, paper, sugar, sandwich, wagon.” And the test ends with number strings recited back-ward and the months recited in reverse order.

“Concussion can be exhibited in many different ways,” said Bill Moreau, who has served as di-rector of sports medicine clinics for the Colorado Springs-based USOC since 2009. “It’s not just a lost of consciousness. It could be a loss of memory, a loss of balance, the inability to concen-trate. … Every concussion needs to be recognized as a brain in-jury.”

Guidelines state that athletes must rest the day after a con-cussion, partake in light aero-bic exercise on the second day, perform sport-specific exercise on the third day, participate in noncontact training drills on the

fourth day and participate in full-contact training after medi-cal clearance on the fifth day. A return to competition is permit-ted on the sixth day.

It’s a drawn-out process that creates frustration for athletes during major events, like the Olympics and the world cham-pionships. That’s why some athletes (in an attempt to stay on the field) don’t disclose their symptoms. “That’s definitely true,” Moreau said, adding that his research has shown concus-sions are “multifold underre-ported throughout sport.”

“If you have a concussion,” Moreau said, “and it is not re-solved and you sustain a second concussion, the effects are usu-ally amplified. And you would be at much greater risk for sustain-ing a more dangerous injury. … We work hard on educating all of our athletes.”

A former Iowa chiropractor, Moreau leads a staff of 12 employ-

ees in the sports medicine clinics at the Olympic Training Center and at USOC-operated training facilities in Chula Vista, Calif., and Lake Placid, N.Y. He has man-aged more than 1,000 concus-sions in 25 years as a physician, and he concedes that “concussion management and guidelines are in transition. Best practices from even three years ago are already out of date and changing.”

“The science isn’t really hard yet,” Moreau said. “It’s still devel-oping.” The most drastic altera-tion in recent years? “The indi-vidual is treated as an individual,” he said. “There are so many vari-ables. For instance, a young per-son isn’t the same as an adult.”

Moreau will speak July 23 at a USOC sports medicine sympo-sium on concussions at the OTC, planning on revealing statistics that display the highest inci-dence of concussions in collision sports, such as football, ice hock-ey, boxing, rugby and taekwon-do. Concussions also can occur in sports in which contact isn’t a necessity, like synchronized swimming, Moreau warned, “be-cause they’re so close together. They actually kick each other.”

“Concussion is not just football and hockey,” he said. “Any sport can have a concussion.”

Rapids’ Mullan suspended 10 games

NEW YORK •� Colorado midfielder Brian Mullan was suspended 10 games Thursday and fined $5,000 for a hard tackle on Seattle’s Steve Zakuani, leaving the Sounders young star with a broken right lower leg.

Major League Soccer’s disci-plinary committee announced the punishment and the Rapids said Mullan had decided not to appeal the decision. The 10 games includes the automatic one-game suspension Mullan received for being issued a red card.

“In situations such as this, the game is robbed of its brilliance. Steve Zakuani is a young, talented and highly entertaining player. He will be missed, and we all wish him a full and speedy recovery,” Seattle general manager Adrian Hanauer said in a statement. “As a league, the commissioner has stated his intention to be more protective of dynamic, attacking players. Hopefully this suspen-sion is a step in the right direction. However, the harsh reality of this situation is that no length of suspension will bring back Steve to action any faster.”

The foul occurred early in last Friday’s match when Mullan barged into Zakuani near the side-line. Zakuani’s right leg was caught underneath him by the force of Mullan’s tackle, breaking his tibia and fibula.

He was taken off the field on a stretcher and had surgery at Rose Medical Center in Denver, staying there until he returned to Seattle on Tuesday.

Mullan issued an apology through his represen-tatives Wednesday.—

Lawmakers seek ban on doping in horse racing

WASHINGTON •� A bipartisan pair of lawmakers is seeking a national ban on performance-enhanc-ing drugs in horse racing, calling for a federal role in a sport that lacks uniform standards.

Under the legislation by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., any person with three violations of the prohibition would be permanent-ly banned from horse racing. A horse that tests positive for performance-enhancing drugs three times would receive a ban of at least two years.

The bill comes three years after some in the industry urged the federal government to get involved, following the death of Eight Belles at the 2008 Kentucky Derby. A drug test proved that the horse was clear of steroids, but the incident helped shine a light on safety problems and the lack of a single governing body. Rick Dutrow, trainer of the Derby winner Big Brown, acknowl-edged he regularly injected the horse with the then-legal steroid stanozolol. —

Judge sides with NJ in kicking Lewis off ballot

CAMDEN, N.J. •� A federal judge has upheld New Jersey’s four-year residency rule for political candidates that knocked former Olympic great Carl Lewis off the ballot.

Judge Noel Hillman ruled Thursday that the residency requirement doesn’t violate Lewis’ guarantee of equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. —

Ochoa expecting child GUADALAJARA, MEXICO •� Retired golf star

Lorena Ochoa is expecting her first child.The 29-year-old from Mexico and former No. 1

player, announced the news on Twitter in English and Spanish: “I am very happy to share with everybody that we are expecting a baby!”

Ochoa married Aeromexico executive Andres Conesa in December 2009. He has three children from a previous marriage. Ochoa suddenly retired last year after compiling 27 wins and two majors in seven seasons on tour. Her brother and agent, Alejandro Ochoa, said in an email she is due to give birth around November.—

Serena, Venus Williams mum on when they’ll return

WASHINGTON •� Serena and Venus Williams aren’t ready to tell the world when they will return to the tennis tour. The sisters, who own a combined 20 Grand Slam singles titles, declined to say Thursday when they will compete next. Both have been sidelined for months. The next major tournament, the French Open, begins May 22.

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B2 ❘ the gazette ❘ Friday, april 29, 2011