To play, or not to play — a hard question

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/03/2010 (5715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Concussion does not spare the young.

Jake Heisinger was only 14 in March 2007, when he was knocked from behind into the boards twice within minutes. The first time he cut his chin; the second it was his nose.

One or both blows caused the concussion, which kept him out a little more than a week.

His dad, Manitoba Moose GM Craig Heisinger, admits to momentarily considering letting Jake play the next game before a late-night solo walk in the snow clarified the proper decision to hold him out.

“It would never have even been considered for a pro player,” Craig says. “At some point I might have thought, ‘Gee, he’s really worked hard to make this team and I ought to soften up a bit,’ but at the end of the day, it shouldn’t have mattered that it was Jake Heisinger or Sidney Crosby.

“Until the player crosses that threshold with the doctors, they won’t let him play and it’s pretty cut and dried with me.”

Eager to get back into the playoffs, Jake didn’t like his dad’s decision.

“I think I followed the protocol to a tee,” Craig says. “Whether Jake did or not behind the scenes, I can’t say. But I do know several nights or days we were not on speaking terms because I followed the protocol to a tee and he was willing to waive it.”

Fast-forward 18 months to September 2008, and Jake Heisinger was on the ice in tryouts when a shoulder banged him in the head near the net. It was far less solid a blow he had previously taken for his first concussion, but this one kept him sidelined for three weeks.

Trying to make a team, Jake quickly grew impatient and admits to trying to find away around the cognitive and mental-sharpness tests that can assess whether a brain is functioning clearly, part of the return-to-play protocols that are so critical.

“If you’re not playing because you have a concussion, well, it’s not a broken leg and people can’t tell why you’re sitting out,” Jake says. “It’s hard to explain why you’re sitting out.

“Guys on my team this year have had concussions and they sometimes get a hard time about why they’re sitting out. But they really have no choice. Over the last couple of years I’ve learned more about it. Before, I didn’t care, I just wanted to play.”

As for prevention, Jake discarded his old helmet for a newer model, and a better-fitting one, too, so that the cage sat properly in front of his face and not so close, as it did before. And he and his three brothers all got newer, better-fitting mouthguards, an often-overlooked aspect of maximizing protection for the head.

About his game, Jake admits he has changed his thinking a little.

“It depends on the team you’re on, and obviously you’ve got to go in the corners, but I’m not laying the body out all the time now because I’m an offensive guy,” the scoring champ of the AAA Manitoba midget league says. “If you’re on a different team, running around, well, you’ve got to be more careful. But if you think about it all the time, you’re not going to play any good. So I try not to think about it.

“Still, I remember my first games back after both concussions. I definitely changed how I played for at least five, six, seven games, thinking about not wanting to get not so much hit but hit the wrong way.”

The after-effects of his concussions are small.

But they are not zero.

“Symptoms still? It’s tough to say,” Jake says. “Some days you might have a headache but it might not be from anything.

“From those concussions, though, the only main thing that’s stayed with me is short-term-memory things. It’s not gone but there are times, well, there’s not much you can do about that.

“Do I worry about it? Not really. It’s nothing major. I haven’t told my dad this but I just remember having a very good memory. Maybe it’s not from the hits, but maybe it is, too.”

Craig Heisinger, a man with a wealth of NHL and AHL experience, now has the experience of a dad whose son has suffered more than one concussion. He was asked what advice he’d give today’s hockey parents on the matter.

“I think the No. 1 thing, whether it’s mandated or not by your hockey association or team, probably starting at about the age of 12, I would get my son or daughter a baseline test and that way you have a starting point if this ever happens,” he says. “It’s time to get preventative. Make sure the helmet they’re wearing is not stuck together with duct tape, the mouthguard is not hanging out the side of his mouth and is firmly in his teeth.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca