LANSING - For the first time, the association in charge of high school sports in Michigan is keeping track of concussions, and now, their results have been made public.

Concussions are one of the biggest issues facing sports, and football in particular.

“Football gets most of the notoriety," said Michigan High School Athletic Association Communications Director John Johnson. "But we're working on this for every sport because concussions are something that can happen in every single sport that our kids go out and play.”

For the first time, the MHSAA collected reports on head injuries from its member schools. The data was collected from all fall sports, and no surprise, the sport with the most concussions was football

“Football, with three times as many participants, and much more contact, that was a real easy prediction to make," said Johnson.

Being the most played fall sport, football constituted 79% of all reported concussions, while soccer was 11% of the total, and volleyball closely behind.

“That's kinda the misnomer," said Michigan State University Sports Journalist in Residence Joanne Gerstner. "We all focus on football football football, any sport you play can get a concussion. cheerleading, wrestling, lacrosse, hockey.”

Gerstner is soon releasing a book on concussions, and when asked if she would let her kids play football, she said yes.
“If i felt like the coach had a good understanding, there was a good medical staff, the players, the culture around the team was positive, absolutely.”

While sports have become safer, and more and more people are educated about concussions, head injuries are simply unavoidable.

“We don't play sports in a vacuum, we don't play sports in bubble wrap," said Johnson. "Folks have got to realize there is an inherent risk with playing sports.”