Friday night lights are back with high school football season kicking off this week.
But amid all the cheering and excitement, there is ongoing concern of concussions.
"We're on alert every day," said Mark Moreno, director of sports medicine at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose. "We're on alert in full practices. We're on alert in full hitting drills."
Coaches across the state are constantly looking at concussion protocols. The idea is to protect student athletes from themselves.
Moreno said in every game there is a hit where a student athlete has to be checked for a possible concussion.
"Anyone who is suspected of having a concussion in a game or practice has to be removed immediately," Moreno said.
The National Institutes of Health reports there are 300,000 sport-related injuries every year in the United States.
So by state law, high schools in California have to follow strict guidelines.
Any student who suffers a concussion cannot return to full sports activities for at least seven days.
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At Bellarmine College Preparatory, once a doctor clears them to return to a team, there are still six to seven steps the student has to go through before getting a green light. And then there is the final critical step.
"Student athletes first," Moreno said. "We want to make sure they do well in the classroom before they can participate in sports. So we run that in parallel."
Dr. Gregory Jackson, a neuropsychologist who runs the concussion program at Mission Bay Sports Center for Kaiser Permanente, applauds the classroom aspect of the protocols.
"Any time you have a brain injury, it's something serious that should be taken seriously," Jackson said. "We want to reintroduce everything gradually. So we send them back to school on a part-time basis if they have symptoms, allowing them to take breaks if necessary."
