With George Hurlbut
It costs a few hundred thousand to run the hockey team every year so sometimes you have to make tough decisions, like agreeing to four games in four nights at Christmas.
Last year the boys won all four, this year they lost all four but managed two points and most importantly drew crowds of 957 for Creston, and 1,240, a sell-out, for Kimberley. The Nitros had 1,211 when Fernie played there. These games will go a long way to financing both teams. Creston insisted on playing at 7:30 p.m. and only drew 300 for New Year’s Eve. Fernie wanted to play earlier, so did the Creston fans.
Concussions are the big story in contact sports right now and they have been an under-reported problem for years, but could we have a breakthrough? The latest concussion theory news comes from University of Toronto anesthetist Dr. Joseph Fisher who says that a collar no tighter than a set of headphones worn around the neck during games would create a sort of ‘airbag’ in the skull to save the brain from concussions.
Well, enough doctor talk, what he means is that the brain is fuelled like a diesel engine and fuel (blood) goes into the engine (brain) through one line (jugular vein) then what doesn’t get used goes back out in a different return line (also a jugular) to the fuel tank, or heart for all the scientists who regularly peer review this column.
So what Fisher did with a small collar was to restrict the return line (jugular) on some rats thus keeping a little extra blood in their heads so the brain wouldn’t have room to bang around. So now when he throws them against the boards at the local rink their brains don’t crash around against their skulls nearly as much as they normally would. Well maybe he doesn’t test them exactly like that, but he has had success and he thinks something as simple as a little collar would work on humans, or even hockey players. Could this be the answer to the age-old question of why some athletes are far more vulnerable to concussions than others? Do some people naturally retain a little more brain shielding blood in their skulls? This is a very intriguing theory, here’s hoping what works for rats works for humans. It does in some workplaces.
