The Toppers faced a big game – their first as a team in the Football Bowl Subdivision – against the defending national champion, the University of Florida.
Junior David Wolke faced a big challenge – his first collegiate start, and his first game as Western’s quarterback.
And it began gloriously.
On the first play of the first offensive series, Wolke fired a big pass – a laser into the hands of junior wide receiver Jessie Quinn for a 29-yard gain.
Teammates roared from the sidelines as the drive continued in front of 90,086 fans packed into The Swamp in Gainesville, a drive that would take Western all the way to the Gators’ 10-yard line.
But Wolke took big hits.
And one he took during that drive delivered a concussion, defined by the American Academy of Neurology as “a trauma-induced alteration of mental status that may or may not involve a loss of consciousness.”
The injury would threaten Wolke’s season, and as he continued to play, increase risks of further injury and threats to his long-term health.
During a play after his throw, Wolke charged 9 yards up the middle and went down from a helmet-to-helmet blow. Moments later, Wolke took another hit while attempting a pitch. His head crashed onto the ground.
Western’s medical team doesn’t know how many plays involved Wolke after the concussion. Staff saw no indication of Wolke’s injury, Head Athletic Trainer Bill Edwards said.
And Wolke, struck with amnesia and disorientation, remembers only fragments of the injury on Sept. 1, he said.
Team physician Craig Beard called the injury “about as significant a concussion as I’ve seen in 20 years,” during an interview almost six weeks later.
Wolke’s injury highlights the torment concussions can bring to players and the pressures not to report them.
Western faces the same challenges other sports teams do: treating concussions in a way that preserves players’ short- and long-term health, and getting players to report the injuries.
The number of concussion diagnosed at Western rose this season, and trainers said they don’t know why.
Concussions in athletics – at all levels and in all sports – have moved into the national spotlight.
Congress addressed the issue this summer, when several retired NFL players – whose career concussions followed them – testified before a House committee regarding greater disability pay and regulations for treatment of the injuries.
Wolke started again a week after the concussion. Convinced of his recovery, Beard and Edwards cleared Wolke after he passed a series of memory tests and physical assessments, Edwards said.
But three games later, Wolke returned to the sidelines because of ongoing symptoms: sluggishness, strain from schoolwork and memory lapses.
Wolke admitted that he wasn’t honest about his symptoms to trainers, telling them he felt “OK” when he knew otherwise. But Western’s system of evaluating the injury, then largely dependent on player cooperation, also led to Wolke’s return to the field.
Returning to action too early from concussions can lead to repeat injuries. This brings risks that include prolonged symptoms, severe brain damage and in very rare cases, death.
Through Oct. 22, Western staff diagnosed 12 players with concussions, triple that of last season, according to injury records provided by Edwards.
After releasing those records, Edwards refused further interviews and to discuss what the medical staff planned to do to try to determine the cause of the increase. But he did say during a previous interview what trainers were doing to improve treatment.
In the first week of October, just after Wolke came forward with his symptoms, the athletic training department purchased a computerized test for $500 that evaluates cognitive skills such as memory, processing speed and reaction time.
The Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing program, called ImPACT, helps trainers follow a player’s recovery and eliminate premature return to action, Edwards said.
Wolke would be the first at Western to take the test, Beard said.
Wolke took the test three times. His scores rose each time, and on the final test “were superb,” Beard said.
On The Sidelines
In Florida, sophomore quarterback Brandon Smith told trainers at the end of the first series of play that Wolke’s behavior didn’t seem right.
Edwards conducted a Standardized Assessment of Concussion test, called SAC, which checks for physical symptoms and measures functions such as orientation and memory. He looked for physical signs of a concussion – including trouble balancing, nausea, glassy eyes and dilated pupils.
Wolke felt nausea, a headache and disorientation, he later remembered. His eyes wandered, Beard said.
Edwards, called “Doc E” by players, asked Wolke to read the scoreboard. He asked him to remember a series of numbers and words. He asked Wolke where he was and who Western was playing.
Wolke, asking a lot of questions himself, struggled with the answers, he said.
About 30 minutes passed and his amnesia continued. Edwards said that this confirmed his fears of a concussion and, along with Beard, he made the decision that Wolke would have to sit out the rest of the game.
All players diagnosed with concussions go through a similar examination, standard at Western and many other schools, Edwards said. Their subsequent treatment would be similar, too.
Trainers hid Wolke’s helmet to keep him from sneaking back in. By halftime, Wolke felt better and told trainers he could play.
Pieces of the game came back, he said.
Wolke had popped up after the hit during the pitch that probably caused the concussion, staff said. And he finished the series.
But he could not remember it all for nearly a quarter-and-a-half.
The picture remained fuzzy on Oct. 11, nearly a month later.
“The last thing I remember is running the option and pitching the ball to senior wide receiver Curtis Hamilton,” Wolke said. “Then after that, I remember coming off the field, and then it just hit me. I didn’t know where I was at, and I didn’t know what was going on. I remember looking at the stands and everything. I was recalling to myself ‘We did have a game in Florida.’”
He said he felt normal running and throwing that week and normal on the field in general. He suffered headaches but none that seemed unusual.
But he would forget things, such as where he parked his car, and thoughts came slowly.
A week after Florida, Wolke started against West Virginia Tech. He said he felt fine playing. But the hits he took in other games – against Eastern Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State – would reveal more.
Wolke’s head would throb, and he’d hear ringing in his ears, he said. He’d become disoriented and struggled to remember little things. Sometimes he’d black out for a split second. Still, Wolke said he kept his symptoms, which he didn’t think were serious, from the trainers.
‘I saw white lights’
While attempting a pitch during the second play of the MTSU game, a defensive end tackled Wolke and he took a blow to the back of his helmet. He fumbled.
But the revelation that Wolke was playing injured came in the garage of his home in Mount Juliet, Tenn.
The Friday and Saturday after the MTSU match were off days, and gave Wolke the chance to visit family.
Saturday morning, Wolke and his dad, Max, played “H-O-R-S-E” until about noon. Afterward, Max Wolke went inside to get a drink.
He came back and playfully bumped into Wolke’s shoulder.
“Sissy,” Max Wolke teased.
But the bump caused Wolke to groan and grab the back of his head.
Max Wolke asked what was going on.
“‘That defensive end, Dad, when he hit me it was like a train,’” Max Wolke recalls his son saying. “‘I saw white lights.’”
Wolke admitted having trouble with headaches and memory.
Fearing another concussion, Max Wolke applied pressure: “Look, you tell the coaches or I will,” he said.
But Wolke also felt the pressure to play.
“It was everything: teammates, family, coaches, wanting to win,” he said. “I didn’t want to seem like I could take a hit and not be able to play.”
He’d beaten injuries before, even a concussion in high school. He had to sit out a season after transferring from Notre Dame. He’d recovered from a shoulder surgery to win his starting spot.
Yet Wolke listened to his dad. He waited a day and then came forward.
Wolke told Edwards the Monday after the MTSU game that he’d been hiding his troubles with memory and disorientation, both said.
Edwards said he wasn’t mad, but frustrated, which is what happens any time he discovers a player trying to push through injury.
“You wonder if you could’ve done something more for them,” Edwards said. “We try to tell them if you want to play, you have to get healthy and get treated. I have to make that judgment call every day.”
Wolke said after his recovery that he felt safe at Western and thought highly of the medical staff.
He said his concussion, like many, couldn’t have been prevented.
He said it affected his play, but he didn’t know to what extent.
“I’m not the type to make excuses,” Wolke said.
After MTSU, Wolke was held out of Western’s next game at Bowling Green State and played only two series at the Ball State game a week later.
Edwards said he noticed that Wolke seemed goofy and was acting like himself again.
He started the next week, and in the last three games would shine, piloting the Toppers through more big drives that would contribute to consecutive victories.
The glorious beginning would continue.
Reach Corey Paul at news@chherald.com.
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