Seven games into the season, diagnosed concussions among Western’s football players were triple the total number diagnosed last season, according to records provided by Head Athletic Trainer Bill Edwards on Oct. 22. The number of cases rose from four diagnosed last season to 12 diagnosed this season.

Edwards would not provide any numbers for games after that date. He had said a week earlier he was unsure what was causing the increase.

The sports medicine team said they were concerned by the increase because it involves the brain. The injuries, if treated improperly, put athletes at risk for more severe injury.

“We’ve had some doozies this season,” team physician Dr. Craig Beard said. “I don’t know why we have such a problem but we do.”

After providing the records, Edwards refused all further requests for interviews and refused to release more details about concussions this season. Among those requested: the players’ names, who reported the injuries and the dates of diagnosis and return to play.

Initially, Edwards wrote in an e-mail, he declined to provide more records because he didn’t want to release players’ private information. Asked in a reply if he would provide information without names, he declined.

He asked that all further questions be asked by e-mail, but declined to answer any, also declining to provide the number of concussions since Oct. 22. Edwards also declined to say what trainers were doing to find the cause of the increase and curb more injuries.

“Bill’s been around long enough he’s a veteran of athletic training,” Athletics Director Wood Selig said. “I’m sure he’s got this issue well under control, so whether they’re public with their particular approach and strategies is of little concern to me.”

Pinpointing a cause of Western’s increase is difficult, said Gary Solomon, consulting neuropsychologist for the Tennessee Titans and team neuropsychologist for the Nashville Predators.

“First, I don’t think you can look at a single variable factor,” he said. “It has to be a multiplicity of factors.”

Solomon and two other experts pointed to two factors they’d look at first to explain a cause: players reporting more injuries and increased competition brought by the move to the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A).

Media attention and emerging research have created a greater national awareness, which might explain more player-reported injuries at Western, said Jamie Pardini, a neuropsychologist at the University of Pittsburgh who specializes in sports medicine.

Beard also said more players and teammates might be reporting concussions this season than before, and said there may have been just as many concussions in the past – just fewer reports.

Edwards declined to provide the number of concussions reported by players. He said on Oct. 18 that education efforts haven’t changed this season, but that teammates tipped trainers to head injuries in many of the diagnosed cases.

Chris Nowinski, a Harvard-educated professional wrestler whose career was ended by concussions, stated in an e-mail that the increased awareness and reporting by players was the most likely cause of the increase, followed by the division change.

Nowinski stated that the division move might be to blame because the better opponents are more likely to cause concussions than get them. Weaker players are often too slow to avoid or block hits, or are overpowered by them.

“Think of how much the varsity kills the younger scout team in practice,” he stated.

Solomon agreed.

“The size of the field hasn’t changed; the size of the player has,” Solomon said. “If the size of the field hasn’t changed but the mass of the player has, they’re going to generate more force.

“The force of impacts are increasing because players are bigger, faster and stronger.”

Head coach David Elson said on Oct. 25 that criticism saying that more players are getting concussions because of the move is “completely without merit.”

Teams on every level of play are getting bigger, not just FBS teams, Elson said.

And so are the hits, he said.

Western didn’t research the effect of a division move on injuries, Selig said. No major studies are known that have examined the effect of greater competition on concussions.

By Oct. 22, all six concussions that players suffered during games were in FBS games, according to injury records.

Edwards referred to this on Oct. 18, but said concussions in FBS games didn’t necessarily implicate the move because the remaining concussions happened at practice.

Several studies show that symptoms aren’t always shown at the time of injury.

One 2005 study monitored hits using helmets with sensors in them, called the Head Impact Telemetry system. It found that in most concussion cases, a player suffered a second hit within 48 hours of the hit that resulted in a concussion diagnosis, reported Nowinski’s book “Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis.”

Beard agreed with the possibility that concussions diagnosed at practice were the result of multiple impacts or late-emerging symptoms, but said that the division move was probably not to blame.

“I think it would be too easy of an assumption,” Beard said. “Number one, we’ve played I-A teams before. And they’re not that much bigger.”

He and Edwards pointed at other possibilities they’d discussed: Nine of the players who had gotten concussion had been wearing the new Riddell “RevolutionT” helmets designed specifically to prevent concussions, but numerous studies show that equipment isn’t enough to prevent a concussion.

“Some of these hits are going to cause it no matter what,” Edwards said.

He doesn’t think he’s been catching more of the injuries than before.

“It’s not like I’ve been watching them more closely,” Edwards said. “I don’t know why.”

Trainer Sheri Harris was moved from women’s soccer this season to cover football full time with Edwards. But two trainers were usually present at games before, Edwards said. And Harris, who referred questions to Edwards, was often one of them.

Experts offered more possible variables that included harder turf, tackling techniques and drier weather.

Experts also said the increase in concussion cases could be a fluke.

Selig and other Western officials agreed.

“In three years if we’re having 14 or 15 concussions each year, yeah, maybe there’s a trend,” Selig said. “Maybe there’s something that needs to be analyzed.”

Increases in injuries tend to come in cycles at Western, athletic officials said.

“Some years, it’s ankles,” Edwards said. “This year it’s concussions.”

In past seasons, the sports medicine team has met trends with techniques to prevent the injuries, Beard said.

In a past season with a lot of leg cramps, that meant looking at players’ fluid intake, Beard said. In one with hamstring injuries, it meant looking at stretching technique.

Selig said he trusted trainers and physicians to handle concussions, too.

“If it was a big issue, if it was an issue of grave concern to our doctors or athletic trainers, something we need to address, they would have brought it to my attention,” Selig said. “They have not.”

Reach Corey Paul at news@chherald.com.