Nowinski's mission: Reduce the impact of concussions

Chris Nowinski is likely to see a few familiar faces when he returns to his old stomping grounds tonight at Hersey High School.

But the former Hersey football and basketball star may not recognize all of them - and it's not necessarily because he graduated in 1996.

That inability is a big reason Nowinski is returning to talk about the way young athletes should deal with concussions and the potentially damaging effects. Not only is the public invited - young athletes in sports at risk for concussions and their parents would be strongly encouraged to attend at 7 p.m. today at Hersey's Ken Carter Gymnasium (doors open at 6:30).

"I'm not as smart as I used to be and I'm mentally fatigued more easily," Nowinski said last week of the effects of concussions he suffered while playing football at Harvard and during his brief career as a professional wrestler. "I can't remember things other people can. I can't remember faces at all - of people who have met me 10 times."

Yet, all of this has also had a positive effect on Nowinski and others.

He's written a book, "Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis. " He co-founded "The Sports Legacy Institute" out of Boston University, which is dedicated to studying the effects of concussions and other sports-related brain injuries

But Nowinski isn't trying to stop anyone from playing the same sports he loved.

"I have a certain credibility because they know I fought the battles and lived the consequences," Nowinski said. "They know it's not just somebody saying you shouldn't fall down so you skin your knee.

"I'm not telling anyone to not do anything except when you recognize you have a concussion to take a few days off."

A big part of Nowinski's message is breaking the macho athletic culture of toughing it out and playing through the kind of pain which could seriously mess with your mind.

It did with Nowinski.

He didn't have to worry about it when he played at Hersey since he was bigger than almost everyone else.

He did suffer a couple of concussions during an all-Ivy League football career at Harvard.

From there he went on to international fame as he became World Wrestling Entertainment star Chris Harvard, who was one of those guys everyone loved to hate. But in a tag-team match in 2003, he took a kick to the head and suffered a concussion.

Nowinski thought it was a meaningless ding. He continued to wrestle for five more months, even though it was clear from the fuzziness he had there was something seriously wrong.

He finally had to stop wrestling as his post-concussion syndrome worsened. He suffered memory trouble, sleep problems and depression. His headaches have finally become manageable after five years.

"When the last one lingered my doctors asked me how many concussions I had and my answer was zero," Nowinski said of what was actually around a half-dozen. "I really had no idea how often it happened to me."

So, Nowinski started making it his mission to find out more about sports-related head injuries and to get the message out to the masses.

Nowinski has become a nationally known with his push to make the NFL, NHL and WWE change certain rules. He found repetitive head injuries in sports can lead to an Alzheimer's-like disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

And Nowinski was glad Hersey assistant principal John Novak was receptive to his return to express his concerns. Nowinski said awareness at the high school level has been spotty but he did speak at a high school north of San Francisco where a couple of kids had to drop out because of concussions.

He'll talk about how former WWE star Chris Benoit killed himself and his family. How former NFL star Andre Waters killed himself and how former NFL lineman Tom McHale's acute case of CTE led to depression and drug use to quell his pain resulted in his death from an accidental overdose at 45.

"The message starts with my story and an open discussion of the consequences of years of not taking care of concussions," Nowinski said. "We're trying to get people's attention who remember these players as big, strong stars and they destroyed their lives and their families' lives.

"We show images of what their brain looks like and provide information on how to approach the injury and what to do."

Pretty good timing considering high school football season starts Friday night.

"We sell the kids on taking themselves out of games, but the biggest sell is taking your friends out when they've suffered a concussion," Nowinski said. "If you can go over to whisper to the trainer or coach that he's got a problem, everybody wins."

Especially since Chris Nowinski knows what can be lost.

mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com