This year, Lakeside’s football team managed to achieve only 20 or so concussions. While the Athletics Department wasn’t exactly sure which of the injuries were concussions and which were just “cranial trauma,” it made for a record low, second only to last year’s numbers, which were skewed by the COVID pandemic and don’t count. In an all-school email on March 32, the Athletics Department noted that this was a miraculous turn of events and would hopefully encourage those who have not taken up the sport to do so.

“This is a new and safer era for football,” they said in their statement to parents and guardians. They also noted that “seeing these new statistics should encourage participation” in the sport, which has often experienced a difficult time recruiting athletes. This year, for example, there were barely enough players to fuel both a varsity and JV team. 

However, despite encouragement from the Athletics Department, football sign-ups still remain worryingly low, primarily due to parents’ reluctance to put their children in a sport where they have a 50% chance of getting a concussion.