Nichols College Athletics

On Sunday, January 24^th, Sports Legacy Institute founder Chris Nowinski visited the Nichols College campus and delivered his message on one of the most current and popular topics in sports: concussions.

The Sports Legacy Institute (SLI) was founded in 2007 with the purpose of solving the sports concussion crisis. Recently, Nowinski has spoken in front of Congress about making football safer from head injuries, expanded SLI into helping military veterans and was crucial in getting the NFL to mandate that a player cannot re-enter a game in which he has been concussed. The primary focus of SLI is the research of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE which is a condition caused by repetitive concussive and sub-concussive brain injuries.

Nowinski talked to student-athletes about his own past experiences with concussions from being a Division I college football player at Harvard and a professional wrestler in the WWE. He informed students about his numerous concussions and how he didn’t take them seriously enough by not reporting his symptoms thus, causing further injury.

Students were encouraged to bring light to this topic because as Nowinski said, "The symptoms are not always visible." He urged students to talk to coaches and be up front about the symptoms that they may be experiencing after a concussion since the odds of another concussion are multiplied if one doesn’t take the necessary time off to rest and heal.

"It opened up a lot of people’s eyes to the seriousness of a concussion" said junior Matt Philbrick, who is a safety on the Bison football team. "Being a football player, I can relate to his own experiences."

"We wanted an educational presentation from someone in an athlete’s shoes." said Bill Coffey, Director of Sports Medicine at Nichols College, who was the main force behind Nowinski’s visit to campus. "The biggest thing we wanted to do was supply information for those who needed to get the word."

The presentation by Nowinski was the second this year initiated by Coffey, who also brought in Leslie Bonci, one of the country’s most recognized sports nutritionists to speak to student-athletes in September.

In upcoming programming, Dr. Joel Fish from the Center for Sports Psychology will be on campus to speak to administrators, coaches and student-athletes on Tuesday, January 26^th. During an afternoon session, Dr. Fish will engage staff in a presentation on "Who today’s student athlete is and how it pertains to coaching burnout". In two afternoon sessions for student-athletes, Dr. Fish will focus on "Mental Skills for Peak Performance" and "Gaining the Mental Edge/the STAR System."

SLI Website