By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – High school football players will be hitting the practice field soon to prepare for a new season with new rules in place designed to limit head injuries.

The Illinois High School Association adopted new rules this year which limit full-contact practices during the preseason and regular season.

Bloomington doctor John Wieland told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin parents have to weigh the risks of allowing their child to play.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Wieland on WJBC.

“The equipment is well tested, it’s relatively safe and you are talking about a small percentage (of those with head injuries), but the risk is there,” WIeland said.

Wieland noted football is not the only sport where athletes can get head injuries. He said soccer players are also at risk because they don’t wear any protective head gear, especially when they hit the ball with their head.

Wieland said we know more about head injuries now than we did when he played high school football in the 1970s, but equipment hasn’t dramatically improved in that time.

“They’ve tried helmet sensors, they’ve tried mouthguard apparatus that has sensors in it,” Wieland said. “All the research hasn’t made as many of the advances they we’d like to think, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in research.”

Wieland notes injuries to the head take longer to heal than most other injuries because the brain is not as resilient as other organs in the body. He recommends any who suffers a head injury rest the brain and the body.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].