Guest columnist Ken Wood is the director of communications for Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio and a board member for Footpath Foundation. He has spent his entire life playing and coaching sports.

We were playing a zone pass defense. I recognized the draw play with the fullback, a guy our high school scouting report described as “powerful.”

I dove at his ankles, but miscalculated. His knee struck the front of my helmet, sending my head backward to a second collision with the ground.

I don’t recall how I got off the field. I sort of remember people holding up fingers in front of me and asking me where I was.

I do remember going back in the game. The saying back then was that I “just got my bell rung.”

One year later, I got hit in the face with a thrown ball and was knocked unconscious during college fall baseball practice. I landed in the hospital with head injuries and a broken jaw.

Two days passed before my coach called to check on me.

It has taken a while, but we sure have changed our mindset about concussions in sports.

Today, the risk of head injuries weighs heavily on parents when they consider the athletics options for their kids.

A concussion — a type of traumatic brain injury that occurs when the brain is jolted or hit — has short-term symptoms impacting concentration, memory and balance, as well as longer-term effects that include the possibility of reduced cognitive performance.

Playing sports is one of the most common ways for young people to be concussed.

Advances in awareness, medicine, protective equipment and training are making athletic fields and courts safer. But for families, the risks have to be considered before the first practice, the first physical, the first fee.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contact sports are associated with 45 percent of all emergency department visits for sports- and recreation-related traumatic brain injuries and concussions among children 17 and younger.

The CDC says the youth sports with the highest rates of concussion are:

• Boys’ tackle football (with tackling responsible for 63 percent of all concussions in high school football)
•  Girls’ soccer
• Boys’ lacrosse
• Boys’ ice hockey
• Boys’ wrestling (with 59 percent of all concussions in high school wrestling caused by takedowns).

Complicating the athletics participation decisions for parents and children is that girls may experience sports-related concussions differently than boys. According to the CDC, girls have a higher chance of sports-related concussion than boys in sports that use the same rules, such as soccer and basketball.

In addition, concussion symptoms that affect mental health are more common in girls.

With all the new information, the play-a-sport decision is a tougher one for parents today. But the new safety measures taken by schools and youth sports groups are helping mitigate the risks.

And the rewards are significant.

I am a huge believer in the value of team sports. In many ways, it is hard to duplicate the lessons you learn about discipline, teamwork, effort and the ability to overcome failure.

I loved my experience. At the same time, I always wonder what impact concussions had or will have on my life. I’ve battled depression. Is that a result of the concussions? What might be next?

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) tracked MRI and PET brain scan data over time from adults who had a concussion about 20 years earlier and compared results to participants with no concussion.

According to the NIA study, those who were concussed had more noticeable levels of white matter damage that remained through follow-up visits and showed differences in brain activity.

There is risk in everything we do, including playing sports. And while we are still learning about the impact of head injuries, it is safe to say we no longer dismiss a concussion as a bell that just got rung.

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