Susan Johnson, a Fredonia resident and mother of a Fredonia football player who was injured last Friday, highlighted the district’s issues with injury procedure transparency and injury prevention measures.
Voices of concern echoed through the Fredonia High School library at a Board of Education meeting just days after the sound of a Fredonia football player’s agony while laying on the ground reverberated to the sidelines at the school’s football game Sept. 22.
“I want to know that my child’s health and well-being is paramount at Fredonia High School,” said Fredonia resident and parent Susan Johnson, Ph.D.
Last Friday night at the Orange Bowl, Fredonia starting quarterback Davion White suffered what appeared to be a serious upper body injury early in the fourth quarter against Portville. But as scary as the injury was, it was not the only injury suffered in the contest.
Another key injury in the game was sustained by Jameson Quinn, the team’s leading rusher on the night. Despite the majority of his prior experience at wide receiver, Quinn was the starting running back in the game due to injury of another player.
Quinn is Dr. Johnson’s son. He and his older sister, Mackenzie, both played sports throughout their time at Fredonia. Their mother, Johnson, is also a graduate of Fredonia High School in the Class of 1993.
Marie Persch, a Fredonia resident, mother of former Fredonia High School athletes, and former Athletic Director at Brocton High School, urged the Board of Education to emphasize injury prevention in district athletic competitions.
Johnson told the board that Quinn left the game after his head hit the ground, then returned to the game after sitting out for a few plays. He then suffered additional hits to the head and signaled to be taken out of the game.
“Once on the sidelines, he was tended to by multiple coaches — and I need to state that the coaches did exactly what they needed to do in this instance,” Johnson said.
Coaches are trained on a variety of health-related measures, including what to do when a concussion is sustained. Still, they are coaches, not doctors. Fredonia head coach Greg Sherlock stated he would defer to medical professionals for a timeline on any of his injured players after Friday’s game.
“I wouldn’t play a kid unless they were 100% ready. That can hurt you mentally, and it can hurt them. I don’t want to do that,” Sherlock said after the game.
After the conclusion of Friday’s game, Quinn visited Oishei Children’s Hospital in Buffalo, where he was diagnosed with a concussion. “I can do that,” Johnson said of taking her son to Buffalo for evaluation. “There are many parents who can’t.”
Fredonia football captains Davion White (2), Simon Price (72), Sam Atzrott (20), and Jameson Quinn (5) went out for the opening coin toss last Friday night against Portville. Atzrott did not play because of injury; Quinn sustained a concussion during the game; and White left the field in an ambulance due to an upper body injury that halted play for nearly 20 minutes.
Quinn and White both will not play in tonight’s game.
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Less than a year after Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field during a game due to cardiac arrest after significant contact to his chest, a Fredonia High School athlete was laying on the Orange Bowl field surrounded by coaches from both teams, and eventually, Emergency Medical Technicians. The player, White, was then lifted onto a stretcher and wheeled nearly 100 yards across the length of the field and into the ambulance parked on the other side of the community’s beloved, yet notably flawed venue.
But first, EMTs at the game had to attend to a fan in the stands as White was laying on the field receiving medical attention from coaches of both teams. Additionally, Quinn suffered multiple blows to the head and was later diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.
“Injury prevention measures need to be implemented immediately — full stop,” Johnson said. “This includes the hiring of a certified athletic trainer.”
Emergency Medical Technicians wheeled Fredonia quarterback Davion White across the Orange Bowl field last Friday to an ambulance parked on the other side of the field after White suffered an upper body injury.
Photos by Braden Carmen
Despite coaches being urged to look for signs of a concussion, and Emergency Medical Technicians in attendance across the field near the entrance of the Orange Bowl, there was no trained medical professional on the sideline at the game to evaluate Quinn for a concussion. He was formally evaluated for a concussion at Oishei approximately seven hours after the hits to his head.
“I understand the inherent danger for my son in playing a high-risk contact sport. I accept all the consequences that come from playing, but what I cannot and will not accept is this district’s inability to follow best practices when it comes to surveillance efforts and injury intervention for developing athletes,” Johnson said.
Johnson highlighted that by searching the district’s website for its concussion protocols, the link she followed was not active. Since highlighting the issue, the district website has corrected the matter, with links to the Concussion Management Policy, Concussion Checklist, and Physician Evaluation Form now accessible online at www.fredonia.wnyric.org/page/concussions
“This is something that our board doesn’t review as often as we should,” Board of Education President Brian Aldrich said.
Fredonia Superintendent Brad Zilliox later told the OBSERVER, “We have corrected the links on our website to accurately reflect the procedures and protocols that are in place when injuries occur. We are also communicating with our coaches as a reminder of what steps need to be taken when these situations arise. We have an outstanding coaching staff that puts students first and has a genuine concern for student well-being.”
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The Fredonia administration and its Board of Education have had multiple discussions regarding safety for its athletes in the past year. Since the alarming injury to Hamlin caught the attention of the nation, Fredonia has purchased 10 automated external defibrillator (AED) machines at a cost not to exceed $18,000. The total of portable AED machines in the district after the purchase now sits at 12, which equals the maximum number of sports teams the district has at any point in the year.
“I would just like to reiterate how grateful we are that this issue was brought to us,” Board of Education member Lisa Powell Fortna said of the public outcry for increased safety at the time of the AED purchase approval. “We do definitely appreciate the public raising issues to us, so we can have a conversation and prioritize something that we think is this critical.”
Zilliox also stated, to the OBSERVER, “We prioritize safety as a district and are always concerned any time a student is injured, whether it is attached to our athletic program or not. We also appreciate parents coming forward to have their voices heard through the established channels. The feedback we get from outside of our schools and district is important to us as it provides a chance to reflect on where things stand, and what needs to be done moving forward.”
The Board of Education at Fredonia is filled with members who have close personal connections to athletics within the district. Board member Sheila Hahn’s son, Michael, is a senior on the football team this year. Board of Education Vice President Steven Johnston is the football team’s special teams coach. Various other members of the board have family members who are current or former athletes at Fredonia, as well.
However, an athletic trainer has not been hired, despite the district having opportunities to allocate funding toward a full-time trainer position throughout budget discussions. The district even returned a portion of the taxes raised back to taxpayers because the school received an increase in New York state aid.
Fredonia Athletic Director Greg Lauer said in January, “Dr. Zilliox and I are exploring every option out there. There are a lot of different ways you can get an athletic trainer, and we’re going to try to work with the (Board of Education) to see what we can do to make that happen in the future.”
Fredonia is among many schools looking to address the need for an athletic trainer. Jamestown High School hired a trainer, Keiona Nance, to a full-time position after struggling to find trainers to work at a per diem rate. Nance works at both home and away games for all sports, prioritizing the sport deemed the biggest risk of serious injury.
“The only way to have a trainer present for us was to hire one full time,” said Jamestown Athletic Director Ben Drake.
Dunkirk and Silver Creek share an athletic trainer, Erik Barkley, through an agreement with BOCES. Barkley previously worked as a trainer for SUNY Fredonia. However, sharing a trainer still puts many athletes — and their district — at risk, because many high-risk sporting events, especially football games, are held at the same time. Having one trainer for two schools only addresses one need at the time.
Gowanda has recently begun contracting services for an athletic trainer on a per diem basis, but the district has already been urged from its administration to evaluate expanding to a part-time or full-time position as a means of retention. Gowanda was one of multiple schools who were said to have expressed interest in sharing an athletic trainer through BOCES, but there were not enough qualified trainers who applied for the position.
Zilliox told the OBSERVER, “For our football games in particular, we now have paid EMTs and emergency support from the Fredonia Fire Department on site as well as volunteers. Since this is a new arrangement, we are collaborating with the department to determine how we can best work together to support both students and adults at our games. Additionally, we will continue to explore options for how an athletic trainer can be involved with our district in the future. Some of the challenges here relate to the current availability of trainers, especially in Chautauqua County.”
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Johnson was not the only Fredonia resident to speak at the recent Board of Education meeting. Following her was Marie Persch, a 1991 graduate of Fredonia High School, and the parent of three former Fredonia athletes. Persch was also previously the Athletic Director at Brocton Central School.
“I was lucky enough to have my three boys play sports here and love it … and lucky enough that none of them ever got severely hurt,” Persch said. “It’s imperative that you, as a board, take a look at the opportunities that you have to keep our children safe, on and off the field.”
While Persch was serving as Athletic Director at Brocton, Damon Janes, a 16-year-old Brocton football player, tragically died because of a head injury suffered during a game.
“I can tell you from personal experience that it will be very difficult for you to personally recover from a child that doesn’t come back,” Persch said.
Persch fought back tears as she described how she was triggered by last week’s events. The 10-year anniversary of Janes’ death was less than two weeks prior to Friday’s game against Portville, the same program that opposed the Westfield-Brocton football team Janes played for the night of his fatal injury.
“All I thought was, ‘How are we helping our athletes, how are we helping our parents, how are we helping our future athletes if we’re not doing our part to keep them safe?’ That is our job here, that is one of the many jobs we have here besides educating them,” Persch said.
With their comments, Persch and Johnson shared the same sentiment as residents of Fredonia, as parents of current or former athletes, and as viewers of athletic competitions. They want more done by the district to protect their athletes.
“We elected you to make sound decisions on behalf of our families,” Johnson said. “The expectation is that you will.”
