How do families with concussion concerns pick sports?

When Generation X athletes were taking their first steps onto America's fields, courts and gyms in the 1970s, talk of concussion prevention was nonexistent in youth sports.

Fast forward to 2014. Baseline concussion testing and research initiatives, such as the Healthy Kids and Safe Sports Concussion Summit hosted by President Obama in May, are informing coaches and parents about the consequences of concussions and preventive measures to take.

Recently, for example, participation in youth football has taken a hit. Enrollment in Pop Warner, the largest youth football program in the country, has decreased by nearly 9.6% since 2010. Some experts attribute this drop to the increased awareness of the consequences of concussions. A 2012 study by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) found that football players sustain the most concussions of all high school-aged athletes, with 11.2 concussions reported per 10,000 athletic exposures.

Gymnastics, in the last decade, saw a sharp uptick in concussion frequency. From 1998-2004, the average rate of concussion per 10,000 athletic exposures was 1.6, according to Clinics in Sports Medicine. From 2004-11, that rate for gymnastics spiked to 7 concussions per 10,000 athletic exposures, according to a study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

Soccer is the highest risk sport of concussions for girls, with 6.7 reported injuries per 10,000 athletic exposures, according to the 2012 NAS study.

In swimming, the incidence of concussions is only 1 out of every 100,000 athletic exposures, according to a study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2011.

Lacrosse trails only football in terms of concussion risk, with 6.9 reported for every 10,000 athletic exposures, according to the 2012 NAS study.

Basketball is the second-highest concussion risk sport for girls, with 5.6 reported for every 10,000 athletic exposures, the 2012 NAS study showed. That's double the rate for boys basketball. .

With the influx of data on concussions, how do families sort through the statistics and decide what sports they will allow their children to play?

Take a look at how these families made their decisions.

FOOTBALL

Jared Morson, 13, is obsessed with football. The Olney, Md., native fell in love with Joe Paterno's Penn State Nittany Lions at a young age, and it didn't take long for him to start tossing the pigskin with his father, Jeff.

"He is the epitome of a 13-year-old football junkie," his father says. "He just loves the game."

Morson started playing tackle football at 7 for the Howard County (Md.) Terps. He began at center but got tired of blocking for everybody, his father said. Morson now plays quarterback and recently was invited to the National Underclassmen Elite 100 Camp at the University of Oklahoma in Norman as one of the nation's top 100 developing players.

The family believes Morson, at 11, did suffer a concussion, but not from football. His father says Morson and another child were on the playground and banged heads. The nurse sent them home, concerned they both might have had concussions. "He was fine the next day," Jeff Morson says of his son.

But Morson is prone to migraines, which makes it difficult for his parents to determine the extent of his injuries after he gets hit in football.

Despite that, and the new information that has come to light about concussions, Morson's parents agree they would never dare take their son out of a sport that he loves so dearly.

"Every play makes me nervous, though," says his mother, Michelle, "because you never know."

GYMNASTICS

Aleka Frazier, 10, of Bethesda, Md., got her first exposure to gymnastics in the backyard. After learning how to do a cartwheel from her mother, Marie, a former cheerleader, Frazier was hooked. She has delved into tumbling now that other sports she plays are on hiatus for the summer.

Frazier says she owes much of her passion for gymnastics to Gabby Douglas'gold medal performance in the all-around event at the 2012 London Summer Games. Before long, Frazier was cartwheeling through the house.

She is now getting her first exposure to some of the sport's trickier apparatus, such as the beam and vault. "I like the vault because I get to run fast and then I get to fly in the air," she says. "But sometimes I'm wondering, 'Oh, what happens if I don't land this?'"

So far, it's nothing more than bumps and bruises — except when she was learning back handsprings. "I've landed on my head and on multiple parts of my body. But I've been able to recover," she says.

Her parents, naturally, worry about her safety. "Hopefully (Aleka) doesn't end up with a concussion," Her mother says. "But I'm not God. I don't know what could happen ahead of time."

SOCCER

The Willings of Arlington, Va., are a soccer family. Both girls, Nicole, 15, and Danielle, 13, play for DC Stoddert Soccer, the largest youth sports organization in Washington, D.C. Their mother, Joy, a former high school player, plays for two women's recreational leagues.

Nicole got into the sport first when she started kicking the ball around on school and neighborhood teams at 5.

Many experts attribute concussions in soccer to improper technique when heading the ball and poor neck strength. To reduce injury, DC Stoddert Soccer doesn't teach heading until ages 11-12.

Critics of the sport say heading should be eliminated altogether. Joy Willing, DC Stoddert Soccer's girls' travel commissioner and a recreational youth soccer coach, disagrees. "It is a necessary thing to know for the game," she says. "And if you don't teach it, the kids are going to do it anyway."

When it comes to her girls getting injured, Joy doesn't fret over headers, noting her girls' strength and the quality of DC Stoddert Soccer's coaches. Instead, she worries about their knees.

"Just from crashes, collisions, falling, you worry about that with girls a lot," she says.

Danielle "plays through pain and we are still trying to figure that out," says her mother. "We've come to the conclusion that she has a fairly high pain threshold."

SWIMMING

The Seliskar family of Arlington, Va., lives a chlorinated life. Stephen, 20, swims for Purdue University. Andrew, 17, a rising high school senior, is one of the most sought-after swimmers in the nation — recruiting website collegeswimming.com ranks him third for the class of 2015.

The brothers' first exposure to sports, though, came from soccer. Both began playing at 6.

"Soccer is great for fitness at the sandlot level. But at 14 and above ... it becomes scary rough as a parent," says their dad, Dan. "I can recall one (14-and-under) game where a parent of the opposing team was screaming at his child to 'take out' my son when he was on a breakaway."

Both his sons picked swimming as their primary sport when they were 13 or 14.

"I am so glad my kids chose swimming," Dad says.

LACROSSE

Isaac Aronson, 12, is a sports connoisseur. The Bethesda, Md., native has tried everything from jazz dancing to baseball, karate and soccer. But lacrosse is his passion.

Aronson started lacrosse in kindergarten for a recreational league aimed at teaching basic stick-handling. When he got to second grade, his lacrosse coaches started to introduce checking. He was hooked.

"He's a hitter," said his dad, Lou. "He loves the physical contact."

The parents understand that hitting is a necessary component of lacrosse. "You just know that somebody is going to get his bell rung," says Lou.

In 2012, Aronson had his first concussion. While he was bending down to scoop up the ball, an opponent illegally crosschecked him across the crown of his head. Aronson slammed backwards into the turf field and lost consciousness.

The family spent the rest of the afternoon in the emergency room. "That night I spent about two or three hours learning everything I needed to know about concussions that I was too afraid to ask," Lou says.

The parents pulled their son out of school for a month. "I spent most of my time sitting in a chair in the dark," Aronson says.

When he finally got clearance to return to lacrosse three months later, he was noticeably cautious on the field, according to his parents. But within a couple of games, he returned to his truculent playing style.

"I put myself in a situation to help the team," he says, "so if it's taking a hit, it's taking a hit."

GOLF

The Caldwell children of Pineville, Ky., practically grew up on the golf course. Their father, Donnie, has been the resident PGA Professional at the local Wasioto Winds golf course for 13 years.

As a veteran of the cut-throat environment of junior golf, Donnie turned to the First Tee, an international youth organization that promotes life skills and leadership through golf.

The Caldwells enrolled their eldest son, Austin, 18, at First Tee of Pine Mountain in 2000. "I just jumped right in," he says.

But he was never a single sport athlete. At 5 he began playing tackle football.

In Kentucky, high school golf and football are played during the same season. As a freshman, Austin opted for football. Not long after, he sustained his first concussion when he was knocked down during a game.

"Definitely the parent button goes off and you're extremely hopeful they're okay," Donnie says.

Then, just one year later, Austin had his second concussion, after taking a particularly forceful hit to the helmet. He insisted on playing but was benched by the coaches for the rest of the game.

During his junior season of football, Austin suffered a torn shoulder labrum, requiring surgery and an extensive recovery process. The football injury bled over into his golf game, forcing him to reconstruct his swing.

As senior year approaches, Austin is hoping to earn a golf scholarship.

"We love watching him under the Friday night lights," his dad says, "but we also understand that he needs to have wellness for life."

BASKETBALL

Emily Durkee, 11, of Elk Ridge, Md., has been playing basketball since joining a co-ed league at 4. Her mother, Carol, is a former basketball player at Wayne State College.

In third grade, Emily started playing for an all-girls travel league. By sixth grade she had quit travel soccer to focus exclusively on basketball.

"I really want to play for a good high school and hopefully get drafted into the WNBA," says Emily, who just broke 5 feet tall.

As her coach the past four years, her mom has noticed the dynamic on the court change as girls hit their growth spurts. "The game has gotten pretty physical," she says, "even at the sixth, seventh and eighth grade level."