Loyalist Lancer still barred from play after concussion

Kylea Galipeau-Wilson (second from the right) celebrates with her teammates in 2013. Photo via Facebook

By Buckley Smith

BELLEVILLE – A Loyalist Lancer female basketball player has been sidelined after suffering a concussion in a tournament last Friday at Durham College.

Kylie Galipeau-Wilson, a pre-health student at Loyalist, said she did not initially feel the effects of a concussion after hitting her head off the floor in a miscommunicated play which resulted in her running into one of her teammates.

“It didn’t feel like I had a concussion,” said Galipeau-Wilson, “It felt more like I just had a bump on my head.”

Following the incident, she said she was taken off the court and assessed by Durham College’s athletic therapist.

The therapist put her through multiple concussions tests and she said he was satisfied that she was not concussed.

Once she was cleared to return to the game, her coach, Jamie McCourt, asked her to do some light drills before he felt she could go back on the court.

“We wanted to see if there were any repercussions, and she said there were none,” said McCourt.

After the game, Galipeau-Wilson told her coach she was getting an increasingly worse headache.

“She did say before that she had a light headache, like a three out of ten. But after the game she said it had gone up a little to like a five out of ten,” said McCourt. “So at that point the therapist said they were going to diagnose her with a mild concussion.”

Following a diagnosis of a concussion, Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association protocol bars concussed players from all team activities, including watching from the bench, until cleared by a physician.

McCourt said he was optimistic that it would fade away quickly, due to it being a mild concussion.

But after Galipeau-Wilson attempted to study for a test on the following Sunday, and found it nearly impossible, they said they realized it could be worse than initially expected.

“I had to remember stuff for my biology test and I really just couldn’t remember them,” said Galipeau-Wilson.

As the day went on she said she began to feel the effects even more.

“My balance was off and it felt like the lights were really bright and I was in a fog,” she said, “It was like I was there but not there.”

The symptoms have since faded and she said she was able to return to classes on Wednesday, but she is still awaiting clearance from a physician.

Although McCourt said the waiting can be frustrating for the coach and player, the protocol is there for a reason. “I think there is frustrating aspects as coaches and players. We want them out there and they want to be out there. But ultimately we can’t see what is going on in the athletes brain and they need to be safe.”