Toby Brooks

Sean's AT knew him because he'd worked with him in rehabilitating his injuries or maybe even just being in the locker room, the training room or the weight room.

So when Sean's personality changed and those lingering symptoms of concussion triggered anxiety and mood changes in him, his AT noticed.

And that matters more than most people might realize.

At the college level, especially within organizations like the NCAA, access to ATs has thankfully become the norm.

The vast majority of NCAA programs have dedicated sports medicine staffs assigned to their teams, and that kind of coverage is expected today.

Now, admittedly, many staffs tend to be overextended and underfunded, but at least someone's there.

But if we zoom out for a second, we realize that Sean's story could have easily happened a few years earlier in high school.

And that's where the gap becomes impossible to ignore.

Across the U.S., nearly 8 million high school athletes compete each year through the National Federation of High School State Associations.

That's millions of kids.

Same collision, same risk, same stakes.

But only about two-thirds of high schools have access to a full-time athletic trainer.

And roughly 30% of schools have no athletic trainer at all.

Not full-time, not part-time, none.

So think about that.

What Sean had, someone embedded, someone who knew him well enough to notice subtle changes.

Unfortunately, that's not a universal standard.

For millions of young athletes, it's an exception.

Nobody's tracking their baseline.

Nobody's recognizing when something seems off.