Alex Pierscionek says he doesn’t remember anything about the concussion he allegedly received playing football for South Elgin High School. The former nose tackle recalls getting into a four-point stance during a preseason drill in 2012, and after that, waking up in a hospital.But according to a lawsuit Pierscionek, 19, has filed against the Illinois High School Association in January, he was staggered by a helmet-to-helmet collision during the drill but kept playing. A second blow caused him to collapse on the field and be airlifted to a nearby medical center.For months after that, he said, he was plagued by splitting headaches, mood changes, sensitivity to light and memory problems. It got so bad that he had to temporarily leave school to attend a behavioral health clinic.It was a wrenching experience. Yet the next fall, Pierscionek was once again putting on the pads.”I just loved football,” he said this week in his first interview about the lawsuit. “It gave me something to look forward to because I loved playing. I wanted to be out there, I wanted to be doing something. It gave me some confidence, and I really didn’t have a lot of that.”Pierscionek’s lawsuit accuses the IHSA of… Read full this story
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