My problem was, I stayed in the game.”

Connor Sieben

PORTSMOUTH — Connor Sieben can no longer break a tackle or crash the boards, but he’s not out of the game altogether.
On Sunday, he and his friends were running up and down the courts inside the Portsmouth High School field house — not with a basketball, but a Frisbee.
For his senior project at PHS, Connor organized an ultimate Frisbee tournament — football with a flying disc — to raise money for the Seeing Stars Foundation.
“It’s an organization that promotes research and awareness for concussions,” said Connor.
Unfortunately, it’s a subject with which he’s all too familiar.
“I’ve had four concussions myself,” said Connor, who once played both football and basketball for PHS. “And my aunt is recovering from a concussion as well.”
Connor’s high school athletic career was over not long after it began. “In my freshman year I got a concussion, and then another one in my sophomore year,” he said.
Added his mom, Bonnie, “In one play, he got hit twice. It was like, ‘Boom’ and then ‘Boom.’”
“My problem was, I stayed in the game,” said Connor.
And that was the beginning of the end, said his mom. “He couldn’t play football after that,” she said.
Connor missed a couple months of school as he recovered.
“It was a very trying process to get him back,” said Ms. Sieben. “I brought him to at least seven different neurologists and honestly they were a waste of time. All they wanted to do was medicate him. He was 16, 17 at the time. I didn’t put him on any medication; he’s a teenager and all the side effects were depression and this and that.”
Eventually, Connor wound up at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, “where I should have gone from the beginning,” Ms. Seiben said.
This is your brain
The doctors at Hasbro explained everything clearly to Connor, such as likening a concussion to putting jello in a glass jar and shaking it, she said.
There’s not much you can do for a concussion except do nothing at all.
“All those MRIs he had done, that’s only to see if his brain is bleeding,” said Ms. Seiben. “But they can’t see inside of your brain to see anything else. The rest is just time and rest — sitting in a dark room, not being on your phone, not being on your computer. And stimulation that gets your brain going is not good.”
For Connor’s fund-raiser, PHS allowed him the use of the gym, and donations of pizza and doughnuts were made by North End Pizzeria and Dunkin’ Donuts, respectively.
Ms. Seiben built teenage-friendly raffle baskets around gift cards that were donated by Wal-Mart, Stop & Shop and Clements’ Marketplace, where Connor works.
Connor, who says he’s “a lot better now,” plans on attending the Community College of Rhode Island next fall and hopes to study business someday.
He still misses competitive sports, but knows his health comes first.
“It’s rough, but that’s why I chose Frisbee, because it’s a non-contact sport.”
For more information about the nonprofit Seeing Stars Fondation, visit www.seeingstarsfoundation.org.