SLP’s Ryan Bruce carries the puck during a game in Tupper Lake on Jan. 2, 2025. Bruce, who suffered a concussion in January, is involved with the concussion seminar. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — The public is invited to attend a concussion prevention seminar at the Lake Placid Middle-High School this upcoming week.

It’s slated to begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4, in the school’s auditorium, 50 Cummings Road, and will feature three presenters: Eugene Byrne, MD, an orthopedic surgeon with Lake Placid Sports Medicine and Adirondack Health; Dino Angelopoulos, a certified athletic trainer with Adirondack Health; and Michelle Kellen, a staff member with the Brain Injury Association of New York State (BIANYS).

The seminar is being co-hosted by BIANYS and the New York State Athletic Trainers’ Association (NYSATA). In a community synonymous with high-caliber athletics, the seminar’s goal is to educate people on one of the most common sports-related brain injuries — providing information on typical causes, potential symptoms to look out for, treatment plans and return schedules, the risks that come with not adequately addressing concussions and ways to mitigate the chance of their occurrence.

While organizers say there’s information for anyone to learn at the seminar, it’s particularly valuable for educators, nurses, coaches, athletic trainers, students, parents and guardians, as there will be a focus on youth and higher education sports and how to create a return plan for a concussed student back to youth and higher education sports and the classroom as well as many ways to prevent concussions.

One person who will be in attendance is Lake Placid High School student Ryan Bruce, who’s currently a junior. A member of the Saranac Lake Placid boys hockey team, Bruce suffered a concussion during a game in January against Tupper Lake at the Saranac Lake Civic Center. Bruce said the game had just come to an end when he sustained the brain injury.

“The buzzer had already went off,” he said. “I was looking up at the student section and a kid came up and hit me from behind and I fell headfirst into the boards. I hit my head pretty hard.”

Bruce said things were fuzzy for a bit, but for the most part, he had an immediate recollection of what happened. Fortunately, his coach, as well as Angelopoulos, the team’s athletic trainer, saw what happened and evaluated him soon thereafter.

A concussion was subsequently diagnosed, and a treatment plan was identified. Bruce is now fully recovered and has been able to resume playing hockey for the last few games of the season, which concluded on Thursday. He said he was fortunate the injury wasn’t more severe. A couple of weeks ago, Angelopoulos reached out to him about getting a concussion prevention and awareness seminar together there. Bruce was all in on the idea.

“Concussions are really serious if you don’t take the proper precautions to prevent it or, if you’ve got it, to not make it worse,” he said.

Bruce wished he knew more about concussions and ways to prevent them before he experienced one firsthand. He’s hopeful that the seminar would empower others with that knowledge, should they unfortunately suffer one themselves.

BIANYS is a statewide non-profit membership organization that advocates on behalf of people with brain injuries and their families, according to its website. It was established in 1982 and promotes brain injury prevention, education and community support services — all intended to lead to improved outcomes for children and adults with brain injuries.

More information is available at bianys.org. More information on NYSATA, which frequently works to recognize concussion and manage recovery and an athlete’s eventual return to play, is available at gonysata.com.