Hit Count Book Report

Do you know anyone who has serious brain issues because of football. Hit Count by Chris Lynch. This book is about a boy named Arlo. He is in high school and has aspirations to become a great football player. As the book progresses, he begins to have concussive symptoms and other brain issues. In this book I will be connecting, evaluating, and predicting.
First, I will be connecting to how Arlo feels when he gets a concussion. He does not admit to himself that anything is wrong. He just tells himself it is part of the game to get your bell rung: “The crown of my head started screaming pain like somebody was trying to open my lid with a screwdriver.” (Lynch, 226). At this point he should have immediately come off of the field and undergone concussion testing. Instead all that happened was the coach asked him if he was ok. I can connect with this feeling …show more content…
Coach Fisk has his mindset about Arlo change drastically throughout the book. At the beginning, the coach encourages Arlo’s dangerous style of play. He wants him to hit harder, hit more, hit ruthlessly. Then coach Fisk starts to see that Arlo is being involved in a lot of dangerous collisions. He begins to tell Arlo to try and avoid dangerous collisions for his well being. Then towards the end of Arlo’s junior year, the coach decides to have him sit out the final game because of all the collisions he has been involved in. He tells Arlo that he can come back and play in his senior year. Arlo trains hard all off-season and is more than ready for the season to start. But during the first practice, Arlo takes a huge hit: “You’re a brave kid Arlo, but I won’t watch this happen. I won't allow it to happen.” (Lynch 310). This is the end of Arlo’s football career, but his problems are just beginning. At the beginning, the coaches did a very poor job of managing Arlo’s health, but in the end they made the right decision to shut Arlo