AMHERST – Travis Warren remembers when he played youth football, back in the 1980s. Smelling salts were used to revive players who suffered knock-out hits, and little thought was given to player headaches.

“It was like a badge of honor to tough it out and get back in there,” he said.

Now, head injuries come with serious precautions. From professional ranks on down, players who suffer big hits to the head are forced to visit the trainer’s table, whether it’s for the rest of practice, the rest of the week or even the rest of the season.

Warren, 38, sits on the board for the Amherst Patriots youth football organization, a program that started in 1974 and now has about 260 kids from kindergarten to eighth grade that compete and learn the sport.

The group recently announced a new partnership with Nashua doctor Ted Davis and the ImPACT program, which will help to catch dangerous head injuries early and protect young athletes.

Some of the drills he used to complete in practice have been modified, and others have been tossed entirely, Warren said.

“Drills that line up kids to go at each other full steam used to be four yards apart, now they’re just one,” he said. “There’s not as much contact. There’s no point of guys banging their heads against each other for no good reason.”

Football practices are now planned to “minimize unnecessary contact,” Warren said, and focus more on the proper techniques of tackling.

“It’s completely the opposite of what we used to do,” Warren said.

Davis, a certified ImPACT consultant and neuropsychologist at St. Joseph Hospital, commended the Amherst club for their decision.

“It’s a very responsible thing for them to do,” he said. “Education about this stuff for parents and families is really important. A lot of people just don’t know what to do.”

Davis said the ImPACT test is designed to make decisions about whether athletes can return to play. It can’t diagnose a concussion or suggest rehabilitation techniques, he said, but it applies to athletes of all ages.

The test is taken on the computer, and each kid involved with the Amherst Patriots completed the initial exam this summer before practice began.

The ImPACT test allows trained neuropsychologists to look at an athlete’s results from the baseline test and compare it to results from a new test, taken after the athlete suffers a concussion or hard hit.

“It’s very sensitive to changes in cognition from a concussion,” Davis said. “My job is to put those two data points side by side and see if there’s been any changes.”

The test looks at reaction time, vision and memory functions, among many other specifics. If the athlete, at any point in the recovery process, feels recurring symptoms, Davis said they should rest and limit activity.

Even a normal school day, television or video games can require too much mental effort.

“Your brain needs to rest to recover from a concussion,” he said.

After testing without any symptoms, athletes can return to practice. But Davis said they must build gradually back to contact over a week or more; they can’t jump right back into it.

“If during all that time, there’s no return of symptoms, you can continue to progress,” he said. “What you’re trying to avoid is this catastrophic second-injury syndrome.”

Davis is talking about when a player who already has a concussion returns to play and sustains another blow that causes a second concussion, which can cause permanent damage.

“The damage is irreversible,” Warren said. “We need to help educate youth football coaches about the dangers and the concept that when somebody is hit like that, they absolutely shouldn’t go back in the game.”

Most concussions happen without being knocked unconscious at all, Warren said.

When a player does black out, that’s more of a sign of brain damage than a concussion, he said.

Warren said many local high schools have implemented similar programs, but it was two parents on the Patriots’ board who wanted to get things started.

One of their sons suffered a head injury in a snowboarding accident, Warren said, and through that experience, their family was “acutely aware” of concussions symptoms.

“Our attitude was: why aren’t youth sports looking at this?” he said. “We want to bring awareness to how critical this issue is.”

The partnership could also help the sport, Warren said, because parents will know the issues are being taken seriously and won’t necessarily stop their kids from playing.

“There really is a zero-tolerance on this now,” he said.

Cameron Kittle can be reached at 594-6523 or ckittle@nashuatelegraph.com. Also check out Kittle (@Telegraph_CamK) on Twitter.