BOSTON -- Every Thanksgiving, high school football teams compete in their big rivalry games. It'll be no surprise if some kids get big blows to the head, forcing them out the game because of a concussion.

But as NewsCenter 5's Heather Unruh reported Wednesday, a test can help determine when they're ready to get back in the game.

Whether it's football, soccer, or any other contact sport, concussions are a part of the game. But the days of players being told to "shake it off" are in the past.

"For years, they were grossly mismanaged," said Paul Lilla, an athletic trainer with Westwood High School.

Multiple concussions have ended the careers of professional football players, such as Ted Johnson, Troy Aikmen and Steve Young. But concussions don't just happen in the pros, or in football. Last year, high school athletes had 150,000 concussions.

P.J. Pender, a football player with Westwood High School, was one of them.

"I just found myself sitting on the bench, and I didn't really know how I got there. I had a lot of memory trouble," said Pender.

"He had classic signs of concussion," said Lilla, Pender's athletic trainer.

Schools are beginning to take the warning signs seriously and pulling kids who show symptoms out of the game. But some schools are taking it one step further, using a test to determine when an athlete's brain has healed enough to play again.

"This kind of testing is designed to assess the things that we know that change in concussions," said Dr. Neal McGrath, New England's first credentialed ImPACT consultant.

McGrath runs Sports Concussion New England and is offering the program to close to two dozen Massachusetts schools. ImPACT measures short-term memory, processing speed and reaction times in pro athletes and students.

"The testing comes in to help us understand as their symptoms clear, are all signs pointed to the fact that they're really recovered and ready to go again," he said.

Before any injuries, students take a baseline test to measure their normal scores. After a bad hit, like in Pender's case, the student is tested several times. When the scores return the normal, the student can begin to play again.

"It gives us more objective data to use in that overall plan of when to return them to play, when to return them to exertion, when to return them to contact," Lilla said.

For Pender, his post-concussion scores sidelined him for six weeks until his brained healed, and he was ready to get back in the game.

"When you identify these injuries and remove the student quickly, and get them to their doctor so they can properly be documented, the injuries recover well," McGrath said.

On Friday, doctors at the Lahey Clinic will offer same-day urgent appointments for anyone who's injured in those big Thanksgiving games.

Clinics:

Lahey, Peabody: 8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Lahey, Burlington: 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.