Ten minutes. Six hundred seconds. Time to walk to the snack bar and back.

All it would take is a 10-minute test to make high school football safer in North Carolina.

Baseline tests, which would be given before the season begins, would help trainers deal with head injuries.

Charlie Adams, the executive director of the N.C. High School Athletic Association, said the past six weeks have been the most horrible of his 40 years in administration.

Three high school students have died in football-related activities since Aug. 12, when Chapel Hill's Atlas Fraley collapsed. The cause of his death is still undetermined.

Winston-Salem Reynolds' Matt Gfeller died Aug. 24 from head injuries sustained in an Aug. 22 game.

Greenville Rose's Jaquan Waller died Sept. 20 from head injuries sustained Sept. 19.

"This has been the most horrific time in the history of high school athletics in our state," Adams said.

Adams vowed Thursday to do anything possible to improve the safety of high school athletes.

Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz of the University of North Carolina, a national expert on brain injuries, will be invited to the NCHSAA board meeting in December.

Adams said that whatever Guskiewicz suggests, the NCHSAA staff will recommend to the board.

"We are committed to this," Adams said. "We want to do whatever we can."

Guskiewicz said Thursday that he isn't sure what he will recommend to the NCHSAA board, but a couple of things quickly came to mind:

* Require every high school football player in the state to have a baseline test before being allowed to practice.

In case of an injury, medical personnel could compare an injured player's condition to his normal cognitive process.

* Ask the NCHSAA to campaign for a requirement that a licensed athletic trainer be on the staff of every secondary school in the state.

"If our high schools are going to play football, then they ought to have a licensed trainer," Guskiewicz said. "If you don't have a licensed trainer, you shouldn't play football."

The majority of area schools have certified trainers, but some schools use "first responders," who are not certified as trainers.

But even the schools with licensed trainers don't always give thorough baseline tests before the season.

"Most of us do something, but should we take the next step and do more? Yes," said Mike Guerrero, the nationally certified trainer at Garner. "Why haven't we done it before? Time.

"It would take at least 10 minutes per athlete, one at a time. Do the math -- 120 players times a minimum of 10 minutes.

"But if the NCHSAA requires baseline testing, everyone is going to make time."

That's why Guskiewicz believes the NCHSAA should require that players be tested before the season.

"I guarantee you that if baseline testing was required at every high school in North Carolina, lives would be saved," he said. "I guarantee it.

"And if a school doesn't have a licensed trainer, it shouldn't be playing football."

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