It doesn’t take a hard hit for a Valley football player to suffer a concussion, a sports medicine physician at Geisinger Medical Center said Wednesday in the wake of recent head injuries to high-profile NFL quarterbacks.

“A misconception is you need to be knocked out, but you don’t need a loss of consciousness,” said Dr. Matthew McElroy, sports medicine physician at the Danville hospital. “Just some form of contact or hit.”

Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger and Arizona’s Kurt Warner, who battled in Super Bowl XLIII in February, both missed last Sunday’s games because of concussions.

Valley high schools and colleges are taking many preventive steps for recurring concussions — or injuries to the brain — among athletes, and are performing tests before the start of seasons to better determine the severity and necessary rest time for head injuries.

Coaches and athletic trainers may be seeing more concussions this season because athletes are more willing to acknowledge the symptoms they are experiencing, McElroy said.

“They have a better indication of what a concussion is with all the press concussions received,” he said. “Some kids are more scared and willing to admit when they get symptoms.”

Mark Keppler, head athletic trainer at Bucknell University, said the football team this season has experienced about 10 to 12 concussions, which is an average amount.

Susquehanna University’s head athletic trainer, Mike Keeney, declined to discuss the number of concussions suffered by football players this season, but said it was the average amount as in any year.

“I don’t think there were more,” he said. “I think people are more aware, much more tuned in. But it’s really been consistent in the years.”

Numbers seem consistent at high school levels as well, according to school officials.

Mike Elder, Shikellamy High School’s athletic trainer, said this season the school has seen about seven to 10 concussions with the varsity football team. This is a fairly average amount for the season.

“I can’t say it’s more than before,” said Elder, who has been the school’s trainer for 10 years. “I think it’s more recognizable. More kids are saying when they have a headache, blurred vision, trouble remembering a play that was done. There are more bellringers.”

Danville High School’s athletic trainer and Geisinger Sports Medicine employee, Brian Craven, said the football team often experiences about five concussions.

It’s like “a computer crashing”