Concussions among young people are seen as a silent epidemic. As student athletes begin the next season of activities, experts say parents should get their children tested for brain injury before they even step on the field. Health reporter Erin Billups has the story.

16-year-old Scott West got a concussion playing football his freshman year in High School.

"I went to go make a tackle and I had a head to head contact with the kid and I just got up my head was ringing, everybody said I was wobbly but I don't remember that much," West said.

His mother then took him to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with a concussion.

"He was a little kind of like woozy, said Susan West. "He seemed nervous in the way he was acting, like he didn't feel right."

With the rate of emergency-room visits for sports-and-recreation-related brain injuries among teens and children doubling from 2001 to 2012, experts say young athletes should undergo a baseline test before their season starts.

"It gives an objective, an actual test that can be compared down the road," said Dr. Ruben Ash, medical director at Prompt Urgent Care. "So it gives us an idea of what is going on functionally without doing any invasive test."

It's something that West's High School mandates, as a result his doctors were able to determine his concussion was mild.

He now works with strength and conditioning coaches on injury prevention.

Some school districts require the baseline test in New York State but not all.

There is debate over the accuracy of the tests school officials saying the state's concussion protocols are very comprehensive.

Also important- knowing the signs of a concussion.

Headache, fatigue, sleep disturbances, irritability.

"Their hand-eye coordination slows, their overall movement patterns seem a little bit dysfunctional," said Megan Furstoss, a strengthening and conditioning coach at Precision Sports Performance. "It's like they are a little baby deer."

And even if there are no symptoms, all hits to the head warrant an examination.

"When it comes to concussion, it's not always the severity of it, it's a cumulative effect over time, so you could have one really bad concussion and four or five smaller concussions, which equals that same bad concussion," Furstoss said.

When concussions are not properly diagnosed and treated, it can lead to long term impairment, limiting brain function.