"Like I remember getting hit a lot. But that's it," says Nemanja Jankovic, a 16-year-old football player at Portland High School. He suffered a concussion several weeks ago, when he banged heads with a player on the other team. "My head was hurting and stuff. I got the concussion on Friday but I played in a game on Saturday -- which made it worse."

A few days later, his head still hurting, Nemanja revealed his injury to his athletic trainer. When he's allowed back on the field will depend a lot on how his neurocognitive tests go.

"This tool allows us to say you are better and you can go back to play," says Dr. Paul Berkner, President of Maine Concussion Management Initiative, which is offering the computer test to Portland High and about a dozen other high schools.

Berkner is also Medical Director at Colby College, which is among the organizations providing grants for the initiative. Berkner says computer tests do not replace physician assessments, but that they are an important addition, especially for young people who are more vulnerable to something called second impact syndrome.

"It only happens in children, but it appears that a child who suffers a concussion, then has another blow to the head before they have healed the first concussion, that second blow to the head - or injury actually, it doesn't have to be a blow to the head - causes worse symptoms, if not death," Berkner says.

The initiative is budgeted to make the program, called ImPACT, available for free to 25 schools starting this year. Kennebunk High School signed up this year to get the program - a huge relief for the school's athletic trainer Arlene Verre. "It can cost up to $1,000, and my budget is only $1,200," she says.

Verre has had about 250 students tested in sports such as football, soccer and cheerleading. Verre says budget constraints were the only reason why the testing wasn't adopted sooner. She says her athletic department has been very receptive to the program, but she's heard of other coaches who worry that the testing will keep their athletes off the field for longer than necessary.

"Obviously their first concern is the health of the athlete as well, but in the heat of competition, it's hard when it's an injury like a concussion because the athlete looks fine, so it's nice to have something in black and white that says this kid is still obviously having issues," she says.

As head athletic trainer at Portland High School, Audrey McKenzie says that the computer tests help her do her job better. "Five years ago or even before that, I may have let them return too soon, because we can't see how the brain is functioning."

McKenzie, who serves as President of the Maine Athletic Trainers' Association, adds that it can also work the other way. Athletes may come suit up sooner than expected because of their test results. "I can think that they're concussed and they can feel good and they can tell me, but I probably would hold them out longer. But now I look at the ImPACT scores and say, 'Hey, you know what? You're ready to go, you can go play today. Your brain is good."

The Maine Concussion Management Initiative plans to do fund-raising so it can get sign up more schools. With more schools on board, program coordinators say the state can keep better statistics on what percentage of high school athletes experience concussions each year. National estimates put the rate at 10 percent.