Scott Butler
Broken sports balls symbolizing athletes getting injured.
Some student athletes can’t imagine anything worse than losing a game, match, or meet. However, for some student athletes, something much more painful (physically and emotionally) happens in the form of injury that takes them out of the game.
Many individuals are affected by injuries throughout their sports careers. However, some athletes are affected more than others, depending on what the injury is. Injuries such as a concussion, broken collarbone, ankle sprains, knee, spine injury and upper back injuries can negatively effect an athlete’s sports career. The recovery process can vary depending on what the injury is which can take about about 2-3 days to sereval months or even longer depending on the injury.
One common sports injury is a concussion, which is an injury to the brain. Athletes in many sports can get concussions, from football and soccer to cheer and colorguard. When an athlete gets a concussion, they have to take a cognitive test in order to play again. If they fail this test, they must sit out and wait until they are fully healthy. In order to be able to tell if athletes have concussions, every athlete was given a cognitive pretest before the start of their season.
Every athlete that has been injured knows the drill: after they get hurt, they have to go to the training room to see what their injury is and to see if they will be able to continue with the practice, game, or even season. The person in charge of making these important decisions is athletic trainer Abby Walters. Walters takes care of all the Wildcat athletes, and decides whether someone with an injury needs time off, a doctor visit, or if they can head right back to the field. Speaking about the impact of student injury, Walters said ”A recovery can be long with season ending injuries with can affect their mental and physical state when athletes are trying to play a sport.”
A Paw Print Poll showed several things about student injuries. The sport with the most injuries was Track, followed by Wrestling, Basketball, and Soccer. Injuries happened in lots of different ways, but the most common injury was lower body injuries to the knee and ankle joints. Of the people that responded to the poll, 46% said that their injury will impact their ability to play the sport in the future, showing the seriousness of the situation.
In addition to physical stress, injuries can have a significant impact on your mental state of mind. Students love playing sports, and when they aren’t able to do it anymore, this can be really hard. Imagine a moment when you are playing really good and then bam: you get injured. This can bring your mood down because you have done so much to be on the team and injuries can easily set you back. Sophmore Evelynn Freel knows this first hand. She was injured as a track athlete, and is out for the rest of the season. Not only are her after school activities impacted, but having to get around the school in crutches means this injury is impacting her academics as well. Freel said ”Some complications that come with getting injured are not being able to sports, and this can affect your everyday life’.’ life”.
Sports are trying to limit athlete injuries by doing warmups and stretching routines so they can play to their best ability. For football linemen wear knee braces to prevent knee injuries and they use guardian caps to reduce the risk of concussions and other head injuries that can happen. Ultimately, it is important that all athletes get the protection needed to play sports without getting injured.