High school athletes experience injuries; Reflecting back on experience

     Sports are an activity that millions of teenagers across the world partake in, and with that comes the risk of suffering an injury. And according to OrthoInfo, high school athletes are injured at roughly the same rate as professional athletes. 

     One high schooler that experienced a sports related injury is senior Brenna Rose. She says she experienced an “uncommon” injury from soccer this past February. “I was shooting the ball and I landed funny on my left ankle and it made a pop noise but I kept playing the last 10 minutes,” she says. Her diagnosis was a “serious sprain in [her] deltoid ligament in [her] ankle.” Rose says “it was cool” because of how “uncommon” that injury is. 

     Rose was “ordered not to participate in the rest of [her] soccer season and [her] entire spring track season.” However, she says missing track ‘wasn’t really an issue” because the season was cancelled due to the coronavirus.

     Another student is junior John Allred. During his freshman lacrosse season he fractured a vertebrae on his spine. “I hit someone during the game and we both fell over and the impact of the hit and fall caused injury,” he recalls. “My back hurt really bad and it hurt to run but I tried to go back in and play but I had to come right back out because I couldn’t run without being in a lot of pain.”

     Allred missed the entire rest of his season and had to wear a back brace. “It was a terrible feeling because I missed my entire first season of high school lacrosse,” he says. “I tried to stay positive and do the exercises I was told to do so that I was ready for my next season in the fall,” he adds.

     Junior Alexus Beattie, like Allred, also suffered a spinal injury. During the fall cheer season in 2019 Beattie was practicing a round off back-handspring back tuck. “I had finally gotten it but the last time I attempted it I got stuck rotating in my backflip. I landed on my neck and upper back,” she recalls.

     The cheerleader ended up having a sprained spinal cord and had four pulled muscles in her back. Two days later she was sent to a specialist who then cleared her to continue practicing. “I was constantly in pain but I pushed through it for the rest of the season, which wasn’t very long,” Beattie says. “To this day I still have constant pain because I never took the time to heal because I thought pushing through and helping my team compete was more important than my own health.”

     Junior Ryan Tracy has also experienced an injury- or two. During his rec season of football in 2016, he was tackled and had multiple breaks in his ankle. “I was out for nine months,” he says, “not playing sports had a huge impact on me because sports are my life and I was feeling down not being able to be out there with my friends.”

     Tracy’s second injury occurred just this past August. He says he “made a save and awkwardly fell” causing him to dislocate his knee, partially tear his knee cap ligament, and tear his MPFL. “I’m expected to be out for six months,” he explains, “I’m really upset that I have to miss my fall lacrosse tournament, and that I can’t do training. I’ll probably be behind in sports, especially with the weird schedule this year.”