Moving on from injury

Being injured and still being on a team can be mentally and physically draining.  The time spent away from the classroom and in a hospital room takes its toll student-athlete studies and everyday life and actions.

These athletes aren’t alone because around 30 percent of athletes get a major injury in their sports careers according to news.msu.edu. Many athletes see their sports as there whole life, so what happens when you can’t play it?

Junior Grace Huller has had four surgeries in the past year including hand surgery, ankle and upper leg surgery as well a surgeries for compartmental syndrome. Huller, who plays lacrosse, basketball and volleyball, says the relationship with her teams has changed from being a player to “more of a coaching player, because I wasn’t involved as much in team activities.”

The athlete said she now realizes that there is a lot more to life than sports. “A lot of people think that sports are everything and when I had that mindset I was a lot more upset about not being able to play where as when I changed my mindset about it I became a lot happier as a person. I was more okay with my diagnosis.”

Huller added “It’s not easy to stay positive and I still get upset about everything but in the end you have to realize that there is more to life.”  The junior believes that eventually things will improve somehow and “it may not be the way you want them to but something good will come out of it.”

Huller says “a lot of athletes will struggle with being positive but you need to look to the other things you can do like volunteering. It gives you a new purpose and it gave me something to do other than sports like going to the gym more…finding the little wins in life is actually what matters.

” Another athlete who has had to take a break from her season to heal an injury is senior Madison Holliger, a soccer player and track runner. She broke her tibia, fibula as well as parts in her ankle during a soccer game. Though the injury was severe,  it showed her how supportive my teammates really are.  “They all sent me letters and things to keep me occupied and food and I really felt like I was being supported.” It was the senior’s first injury and she says that if you keep a good attitude about it you will recover so more quicker no matter what the injury. “My team overall helps and I was still able to support them by coming and cheering them on at all of our biggest games.”