You’ve seen them around campus, the injured athletes of SDA, sporting full leg braces for ACL tears, hobbling about on crutches, nursing broken bones in a cast. Students not only have to deal with their physical injury. The emotional toil also factors in to the dramatic changes in their everyday life. Injuries can potentially be devastating to athletes, sometimes career ending. “I thought that I didn’t have a purpose in life anymore,” said Serena Saake, sophomore.
SDA’s athletic trainer Huang Hear says that there are commonly two different types of athletic injuries. There are overuse injuries, such as shin splits or tendonitis. And there are acute injuries, such as fractures, tears, or dislocations. Sam Caras suffered a devastating acute injury to her knee.
Sam Caras: Healing and Dealing
Sam Caras, junior, will never be allowed to wrestle again, and will never take the field in an SDA softball uniform. For years, she had been the school’s only female wrestler, and was a staple on her softball team at first base.
Caras, who says she has always been injury prone, said that she felt pain in her knee in wrestling practice one day, but that she pushed through. When she woke up the next morning, she had lost the use of her right leg. Thinking that she could just walk it off, she hobbled around for a couple days before going to the doctor.
“I found out that I had a complex tear in my meniscus and on top of that I have a genetic abnormality in my knee,” said Caras.
The abnormality makes the meniscus hard to repair. She went to several doctors before finding one that can perform the necessary surgery. Perhaps the hardest part of the injury for her was missing out on her senior year of sports. “Overall, it sucks,” said Caras.
Caras is still healing and dealing with difficulties in her everyday life such as walking up and down stairs. Although she is not wrestling this year, she still went to the meets to support her team. The recovery is not over yet though. If Caras gets the surgery, she will need six weeks of recovery time.
“My life has changed dramatically,” said Caras. She has now taken up yoga and art to make up for the huge part of her life that athletics held.
Serena Saake: Three Sports on Hold
Serena Saake, sophomore, is reminded of her soccer injury every time she looks down at her injured knee. It was a rainy day on a turf field when she popped her knee out.
“I heard a crack. It hurt so bad,” said Saake. After a week with the full leg brace given to her in the emergency room, Saake had surgery on her torn ACL and MCL. For six more weeks, she endured a knee brace.
“It was very fashionable,” said Saake. She stays optimistic because she has recently started going to the gym and swimming again.
Saake, a three-sport athlete, could never picture her life without sports. She runs cross-country in the fall, plays soccer both in the winter, and in the off season for club, and runs track in the spring. The track team has appointed her to be an unofficial cheerleader for the season.
After surgery, Saake’s everyday life got more difficult, trying to avoid stairs, going to physical therapy three times a week, and having to stay off her knee. Once her knee heals, she is back 100 percent.
“I’m a little afraid (to run again),” said Saake. Even though she will have recovered completely, there is always the threat of re-injury directly after rehab.
Since her injury, Saake has taken up writing and painting. “I needed to have a project or else I’d go crazy,” she said. She looks forward to running again and resuming her everyday life.
Lindsey Marshall: Soccer Senior
Another unforgettable soccer injury was when Lindsey Marshall, senior, tore her ACL during the third game of the preseason soccer tournament for SDA. After blocking a kick, Marshall landed on her knee awkwardly, and it popped outward. “I specifically remember how loud the pop was. The coach on the other sideline heard it,” said Marshall.
It was devastating to Marshall, who said she had anticipated her senior soccer season to be filled with fun times with great girls. But after the initial shock, she realized that feeling sorry for herself would only slow down her recovery.
She reported that her daily life has changed a lot because of the lack of an active lifestyle that she was used to.
Marshall says that her life used to be filled with surfing and yoga, but now she has to restrain herself for her knee’s sake.
Perhaps the worst part of her injury was the timing. Marshall was offered a scholarship to a small private school called SOKA, and was looking around at playing for other colleges. Because of this injury though, her college career will most likely be without soccer. “The odds are very slim that I will make the team,” said Marshall.
Sam Moffett: Using his head
Last lacrosse season, Sam Moffett, senior, received a blow to the head that would change his sports career forever. “I can’t remember most of what happened because I had such a severe concussion,” said Moffett. His team reminded him that in the first five minutes of the game, he ran to pick up a groundball and was knocked unconscious by a Samoan. Moffett remembers nothing from the injury, and had a very hard time with short term memory for weeks after the incident. “I can’t really remember my junior year,” he said.
For the next two weeks, Moffett could not sleep or watch television. “If you sleep (after an injury) you could die,” he said.
He says that he went through the classic steps of depression after his injury. Moffett says that he is unable to play sports again and must stay away from some medications. His life revolved around sports. He had been playing competitive lacrosse since sixth grade, and has played for the Mustangs as a long pole mid-fielder for varsity for four years. Seeing his favorite sport taken away from him was tough. Moffett also enjoyed playing football and skydiving, two hobbies that he will no longer be able to partake in. “I’m not depressed so much anymore, but I have just accepted it for the crap(py) situation that it is,” he said.
Moffett’s old active lifestyle has had to change since his injury. Instead of playing lacrosse, he helps coach the boys JV team. He has trouble with short term memory such as remembering homework or recent conversations.
“The only thing that has changed is that people make head jokes about me,” said Moffett.
Prevention:
Jim Gillan, a physicians assistant at CORE orthopedics sees 10 to 12 injured high school athletes per week. He says that patients do have a right to be optimistic about their future, especially with ACL tears. “Patients do extremely well with full recovery expected,” said Gillan.
“Unfortunately, (injuries) are part of sports,” said Gillan. But there are techniques that can minimize the amount of student athletic injuries.
JV tennis coach Deb Arbrahamson stresses the importance of warming up to reduce injuries. She says that teams should always make time for a warm-up and stretching, even they may be crunched for time.
Other teams are trying to reduce the number of players on medical leave. Boys lacrosse is currently missing four boys due to injuries ranging from shin splints to turf toe according to coach Nicholas Borden. Gillan says that the most difficult aspect with regards to dealing with teenagers is the preventive aspect. “By nature, teenagers are not interested in long term injury prevention,” said Gillan.
Teens will often reuse their injured part too soon or too much because they don’t think about the long term and just want to get back in the game.
When athletes are injured, they want so badly to be back on the field/court, said Hear. Sometimes, though, for their future health, they have to sit out just a little longer.