By Rex Cox
What once was a crazy crowd roaring with excitement suddenly produces a deafening silence as their focus shifts to a smaller picture, an injured athlete. The silence is then pierced with the sharp cries of pain as a season ends for an unlucky athlete.
Injuries are inevitable for some athletes. As much as some would wish they could have prevented it, an injury is like a pesky bug. It sneaks up on you and has the potential to linger.
It starts off as hatred and the common question: Why me? With time, however, some have seen it as just a bump in a much longer road.
“If you never had adversity in your life, then everything’s gonna be easy,” junior Jensen Boyd said.
His sophomore wrestling season was cut short due to a dislocated and broken left elbow.
An injury unfortunately can hold the entire future of an athlete whether it’s shorter term or longer term. It can cancel the ability for a possible state championship run, the chance to be with the team in the biggest run the school has ever seen, or could just end the season before it even starts.
Another thing a serious injury can do is affect the performance of the athlete in their other sports. This can be said by senior Mia Bollinger, who broke her metatarsal (a bone in the foot between the ankle and toes) in a powderpuff football game which put an end to her senior soccer season. She is now dealing with the concern about her explosiveness with track season coming up soon.
“Whenever I do my block starts, the explosiveness, I feel like it isn’t there yet,” said Bollinger, a school record-holder in the outdoor 200-meter dash and indoor 60-meter dash
Injuries don’t just affect the players, they affect coaches, too. The ringleaders of the whole operation have to make vital decisions to help the team. Obviously, it makes it an even harder decision when it’s your star player.
Tossing and turning on who will take the spot, the coaches still must make sure that the locker room moves on and plays to the best of their abilities.
“We’ve got to play for her and we’ve got to show her that even though she can’t be there to support us on the field, she’s right there on the sidelines cheering us on,” girls soccer head coach Mason Turner said. “We’ve got to give our all not just for ourselves, but now for our teammate that wishes she could be out there but can’t be.”
The aftermath leaves many bedridden teenagers alone with their thoughts for days, weeks or even months. But it also leaves a permanent scar, and not just a visible one. It makes the ability to do everyday workouts and activities more difficult.
“It’s 10 times harder,” said senior Ryan Neal, who is recovering from a torn ACL. (the anterior cruciate ligament is a vital part of the knee.)
Neal suffered a torn ACL at the homecoming football game on Sept. 26 against New Castle, ending his senior campaign.
Not everyone is a single sport sensation, however, and it can severely interfere with the performance for their next sport. This can be said in Neal’s situation as baseball season is rapidly approaching and his availability and productivity is in question.
The injury in another sport doesn’t just affect the coaches at that certain time, it also affects the next sports coach. They then get the tough challenge of possibly having to replace a star player or integral piece to the team.
“To say we can fully replace what Ryan Neal brought us last year, I don’t know if I can say that,” baseball head coach Jacob VanPelt said.
Neal, an outfielder, was a key piece to the Eagles’ postseason run last year with around a .300 batting average. A big part of Neal’s game is his speed, which could be affected by the injury.
One of the biggest worries of a season ending injury is when the athlete is shipping off to the collegiate level of their sport. How will they fare? Will they be ready?
“I’ll be able to wrestle again,” senior Brayden Swain said.
He suffered torn ligaments in his neck and a smaller spinal injury on Jan. 6. Next year, however, he hopes to be just fine for collegiate season. He recently decommitted from Marian Ancilla University and has not committed to a new college yet.
The chance to be cleared for sectionals would have been a tough road anyway, but Swain had still hoped to be cleared. Unfortunately his appointment didn’t come in time and he didn’t have the opportunity to finish out his senior season.
“It sucked to hear, but I’m just trying to find the positive out of all the bad,” Swain said.
Swain is one of the many athletes around the world that have dealt, are dealing, or will deal with this same situation.
Swain’s situation is one book in a whole library of sob stories, redemption arcs, and tales of victory, as athletes push to be who they once were before their injury.
