Injuries are a part of almost every high school athlete’s career, no matter the sport. Sometime in an athlete’s high school career they will have to deal with an injury.

Keian Secrist, junior, was in the middle of a baseball season when he sustained his injury. 

“I had a bad ankle sprain where I tore two ligaments in my ankle,” said Secrist.

If an athlete’s injury is bad enough they sometimes end up having to do physical therapy, which can be a very long and grueling process. Some athletes like it and don’t mind it, while other athletes hate it. 

Secrist said, “I liked PT because I liked who I worked with. It can be pretty painful, but you don’t care because you know it will be helpful for the future. At first, I didn’t know what it was going to be like and if I was going to like it, but I ended up liking it because the place I went to was really good. They treated me very well and helped me and supported me.”

Sometimes athletes are so eager to return that when they do return they aren’t 100%. This can lead the athlete to re-injuring themselves and when they re-injure themselves the injury they sustain tends to be worse than their initial injury, leading to more time not spent on the field.

“I rushed back to early, and when I came back I wasn’t 100%. I ended up hurting my left hip and my hip flexor,” Secrist said, “I was mad at myself because I should have waited till I was 100% because then I probably wouldn’t have gotten hurt again.”

Sometimes when athletes get hurt initially they want to play through the pain and “tough it out”  because you always want to be on the field but sometimes you can’t physically play. 

“When I went down, I felt it immediately. I felt a sharp pain in my ankle [and] couldn’t put any pressure on it at the time,” said Tafolla. “The doctor told me I had a severe high ankle sprain. When the doctor told me, I kinda sat back and [thought] ‘oh boy, I could be out for a while’.”

Being on the sideline because of an injury is one of the worst feelings of an athlete. You always wanna play and be in as much as you can but when your hurt and you can’t play, you feel like you let your team down.

“I was very disappointed that I couldn’t play and I just felt like I was letting the team down, it made me sad when I couldn’t be out there with my team playing alongside them.” Said Tiffany Jones

When you are recovering from your injury you want people supporting you through your recovery process. One of the most important things in recovering from an injury is to have a good supporting cast around you. Support from friends, family, teammates, and coaches.

“It was felt really good knowing that I had people supporting me and helping me through my recovery. It would have been really hard without [them],” Tafolla said. “My family and friends always tried to keep me positive and to not think negatively.”

Some athlete’s injuries take a toll on them mentally. Some athletes could be at the top of their game and playing lights out and then one game or competition they are doing their thing and they get hurt. 

“At first, it did. I was depressed for a few weeks, but then I figured there’s a reason for everything. I became okay with it and figured it would make me better and would make me better mentally too,” Tiffany Jones, a junior, said.

Some athletes go in a downward spiral and when they recover they aren’t as good as they were pre-injury. This may lead to sadness and even depression. You can’t focus on the negatives when you are recovering. You have to try and keep a positive attitude.

“If you focus on the positives in your life, and give yourself permission to have some joy, it makes you realize that everything isn’t sh*t,” said Carrie Cheadle a professor at the John F. Kennedy University.

As an athlete, you never want to miss games due to injury, but injuries do happen in athletics. You can’t rush back and try to play when your body isn’t ready to play. If you do your chance to get hurt again and the chance of the severity of the injury goes up exponentially.