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Friday
SPORTS & ARTS
February 13, 2009
B Mt. Carmel SuN
Serious injuries sideline athletes; Christian Jun Artist
Shin injuries, including shin splints, are common among runners and other athletes. Normally, they can be prevented by proper stretching and warming up before physical activity. .
Sundevils miss games, teams suffer f rom loss
Kevin Lage Entertainment Editor If the greatest joy in sports is hearing your coach say that you’re on the team, then the greatest disappointment is hearing your doctor say that you can’t play this season because of an injury. Sports can be a student’s favorite part of high school, but they are also often the most dangerous. Here are some students person accounts:
my head taped back together,” Love said. “I had to get 12 stitches, and I had a concussion.” Because of the severity of the injury, Love had to sit out for two games. He is back now, but as a safety precaution, the doctor is requiring that Love wear protective
headgear during games for the next month.
Emily Bell
In a recent water polo game, junior Emily Bell was choked by her defender while playing in the hole set posi-
Marvin Medina
While training for the upcoming track season, junior Marvin Medina was injured. “I was just running up this hill with a couple of my teammates and suddenly I got this sharp pain in my hip,” Medina said. After going to the doctor, Medina found out that he had tendonitis in his hip. “My doctor said that I will have to miss a couple of weeks of track preseason,” Medina said. “I’m missing base training, which is important for me because I run distance, but I should be there for the first day of actual practice.”
Christian Jun Artist
Concussions are common injuries. They can sometimes go unnoticed, but cause serious brain damage. Soccer players Blair Love and Greg Hendricks both suffered concussions in recent games.
tion. Shockingly, she had to continue playing, as the referee did not see it anything happening. “We were on offense and I was in set and she just got really mad at me,” Bell said. “She just wrapped her arm around my neck. I panicked and I couldn’t breathe.” Fortunately for Bell and the entire water polo team, it did not prevent her from playing in any other games or from practicing the following day. “It didn’t affect the season too much because I kind of just shook it off and kept playing,” Bell said.
Greg Hendricks
“I don’t remember much, but somebody told me later that it was a corner kick,” junior Greg Hendricks said. “The other player and I went up for a header, but instead of hitting the ball, he ended up headbutting me.” During a recent soccer game, Hendricks suffered a concussion which almost went unnoticed. “Nobody noticed anything was wrong,” Hendricks said. “I kind of just wandered around the field for like five Blair Love minutes until the coach subbed me.” Junior Blair Love cracked his head Hendricks was taken to the hospital to open during a soccer game earlier this seasee a doctor. son. The doctor cleared him to keep play“One of their guys kicked it straight ing with his concussion, with the condition up into the air,” Love said. “I jumped up to that he wears a protective headgear for two header it at the same time that their player weeks. did, and he just ran into my head. I fell onto Even though he was allowed to play the ground and was bleeding everywhere.” in the next game, Hendricks thinks that it Love was taken to the hospital to get Daniel Than Photographer affected how he plays. “I think it definitely made me a more checked out by the doctor. Athletic trainer Christine Ahlf stretches Steve Bivins (11) in the wresting room. Ahlf treats injuries every day ranging from concuscautious player,” Hendricks said. “They took me to the doctor to get sions and broken bones to twisted ankles and head trauma.
Trainer describes methods, recounts experiences Paresh DAve Web Editor
The sight that parents and fans in the stands hate to see is the one athletic trainer Christine Ahlf has to see. When she comes on the field, the spotlight is suddenly on her, but she must remain calm because there’s a player who can’t get up whose health may depend on her care. “There’s a stadium full of people with eyes on you and you’ve got to make the correct move,” she said. “There’s pressure in that. There’s no day that you can slack because that’s the day someone could go down hard. You have no idea if you’re going to be dealing with a broken neck or a
broken finger.” Ahlf follows the football, soccer, wrestling and gymnastics teams most closely because within each season these are the most high-risk sports when it comes to injuries. When she has to attend to injuries during games or matches during these or any other sport, she likes to follow one main rule. “If I’m calm, it calms the athlete down,” she said. “Some kids scream their heads off and I can’t do anything until they stop. Others know exactly what’s going on. “I typically don’t tell them what’s going on unless they really want to know. I just talk to them about their day and try to distract them.”
According to her, there’s one thing she definitely cannot do. “You can’t go ‘that’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,’” she said. “You’ve got to say, now, what are we going to do with this?” It’s staying calm in the face of gruesome injuries that has allowed her to deal with athletes with a dislocated ankle, a broken jaw from a baseball, head trauma from a softball and two broken leg bones from a soccer collision. Ahlf not only relies on her ability to stay calm and block out distractions, but also her student trainers, who act as her eyes and ears. They help her notice injuries she may not have known otherwise. Every bit of aid is helpful,
especially when some athletes can’t help themselves. She’s had hostile athletes, and even seen a head injury cause a guy to punch a wall, but she’s never found a hurdle she couldn’t get over. “I’m never 100 percent sure what’s wrong with them, but you have to deal with the symptoms the best you can,” she said. When everything is wrapped up, it’s Ahlf, sometimes along with a physician, who has the final say if a player can play or not. For her, each situation becomes a unique judgment call. But there’s little doubt that most of those sights are one’s that most would rather not.
Desire to win pushes some wrestlers to dangerous diets Sara Shantz staff writer He sat in class and tried to focus on the lesson but his stomach wouldn’t stop growling…five minutes passed and he was still miserable. Finally he got up in the middle of class and walked out the door for some fresh air. Cutting weight is a part of wrestling but some MC wrestlers may take it too far. MC wrestlers are supposed to cut weight through diet and exercise. At the beginning of the season the boys had to take a test to make sure that they were hydrated. Then they had to get on a scale that calculates their body fat. Based on that number, they are allowed to cut weight in healthy increments. They are each allowed a certain
percentage of weight that they can lose each week. Most wrestlers follow this system but some don’t. There are still ways around the system that many have figured out. “Some kids still starve themselves… you’re still going to have the guys that are out there in sweat suits running until they can’t run anymore just trying to sweat their water weight out,” athletic trainer Christine Ahlf said. As a last ditch effort to lose weight, some wrestlers skip meals or stop eating all together. “I’ve seen a couple kids growlingly look at other kids’ food or some people get really cranky when they’re trying to cut weight,” Ahlf said. Math teacher Helen Olmsted believes that when wrestlers cut weight if
effects their performance in school. “Students who are very hungry are usually distracted and tired, and are unable to pay attention,” Olmsted said. Not only does this affect their performance in school, but it could potentially come back to haunt them in the future. “These kids are growing and this could potentially stunt their growth,” Ahlf said. “This kind of up and down eating is a form of disordered eating…,” Ahlf said. “You hear a lot of girls talking about being anorexic or bulimic or whatever but it’s just as prevalent in wrestling as it is in girls’ sports.” While not all wrestlers resort to such drastic measures to lose weight, some may take it too far.
Matt coffelt | photo editor
Artem Mavrin (12) pins an opponent during the San Marcos dual meet.