Down, Set, Snap

Down, Set, SNAP Inevitably, the moment nobody hoped for had come. The ear-piercing whistles erupted in distraught synchronization. In a domino effect, each player instinctively knelt to the ground as the crowd’s buzzing cheers turned to a deafening silence beneath the Friday night lights. Where once there was intense battle now sat a suffering player, with the trainer rushing frantically onto the turf to provide aid.

Sport injuries range from broken bones to concussions to minor sprains and pulled muscles. All of these have something in common: they can keep athletes sidelined for days, weeks or longer.

Injuries are devastating to an athlete’s blossoming career, but they can also become mental and physical turning points that show athletes the real power of motivation, redemption and desire to succeed.

As a student sports trainer, sophomore Pooja Kaushal commonly deals with a multitude of player injuries.

“The most common type of injury we see are calf cramps on the field,” Kaushal said. “It usually happens during games, and the things we do to make it better is we usually load up the players with water and do some stretches and maybe give them some liquid IV.”

Junior Michael Mauer experienced his own personal setback on Sept. 13, in a football game against Freedom High School. “I was going to sack the quarterback, and one of the linemen pushed me over and fell on top of me,” Mauer said grimacing, recounted the excruciating moment of his injury. “I dislocated my collarbone.” How sports injuries impact a player and their team BY PATRICK STEVENSON AND BEN COWER

Junior Michale Mauer ices his shoulder while talking with fellow teammates, Junior Declan Nash and Diego Beraun.

Photo | Sophie Datillo

After determining the severity of an injury, the next step in the post-injury process for athletes is accepting the situation. It might be a harsh realization, but it’s up to the athletes to toughen up, settle in and prepare themselves for their comeback.

Over time, athletes are burdened with fears of re-aggravating their injury. Practices and games suddenly turn into deceptive tests of player motivation, prodding at an athlete’s desire to succeed. Acknowledging something’s wrong is the first step in making progress — that’s why the cross-country team is doing what they can to reduce injury frequency.

Senior Lukas Clites has experienced his fair share of injuries on the cross country team. With injuries to teammates being a fear and occasional occurrence, Clites and others have learned to adapt to the team’s procedural warm ups.

“We have a really thorough warm up that’s sometimes longer than the actual run,” Clites said. “Then we do these things called Ebbets [foot and ankle exercises that strengthen the muscles around the foot and help prevent ankle injuries]. The coaches are really big on, like, if something hurts — even just a little bit — to make sure that you talk to them.”

Although sports injuries are old news, it’s a recent discovery that practice-induced injuries occur more frequently. While it’s rational to assume most injuries happen during games, Justin Weinstein from the Weinstein Legal firm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida says otherwise. In his 2019 article “Surprising Statistics About Injuries in High School Sports,” Weinstein noted that 62 percent of injuries in organized sports happened during practices. However, 33 percent of parents have their children take different safety precautions for practices than they do in games. Cross-country and football aren’t taking any chances.

“We stretch before every practice, and we do yoga sometimes, but, I mean, not every injury is preventable,” Michael Mauer said. Mauer makes a point: every injury isn’t preventable, no matter how much training one does with the aim of preventing it. However, witnessing the injury of a teammate can have an effect on the rest of the team.

It can light a flame, trip a wire, flip a switch. An injured player may be silent, but the situation itself speaks a thousand words to teammates. Suddenly, the game isn’t just a game — it becomes a mission to avenge their fallen friend.

As the head coach of the football team, David Bishop instills an important value within his players when a teammate goes down.

“You know, when injuries happen the mentality that kids have is that they're concerned with their teammates because they want them to be on the field,” Bishop said. “But, then the same aspect is, it's always next man up, we prepare everyone in the program that they have to be ready anytime to be able to go in.”

Ultimately, motivation is what drives athletes to bounce back stronger for their team, school and own career.

But it’s exactly what motivates them that makes each unique. “I love playing football,” Mauer said. “I want to get back as fast as possible and to help the team and just to play football again.” Varsity cross-country runner Kate Brennan added her personal story.

“I wanted to come back because I knew that I had more potential now that I had gone further into the postseason,” she said. “I thought I could go to states.”

For Mauer, it was simply his love of football that fueled his desire to play again. For Brennan, it was her self-realized potential. Motivation doesn’t have to be complex, it just has to be meaningful.

When athletes are wounded, motivation helps them stand back up and keep fighting to succeed despite their circumstances. Whether it’s a team, trainers, parents or peers that have one’s back, support and motivation can be the keys to redemption. When one is down for the count, they’ll need someone in the corner of the ring to tell them to keep fighting.

It’s a minor setback that paves the way for a major comeback. Mauer said it best. “Stuff happens.” “...62 percent of injuries in organized sports happened during practices. However, 33 percent of parents have their children take different safety precautions for practices than they do in games.

”