The price of being a teen athlete
Sports injuries can take physical, academic toll on students
Anthony Branch, a sophomore at Santa Fe High School, has played sports for more than half his life. At 15, Branch has spent nine years dribbling on basketball courts and sprinting on soccer fields.
Unfortunately, he’s had some bad history with injuries over the years. In just one year, he suffered two knee injuries while playing soccer, and both required surgeries.
“I like to play sports for fun, but I do realize the risk I have of injury,” Branch said.
Branch is one of an estimated 2 million high school athletes injured across America each year, according to “Stop Sports Injuries,” a program trying to prevent such injuries. According to program estimates, more than 3.5 million kids under age 14 receive medical treatment for sports injuries each year.
While coaches and athletes say playing sports is a way for students to pursue a possible career, build skills and have fun, playing sports also can often come at a heavy price in terms of injuries, academic success and the stress of balancing those different worlds.
Branch, for example, had to receive a lot of medical attention, miss a lot of school and go to physical therapy after his knee surgeries. It was “not fun,” he said.
Zack Cole, the boys basketball coach at Santa Fe High School, is familiar with that pain.
“I broke my wrist playing baseball covering second base in high school, and I sprained my MCL playing basketball in college,” he said.
While injuries are a major risk while playing a sport, Cole explains why it can be so costly.
“Getting injured affects you for two reasons: One, you’re disappointed that you’re not playing, and you’ve also got to focus on the recovery,” Cole said. “If you don’t pay attention to the protocol from the doctors, and you force [the injury], you can set yourself back further physically and academically.”
Recently, Cole’s son broke his right arm playing sports.
“It’s unfortunate because now he can’t do schoolwork, and it adds pressure to him,” Cole said.
There are thousands of groups and programs that are trying to make sports safer for teens.
Professional sports leagues like the NFL have been applying new rules to prevent player injuries, and the rules might also affect sports on the college and high school level.
“As the people that are in charge of the game, you can set rules that you feel are safe. I definitely don’t see a problem with that,” Cole said. “As a group who makes those decisions, you may not completely understand how it will affect the game, but for me, if you can come together with ideas on how to make the game safer, I’m all for it.” Some students don’t see that need. Josh Wojang, a freshman football player at St. Michael’s High School, isn’t a fan of sports becoming safer.
“I think they should stay where they are. Otherwise, so many rules get put in place, the sport might not be fun anymore,” he said. “I have played sports for my whole life and I’ve had pretty bad cuts, sprained ankles and black eyes.”
Despite the risk of injury, Wojang sees getting injured in sports as “worth it.”
“Sports are amazing and I think injuries are part of the experience,” he said. “It helps you grow and learn.”
Another huge risk of being a studentathlete is falling behind in academics. Student-athletes often leave school for sporting events, which causes them to miss class, and practice after school can take time away from their homework and studies.
Branch said he has had problems with his academics but calls it “irrelevant.”
When asked about how he keeps track of his schoolwork, he said, “I set a time for each [sports and academics]. It’s the only way to be successful in both school and sports. You have to give each of them its certain time.”
Cole said it is unfortunate high school athletes have to miss school due to athletics, but it’s just the way the events are scheduled.
“Ideally you wouldn’t want kids to miss school,” he said. “It’s not OK, but on the realistic side of it, there is the travel time and multiple games within a night that it is almost unavoidable.”
But, even missing school can help teach students a lesson, Cole said.
“Ideally missing school … due to sports should make kids create procedures to check with their teachers for the work they missed,” Cole said. “In a sense, it should make them more responsible people.”
Wojang also has had some troubles with his academics due to sports, but he doesn’t consider it impossible to manage both.
“It definitely makes academics more difficult, but not unmanageable,” he said. “As much as I love sports, I have to remember that I am a student-athlete, and student comes before athlete.”