Athletes on the mend
Written by: | 10 Nov 2008
Knee injuries to college athletes can ravage a team and take a heavy emotional toll on the injured players.
According to ABC News’ website, abc.go.com, there are 400,000 Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries each year.
These injuries are found in women and men, people in later years and children as young as 12 and 13.
An added frequency in ACL and concussion injuries are especially found to occur in women.
“Female athletes seem to be remarkably prone to debilitating ACL episodes,” says ABC. “The rate is almost double that seen in men.”
Women prone to ACL injuries
Brittney Rhoades, a sophomore shooting guard on the YC women’s basketball team has, again, recently torn her ACL. “It was just on a pivot,” says Rhoades.
Unfortunately for many like Rhoades, their first injury won’t be their last. Taameka Pruitt, a sophomore center on the team, has received three injuries. Her latest was snapping her Achille’s tendon. “I’ll be out for the whole season,” Pruitt says.
“An athlete would never lose their scholarship or their insurance… it’s honored for the year.”
The news is good regarding their scholarships. “An athlete would never lose their scholarship or their insurance… it’s honored for the year,” says Brad Clifford, head coach of the woman’s basketball team.
“Because we’re a junior college we only sign them [players] for a year, where a university will sign their players for four,” says Clifford. However, if a player becomes injured beyond her ability to play again, she is in danger of losing that scholarship in subsequent years.
Returning to play
According to Clifford, the likelihood of athletes returning after an injury is increasing, while the down time an athlete has to potentially face is decreasing.
“Now-a-days it’s much better. The possibility of a player being back by year’s end is very high… if it’s a tendon, maybe just a year long,” Clifford says.
But even the advances in modern medical science cannot lift the crushing weight of doubt that unquestionably rests on each returning player after injury.
According to Pruitt and Rhoades, it is not something an athlete can just learn to accept.
The mental game
“They’re more tentative…cautious; they don’t play as hard as they usually do,” comments Clifford. “It’s pretty hard on them, especially if they have surgery. Surgery is always hard.”
“The good news is that, as a whole, injury rates appear to be holding steady,” says ABC news. “There has been no significant increase or decrease over the years.”
This is good, especially in regard to the large increase of participation in college sports.
According to the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) web site, ncaa.org, female participation in college athletics has skyrocketed by 80 percent in recent years with a male increase of only 20 percent.
This brings the national total of NCAA qualified players to more than 380,000. Remarkably enough, regardless of the escalating number of participants, injury reports have not gone up and manage to hold steady. “It is a fairly level curve,” says ABC.
Long range prognosis
However, the long-range prognosis for injured athletes is not as sunny. One possible turn south for these athletes is the increased likelihood of arthritis accompanying their injuries.
According to ABC news, osteoarthritis takes about seven years to manifest. It is the most common form of the 100 different types of arthritis. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease which slowly eats away at the cartilage, most pronounced in weight baring joints such as the hips and knees.
“If teenage and college-athletes are getting these injuries now… they will likely begin to experience osteoarthritis as early as their 20’s,” says ABC.
According to Clifford, this season has been especially hard, with multiple injuries and, of course, Rhoades and Pruitt out for the season.
As a result, the Lady ‘Riders are cut short. “All of them [were] freak accidents too,” says Clifford. “Injuries seem to come in droves.”
However, Clifford believes the NCAA is right in their belief that the flat trend in accidents seems to be holding fast.
“This isn’t something that normally happens. It was years ago the last time that I had a bunch of injuries,” he says.
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