In the U.S., there are about 3 million children and teens who participate in some form of organized sports, and every year more than 1.5 million of those participants become injured. Some of the injuries are serious enough to affect an athlete for a whole year. Almost one-third of injuries incurred in children are sport-related injuries. The most common injuries are sprains (ligament injuries) and strains (muscle or tendon injuries).

The most injuries worldwide and here at Bolles come from football. In 2013, in the U.S. almost 215,000 children were sent to the hospital emergency rooms due to football related accidents.

Basketball has the second highest injury rate; with more than 170,000 children going to hospital emergency rooms. Nearly 110,000 players were treated in hospitals for baseball-related injuries.

While soccer injuries sent around 88,000 children to hospitals in 2013, ice hockey, a fast contact sport, has one of the lowest child injury rates, with only 20,000 children sent to hospital emergency rooms in 2013.

 Meghan Sink, a Bolles trainer, has been at Bolles for six years and tries to attend all home games.

Mrs. Sink sees Bolles players with multiple injuries. The most common injuries she sees are dislocated shoulders, sprains and concussions. Sink says students with concussions are often out for the season and sometimes miss days or weeks of school.

Frank Iturriaga, a freshman, plays varsity soccer. Iturriaga plays against other soccer players who are around the age of 17-18. Iturriaga is one of the smaller teammates on varsity, yet he is the leading scorer for the team.

Although he has shown that being particularly small for the team doesn’t affect him, he still gets hurt. During one of the games, Iturriaga headed the ball funny and hurt himself. He didn’t go the hospital right away, but after a day of no improvement he decided to go, and discovered that he had a concussion.

Iturriaga had waited quite some time before checking in, which is a common habit for students, according to Sink. She says that sometimes the students injure themselves and they don’t tell her. They think it’s not that big of a deal and ignore it. Usually the injury is minor, but since they often continue to ignore it, it gets worse. This process could be avoided by seeing their trainer, coach, or doctor.

Students don’t only suffer from physical pain but emotional too. Sink says that “what often happens is that if a student is out for a season or the season is over, the student can become really upset.”

Another student on the varsity soccer team is Matthew Herman. Herman suffered an avulsion fracture to the left side of his pelvis. In other words, a hip injury. His muscle tore during his first game, putting him in excruciating pain that has lasted for weeks. Herman says,”Occasionally in my sleep I’ll feel the pain, but during the day I’m usually fine.”

Because of his injury, Herman will not be able to participate for the rest of the season. Sink stated that athletes are often discouraged by only watching practices, being apart from their teams, and being incapable of playing again in their season. Herman was the varsity soccer team captain in the first game, from then on he was out for the season. He “couldn’t do a lot of the things he wanted to do.”

Injuries can bring lots of temporary changes. Student with handicapping injuries, like Herman, often have their schedules made flexible. The immobility of a wheelchair limits injured students to classes only on a bottom floor. Herman found the difficulty to get across campus, through doors, and up stairs very frustrating. Luckily his friends were a great help for him. Although with all the attention, there are some cons. Herman states that,”In reality people are just being nice, but it’s hard being helped all the time even if you need it.”

How students deal with their injuries can either benefit or burden them. “Injuries can bring people down, yet it can also make them stronger; It all depends on the type of person,” says Herman.