By Kenny Gechter
Cavalier Corner
East Hill MS
1st Place
Division MS, News Writing
Sports Feature Story
Nizar Farhat is an eighth-grader who was playing basketball for fun, but little did he know that he would be in a cast for weeks to come because of an injury. Like Nizar, athletes deal with all kinds of injuries when competing.
Healing from an injury is a very long and tedious process, which can negatively affect how an athlete thinks about life. In order for athletes to overcome this struggle, they must stay positive and be encouraged by those around them.
Injuries put a gigantic limitation on what athletes can and can’t do, both mentally and physically. In fact, these injuries can make an athlete depressed and sad.
East Hills student Brendan Murray, who suffered a concussion last fall while playing football, says, ”I couldn’t do any kind of physical activity, and I was almost always resting. The process was very boring and depressing, and I could not use any electronic devices any more or text, so it was pretty boring.”
When asked about what goes through athlete’s heads during injury, a physical therapist from ATI Physical Therapists Organization says, “An athlete definitely goes through a lot of disappointment and jealousy since he can’t do the things that everyone else can. This makes the athlete very upset and in need of support and assistance.”
Clearly, athletes want to be capable of doing the same things that others can do, and go through a lot of mental distress while recovering from injuries.
As athletes go through a lot of pain during the injury process, they are able to overcome these injuries if they are helped by people around them.
Sports medicine Doctor Kyle Anderson says, “My job is to help athletes recover from injury, but also to encourage them to stay positive and make good decisions. They can make poor decisions if they become mentally reckless.”
Many athletes suffer additional pain due to negative comments from people around them. Nizar Farhat, who broke his arm running into a wall at a basketball game says, “Most people around me laughed and made fun of how I ran into a wall, and that made me upset and I became more careless with my arm.”
Injuries put athletes through a very tough time, which can have many limitations and mental setbacks. Athletes want to be able to return to the peak performance as quickly as possible, doing everything they could before the injury. Athletes must be encouraged by those around them in order to conquer this tough time, and recover effectively.