High school athletes continuously battle challenges to manage time, improve their game and be competitive. In the process, they have to hope they don’t push themselves too far too fast and wind up with a serious injury.
That’s exactly what happened to Stephen Weiss, an 18-year-old soccer player at St. Paul Academy and Summit School. He wound up tearing the medial collateral ligament in his knee when he came back too fast after the initial injury during a high school conference game. The MCL stretches from thigh bone to the shin bone on the inner side of the knee. Like an elastic band, the MCL keeps the knee from bending sideways.
“I fell onto the concrete along the outside of the field when I tried to tackle the ball along the sideline,” Weiss said. “I sat out for two games because we thought it would help. Eventually, I played again with a knee brace. I popped it at another game and played with a limp for few minutes before the coach would take me out.”
Weiss said his knee didn’t hurt in the previous games but was just a little tender. But one more game pushed his knee too far and he tore his MLC.
Weiss is one of an estimated six million high school youth who participate in local sports programs each year, according to an article in the Journal of Athletic Training, which cited figures from the National Federation of State High School Association in a study on sports injuries. The six million teen athletes account for an estimated two million injuries, 500,000 doctor visits, and 30,000 hospitalizations
Dr. Bill Roberts, professor of family medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said while participation in youth sports has increased over the past 20 years, the injury pattern he sees has remained about the same – with one exception.
“The incidences of concussion,” Roberts said, “seem to be on the rise in sports like ice hockey and soccer.”
In fact, the New York Times reported last fall that at least 50 high school or younger football players in more than 20 states since 1997 have been killed or have sustained serious head injuries on the field.
The newspaper cited studies showing that teenagers are more susceptible to immediate harm from such injuries because their brain tissue is less developed than adults’ and more easily damaged. High school players also typically receive less capable medical care, or none at all, the newspaper reported.
Roberts acknowledged the tendency of some student athletes to push themselves. “They are competitive and driven to be successful,” he said, adding the effects of pushing the limit can vary from player to player. “It has to do with genetics, support, innate drive, parents, nutrition, rest, sleep, coaching, etc.”
Weiss hobbles around his school’s hallways on crutches, a knee immobilizer wrapped around the cast that envelops his lower left leg. The injury put him in the emergency room to have surgery to repair the MCL and healing can take anywhere from 4 to 6 months.
For senior Ari Warshawsky, a player on Highland Park’s varsity soccer team, Weiss’ injury could have happened to anyone who plays intense sports.
“Despite any pain, you really have to keep pushing yourself to play hard,” Warshawsky insists. “You keep going until something happens like you tear your MCL.”
Warshawsky has endured conditions like muscle strains in his hip and calves, bone bruises, and shin splints during his high school career. “Nothing very visible or obvious where I needed surgery or a cast or anything and could justify sitting out with,” Warshawsky said. ““I’d always end up playing anyway, which always made everything worse.”
Warshawsky suggests why student athletes like himself neglect their physical health to be in the game: “We don’t want to lose our positions on the team, or maybe it’s a really important game we can’t miss and we feel like we’ll disappoint our coaches, teammates, and parents. Sometimes players even give each other crap for sitting out for injuries when it’s not something visibly painful like a broken bone. And sometimes, you have to show what you’re made of for college scouts.”
Dr. Roberts said the role of student athletes is to “train hard, pay attention to the body, use a rational training program that includes rest days, get adequate nutrition and sleep, and keep life balance with school, friends, and family.”
Weiss isn’t sorry he risked an injury and lost. “I don’t regret playing because I felt that I could help my team and I tried,” he said. “I played because I was important to the team.”
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