The LRHS football players take their positions as part of a team very seriously; they know that to play at the best of their ability they need to avoid injuries.
However, since football is a contact sport, injuries can’t always be avoided.
Highschool Football and Injuries
As much as LRHS loves the game, it also loves its football players, so injuries worry everyone.
Despite this, players know the risk they take by playing the notoriously violent sport. Connor Speri, senior, said, “Yeah this [ankle sprain] is a common injury in really any sport.”
Every sport comes with its share of injuries. However, football injuries are particularly known for their brutality.
Football players typically deal with a wide variety of injuries, Ms. Ford, an athletic trainor on the LRHS athletic department, said, “The three most common injuries I see in our players would be ankle sprains, concussions, and cramps.”
Concussions are a typical football injury. It doesn’t matter if a player is in the NFL or on a recreational team, concussions are serious injuries that need proper treatment every time.
The NIH said, “Studies of American football players have identified a serious consequence of repeated traumatic brain injuries. In a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, tangles of a protein called tau build up in the brain after repeated head impacts.”
Originally, this disease was thought to only affect older ex-football players, but recent studies show that up to 21% of highschool football players are showing signs of CTE.
Many high school football players will brush off their injuries so they can keep playing, but it is vital that they follow the proper steps to heal any injury.
Sam White, sophomore, said, “I just kinda pushed it back into place and played the rest of the game,”- speaking on his broken elbow.
If any member of the athletic department had witnessed the injury, White would have immediately been pulled out of the game.
LRHS Football Injuries
In this season, the LRHS football players have suffered a few injuries. Luckily, most injuries the players have dealt with have been easy to heal and didn’t have a detrimental impact on their season.
Some injuries, like mild sprains or scrapes, can be treated and healed within a month to get the player back on the field.
Earlier this season, Carter Speri, senior, suffered a high ankle sprain. “It shouldn’t have too much affect on my season. [I’m] hoping to play again sometime this week…hopefully it doesn’t have any affect on my season long term.”
Injuries like Speri’s are inconvenient but once healed don’t typically affect an athletes ability to perform well at their sport.
In other cases, injuries — like dislocations or severe breaks — can prove to be detrimental for many athletes.
Sam White, sophomore, said, “First play of the game, I landed on my elbow, and it snapped forward and shattered…I’m out for four weeks…and then I go back [to the doctor’s] to see if I need surgery or not. If I need surgery then I’m out for my entire junior year.”
This kind of injury is a major setback for any highschool football player.
Many of Leesville’s players want to go on to get athletic scholarships to be collegiate athletes. As a result, athletes know that every season counts.
Unfortunately, in sports like football, injuries like Sepri’s and White’s are relatively common. However, the school’s athletic department actively works towards keeping LRHS’ athletes as safe as possible.
Ms. Ford, said, “I would just like to say that we have a great group of coaches at LRHS that take injuries seriously. They trust the athletic training team and respect our decisions as we all have the athlete’s best interest and safety as our main concern.”
Despite the rough nature of football and the high probability for injuries, LRHS football players carry Leesville through every football season with the same energy as the student section that cheers them on.
Hi, my name is Valentina Fernandez! I’m a junior at LRHS. I love traveling, being with friends, and Halloween.