Sports can be, at times, very demanding and can take quite a toll on player’s bodies.

Injuries happen often because of how physical games have gotten in recent years. In high school sports, injuries aren’t usually career ending, however they can be serious enough for surgery.

Senior Amber Phillips, a varsity volleyball player, recently tore her ACL during a volleyball game.
“I jumped up to block the ball when my knee went out from underneath me and I hit the ground and just couldn’t get back up,” Phillips said.

She recently got surgery where they reconstructed her ACL and repaired her meniscus, but she will be out for the rest of the season, thus ending her high school volleyball career. Even though she is out for the rest of the year she is still happy to be there for her team.

“I just want to support them,” Phillips said. “That’s the least I could do since I won’t be able to play with them.”

Phillips didn’t even realize that she might have been seriously injured as she walked around with a torn ACL for a month before going to a doctor to get it examined.

“It wouldn’t really have made a difference if I had gotten the surgery a month later or that very same week, because I would still be out for six to nine months,” Phillips said. “Either way I won’t be able to play volleyball again for the rest of my senior year.”

Athletic trainer, Coach Renatta Delello, suggested that she should wait and let the trainer’s treat her, but realized that she wasn’t recovering well and sent her to an orthopedic surgeon.

“After having the surgery Amber has started doing physical rehab daily and is making progress,” Delello said. “I wish she could have made it back in time to play with her team.”

Senior Jake Cleveland, varsity football player, dislocated and tore a tendon in his finger during a football game. Unlike Phillips, Cleveland went to the doctor immediately and ended up getting emergency surgery.

“If I had waited a day later they would have had to cut open half way down my forearm,” Cleveland said. “They caught it in time and braided it to the ligament and then pinned it to the top of the bone.”

Cleveland is still eager to play with the rest of his team and was looking forward to finishing his senior year playing the sport he loved.
“I wish I could’ve just kept playing and have gotten the surgery down to my fore-arm later,” Cleveland said. “But it was emergency surgery so it had to happen the next morning.”

Cleveland remembers the incident clearly, but didn’t realize the severity of his injury and the effect it could have on his playing time.
“When I tackled someone I ran my hand into his pads and my finger bent all the way back and dislocated and I just popped it back, but when it bent it tore the tendon and I didn’t even notice,” Cleveland said.

Senior Lorenzo Salas, a varsity soccer and football player, is another who has experienced a serious injury tearing his ACL during football.
“I was on the field, and we were doing a tackling drill,” Salas said. “I stepped wrong, and I was hit but my foot stayed planted in the ground, and my knee bent wrong and I tore my ACL.”

Athletic trainer, Coach Ian Scott, took him inside and examined his knee to see what the problem was.

“When I was examining his knee there was obviously something wrong,” Scott said. “It felt noticeably different than the other knee. Things just didn’t feel right so we sent him to the doctor.”

His injury put him out for the rest of the football season and will likely put him out for most of the soccer season.

Salas originally planned on finishing the football season and going into the soccer season like many others do, but since he got the injury he realized he might have made a mistake.

“I feel bad because I focus on soccer, but now that I got the injury playing football I won’t be able to play with both my teams,” Salas said. “I feel horrible, but there is nothing I can do about it now, but try to make the best out of it.”

Salas will have surgery soon, but a date hasn’t been set yet.

“This stuff happens to everyone,” Salas said. “I just have to keep a positive attitude.”