Struggle of Being an Injured Player
Girls Soccer Fights to Keep Players In through the Season
By: Aleks Stacy, Kassidy Banks, Marissa Milam, and Adamariz Rojas-Mendoza
One of the many contact sports at Culver Community High School is soccer. Soccer takes a lot of defensive and offensive play for the ball, this play often causes contact that results in injuries to players and this season is no different. Junior Olivia Compton, and seniors Kenzie Banks and Grace Wood have all been injured, and this has caused the players to shift their focus from practice to visits for physical therapy.
Being a good soccer player takes lots of skill, persistence, and aggressiveness. Olivia Compton has shown her great skill and hard work on the field and it was that passion that led to her injury.
“I was rushing for the ball, and then the Covenant girl pushed me from the ball,” said Compton.
Compton’s injury was from contact, but other players can obtain injuries others are from overusethe physicality of the game.
“ I actually have a few shocks going down my leg. Sometimes when I kick the ball, or while doing weights, if I push too hard, or too much, an enormous amount of pain and sometimes heat goes down my leg,” said senior Grace Wood.
Once injured, understanding the injury is very important in the healing process. Doing activities and dealing with the injury can take more work than practice. Senior Kenzie Banks has dealt first hand with recovery and what it takes to properly heal your body.
“I went to the trainer everyday before practice. I was getting my ankle wrapped, doing ice buckets, and stretches,” said senior Kenzie Banks.
Playing soccer takes a lot of emotion. When something bad happens, it can really scare the player, and make them feel anxious.
“I was completely scared with it being my senior year. I actually have been injured every year I have played soccer, and I have been playing soccer for six years. I have always ended up with an injury, but having it be my senior year, it made me really scared that I wasn’t going to be able to finish my season,” said senior Grace Wood.
Players who are injured can’t play in the game, so spots have to be filled.
“Kenzie and Liv’s main position was in midfield, while Grace’s main position was defense. They were all starters, so it felt weird when someone had to fill in their spot. Liv’s injury has affected us the most because she hasn’t been able to play a lot of the season. She was definitely one of our strongest players, and that would’ve really helped us,” said freshman Kassidy Banks.
Even though if girl’s’ soccer team is having a tough time, Coach AJ Neace is looking optimistically at the goals for his team.
“Us as a team have a goal this year to win our last two games of the season to put us at 13-3 record. This would be for our regular season, and later play for a sectional championship, and bring some hardware back to Culver!” stated Coach Neace.
