There’s 2 minutes till halftime. You’re winning by a couple points. The other team gets a steal. Suddenly it’s a fast break and you can’t let the other team score a basket. You sprint down the court and leap with a last effort to block the opposing player’s shot! But along with blocking the shot came consequence. Your leg gets tangled with the other player, and you hear a pop. A couple seconds later you’re on the ground, a sharp pain shooting through your left knee. Teammates and a coach help you off the court where you remain the rest of the game. Days pass by and your knee starts to feel better, so you rest for a week. Then by the next week you’re getting back into things, but you’re told you should probably see a doctor just in case. A few more days pass and you find yourself lying in bed when your phone starts to ring. You pick it up and listen to words that no athlete wants to hear: “Your MRI results are back, you tore your ACL.”
If you haven’t guessed already, this story isn’t so made up after all. My name is Nik Husarik, and I’m currently a junior at Emerald Ridge High School. Along with many other athletes before me, I suffered a season-ending injury this past summer. Injuries suck. They are an unavoidable occurrence in sports which create tough scenarios in the lives of many. At the high school level, statistics show that 2 million injuries occur annually. When compared to the 8 million highschoolers that participate in athletics, that’s roughly 1 in every 4 athletes who deal with some type of injury in a year. These numbers portray the true magnitude of athletes that are affected. This is why it is important to understand how to deal with them. I still remember when I was told that it would take a whole year of not participating in sports to fully recover from my injury. After hearing this I was taken aback. I had been a 3-sport varsity athlete since my freshman year of high school. How would I fill my time with anything other than being a player on a court or field? How would I respond when something so essential in my life was taken away from me? These questions constantly crossed my mind early on as I was rehabbing from my injury and surgery. But after some time, I came to realize that in the darkness of my injury I could find new light.
I also came to appreciate all the extra time I had. It allowed me to grow in so many ways, one of which was getting closer to family. It allowed me to realize how much some people care for you. In my case, it was my parents and friends. Regardless of my status as an athlete, I found comfort in the fact that they would support me no matter what. In addition to my growth as a person it also provided new opportunities in my life. With all this newfound time I was able to develop past hobbies and also create new ones. This hole that was created from my injury was filled up with increases in other aspects of my life, allowing me to become a more well-rounded individual.
Now, I am not saying that you must get injured to have these experiences (I wish this upon nobody, trust me). I am just lucky enough to have understood the great opportunity that was presented to me when I did get injured. I will tell you that being an athlete is one of the things in life that I cherish most. But I will also tell you that if being an athlete gets removed from my life, I will stay active in other ways, because I know my life will go on, and I know my life will still be enjoyable.
My advice to all injured athletes is that you find purpose in the struggle. Understand that you can still be active in sports even if you’re not the one playing. That even if you’re not checked into the game, you’ll still be checked into life.
