“I think you did it again, Daniel,”

the physical therapist said. “I think the ACL is gone.” The tears started streaming down my cheeks. “No, this is not happening again!” I thought. “I won’t let it.” Those were the thoughts running

through my mind, “Why me? Why twice? Why my senior year?” The pain of my knee didn’t even hurt anymore, just the pain from knowing my senior year of football was done and most likely my basketball season was over. That’s what hurt most.

Every year and in every high school sport there is always at least one injury. Whether it is a little sprain of an ankle or season-ending knee injury, it happens.

But what goes on after the injury? The public only sees the player come back after some time away and sit the bench. Athletes go through a lot from the time that they get hurt to the time they start playing again. One of the first steps is dealing with the fact that they are hurt. Many athletes want to get back playing right a way. “I thought it would hurt the team if I was out,” Jordan Romine, senior, who injured his leg earlier this year, said.

In most cases, athletes can start playing right away. They can tape their injury or stretch out in order to play right away. But some are athletes are done for the game, week, month or sometimes even a season.

Another adjustment athletes have to accept is cutting out practices. “It sucked just watching my team practice.” Romine said. For some it is a nice little vacation for a week. “It kind of felt good to get time off,” Romine said. “I’d rather be playing, but it was nice to rest.”

But for others that are out for a month or season, time off can get tiresome. “It’s annoying not to be able to practice with the team,” Josh Machone, junior, said, who has a knee injury keeping him out for the rest of football.

For several injured student athletes, physical therapy is encouraged by coaches and doctors. To the normal eye, therapy doesn’t look like it should hurt at all, but in all actuality, it hurts. “Physical therapy was not fun at all,” Romine said, “Sometimes it hurt while I was just working out.”

After going through the agonizing days in therapy, the players are ready to get back to their sport. It is not all fun and games, though.

In the back of their minds, athletes worry about getting hurt again. “I was tentative to hit,” Romine said. “I thought the first time I hit I would hurt my leg again. It took a while, but I got back to into it again.”