ACL IQ

           Being an athlete is hard work sometimes and your body suffers from it. Sure, soreness or even minor injuries like a rolled ankle come with the job description, but tearing a main ligament such as your Anterior Cruciate Ligament is something that might not be as expected. The rate of ACL tears, regardless of mechanism of injury, has increased within both male and female collegiate athletes. “The number of ACL tears we see varies from year to year, but is still prevalent every year,” said Hiram College Athletic Trainer, Renee Myers. “One year we may see three and then 10 the next year.” Whether it is Division I, Division II, or Division III, these athletes are still highly impacted with ACL injuries.

            At Hiram College, ACL injuries seem to be a pretty common injury among athletes. “This year alone five people that I know have torn their ACL,” stated junior Kayla Yost. “I feel like that is a lot for our small campus.” Yost plays basketball at Hiram College and has torn her ACL twice. Her first injury happened when she was a sophomore in high school and she just recently reinjured the same knee as a junior in college. Both tears occurred while she was playing basketball. Although there has been about five years between her injuries, Yost feels that it is harder now that she is in college. “When I tore it in high school, I wasn’t thinking about college yet. Now, I realize that I have limited years in college until I am done playing at this level.” It is this mental problem that Yost, along with many other athletes struggle with while recovering.

 

            The pressure to get healthy and return to your sport as fast as you are able to can impact an athlete’s recovery process and make them more susceptible to reinjuring themselves. "I rushed my rehab to get back on the court," said senior men's basketball player, RaiTwann Gaston. "I had just decided to come to Hiram to play after I graduated from high school. I didn't want to have to miss any of my college career." Gaston was ready to start when he arrived at Hiram's campus, but retore his ACL during his freshman basketball season.

             These are just a couple of examples, on Hiram's campus, of how ACL injuries are affecting college athletes. Once you tear your ACL, you run the risk of reinjuring it in the future. Doing all of the rehabilitation therappy and continuing to do certain exercises even after you are healthy can help decrease this common theme among college athletes.