As a college athlete, one works so hard throughout their entire athletic career to make it to the collegiate level and live out their childhood dreams.
“One minute I’m having the best game I’ve ever played in my two years of being at Cabrini and the next thing I know I’m scheduling surgery,” Sam Penecale, women’s soccer player, said.
All of that hard work and years of accomplishments can be set back with one bad landing, change of direction or a hard hit.
ACL stands for anterior cruciate ligament. It is one of the four main ligaments and is the central stabilizer of the knee. Although it is the smallest of the four, it serves as the most important function.
Penecale played in only four games of her sophomore season this year, before having to take to the sidelines because of her ACL injury.
“It happened so fast I didn’t really know what happened,” Penecale said. “I didn’t know it was my ACL until I got my MRI.”
According to Dr. Tarek O. Souryal of Texas Sports Medicine, it usually takes the athlete about six months to return to their respective sport. Some physicians say nine and others say a year. National results show a 96 to 98 percent return to the sport.
Cody Calise, senior communications major, was a standout high school football player. Calise had hopes of playing in college before tearing his ACL.
“Unfortunately, I injured my knee on the first game of my senior year,” Calise said. “After six months of rehab I thought it was best to focus on my academic career instead of my athletic career.”
Keep in mind that, yes, athletes are now more likely to return to activity but their knee and overall body function will never be what it once was.
“I never got full range of motion back so that is a problem,” Calise said. “I sometimes have to get my knee drained from swelling and limp occasionally.”
How do college athletes deal with this? There is no way to foresee an injury happening, especially one of this caliber.
An ACL injury does not only physically affects an athlete; it takes a toll on them emotionally and mentally as well.
“It is really frustrating right now because I feel like my leg can do so much more but it physically can’t and I’m not a patient person,” Penecale said. “This whole process is really all about being patient.”
According to an article by livestrong.com, since 1988, the NCAA and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association have developed an injury surveillance system that collects injury reports sent in by trainers.
From 2004 and on, there were 200,000 injury reports, which calculates out to be about 12,500 injuries per year.
Female athletes suffer from up to five times as many ACL injuries as male athletes.
Unfortunately, there are anatomical and hormonal reasons why women are so prone to ACL injuries. Nowadays, trainers are guiding players to land and change direction in ways that can help decrease the risk of an ACL injury.
With more research about ACL injury prevention being done and new rehabilitation treatments being created, hopefully athlete’s knee injuries will decrease.
In the mean time, those who have suffered must continue to push to help their knee and ACL get back to what it once was. They have got to trust the process.
“Out of this experience I really learned to have trust,” Penecale said. “It’s made me mentally tougher because I never thought I could do this.”
“I’ve never had to push myself like this,” Penecale said. “Yeah, this sucks but it’s one day closer to being out on the field with my team again.”
