By Timothy Corey
There are perhaps only three constants in the world of sports — winning, losing, and injuries. The first two encapsulate everything that make sports so captivating. The thrill of victory and the anguish of defeat defines athletics and draws millions of fans from all over the world. The single stain on the popularity of sports is injuries.
Few things can change a season quite so drastically as an injury. One moment, an athlete may be rising to make a sensational play, before crumbling to the floor in pain. Seasons can be lost, careers ruined, and championship hopes destroyed, in an instant.
Even though the path back from injury can be painstakingly difficult, Orem high student athletes are lucky to have an amazing personal trainer, Aaron Spencer, to help them recuperate. This semester, Aaron is joined by a BYU student teacher, Christian Wise.
At the college or professional level, sports teams have personal trainers, dieticians, strength coaches, and sports psychologists to make sure that their athletes are healthy and ready to play to the best of their ability. At Orem High School, Aaron and Christian are responsible to fulfill the duties of all of these people.
But in spite of the immense workload placed on him, Aaron loves his job. He says, “The great thing about my job is everyday I know that somebody needs me.” OHS student athletes love Aaron, and often greet him enthusiastically in the hallways during passing periods or after school.
However, Aaron says there are some difficulties specific to working with high school students. When I asked him if athletes were usually cooperative with what he asked them to do, Aaron laughed and said, “If it takes less than 10 minutes.” He cites today’s culture of instant gratification as part of the reason why students do not want to work for their results. This attitude multiplies the mental hurdles that athletes must overcome in their recovery process.
To some athletes, the mental aspect of injury can be just as crippling as the physical pain. A huge part of rehab, for many athletes, is jumping the mental hurdle of believing that they can return to the sport that they love.
Aaron explained that athletes suffering from injury at any level, experience the 5 stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
The denial stage includes phrases such as, “It doesn’t hurt that bad,” or, “I’m fine.” The anger stage is often accompanied by “the blame game.” The athlete wants the injury to be someone else’s fault, so that they have a place to focus their anger. The bargaining stage includes phrases like, “Just let me play one more game,” and, “Come on, it’s my senior season.” The depression stage is the low point of the grief cycle. And finally, when an athlete can accept that they are, in fact, injured is when progress can be made in recovery.
Oftentimes, this cycle repeats itself many times in the course of recovery. These stages affect every athlete differently.
When athletes are unable to play the sport that they love, it can be extremely difficult. Tiger cheerleader Cassy Gaines said, “It is the worst to not be involved in something you love so much.”
Jake Pedersen, a wide receiver for the Orem high football team and guard for the basketball team, put it best when he said, “Missing games due to injury is one of the hardest things to do because no matter how bad you want to play you don’t have the ability to. For me it was hard not to tell everyone how lucky they were to be healthy. I told a lot of my teammates that they would need to step it up and take everything seriously.”
Some athletes find motivation from their teammates that are injured. Whitney Johansen, an OHS volleyball player said “There is extra motivation from an injured teammate because they can’t play so now I’m playing for two people. I play harder.”
All in all, Orem high athletes have an excellent system for recovering from injury. Aaron and Christian do a great job getting athletes back to optimal health. As Jake Pedersen said “Getting back into it and getting the confidence back is the best feeling.”
Tiger Times Staff
Latest posts by Tiger Times Staff (see all)
- Life Skills #2 - April 13, 2023
- Life Skills #1 - April 13, 2023
- Life Skills #2 - November 9, 2021
