HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM: ACL tear a fear for prep athletes

Editor's note: Here is your chance to tell your story about your team, your school or your favorite player. If you'd like to join The Gazette's growing list of high school contributors, contact J.R. Ogden at jr.ogden@thegazette.com

By Erin Steger, Dyersville Beckman sophomoreDYERSVILLE - Accidents and injuries happen for all sorts of reasons and sports is a major cause of injuries. Injuries can range from sprains to breaks to tears.Tearing an ACL is one of the common fears in sports.Tearing an ACL can happen from making quick, sudden movements such as pivoting or twisting. When I tore my ACL, I was playing soccer. I twisted to go to the ball. I suddenly heard a loud pop. I fell to the ground. After fighting back the pain on the field, I was carried off and brought to the sidelines. The hospital was the next stop.The ACL cannot repair itself. Surgery is needed for reparation. The doctors take some of the bone graft from the front of a knee to form the new ACL. The surgery can take anywhere from two to three hours. After the surgery, doctors recommend staying over night at the hospital to reduce the chances of getting an infection. The next day, the patients are released to go home and start the exercises to strengthen it back up.Recovering from an ACL surgery feels like it takes forever. The expected time for a complete recovery is six months. Physical therapy is required during this period. If you can think of any type of stretch or exercise that has to do with a knee, it is probably done at physical therapy to strengthen the muscles.Strengthening a knee is difficult because of all the muscles that surround it. The muscles worked on during physical therapy are the quads and hamstrings because after the surgery you are not allowed to walk normally or put much pressure on it. There can be loss of those muscles.JoJo Osterhaus, a junior from Beckman Catholic High School and someone who also has torn her ACL, said, “My recovery time seemed like it was taking forever. Once I got going at physical therapy, it got easier.”Tearing an ACL is a scary thing. Preventing an ACL tear is a hard, but being careful could be a big part of it.