Willie Collins hasn’t forgotten his days as a football player in the 1970s, well before many of the advances in modern sports medicine.
Frequent backaches and his recent hip replacement surgery provide all the reminders Collins would ever need or want.
“A lot of times when we were hurt, we played right through it,” said Collins, 55, a longtime coach at Provine High and former standout offensive linemen for Jackson State University. “Those things catch up with you later in life. I know they caught up with me.”
Injuries are as much a staple of youth and high school sports as Gatorade and overzealous parents, and, according to a recent study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine, result in 500,000 doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations annually.
Among the nine sports surveyed, football had the highest injury rate. Next highest in order were wrestling — which is almost nonexistent in Mississippi schools– girls basketball and girls soccer.
Knee (nearly 30 percent), ankle (12.3) and shoulder (10.9) injuries were most prevalent.
Severe injuries –defined as any injury that halted participation for 21 days or more –accounted for almost 15 percent of high school sports-related injuries.
While those statistics are hardly surprising for anyone who has been around sports, athletic trainers and coaches are frequently working in tandem to lower the risks.
Mike Wilkinson, director of outreach services for Mississippi Sports Medicine in Jackson and a longtime athletic trainer who has worked with Olympians on down to high school students, said there are ways athletes can reduce chances of getting hurt.
Proper conditioning: “It’s crucial,” Wilkinson said. “If you’re not properly conditioned, fatigue can become a big factor with injuries. Either you’re not protecting yourself on the field or you’re not going 100 percent and can get hit in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Strength training: “It’s very important to at least be comparable with your competition,” Wilkinson said. “Athletes used to do it for two to three months a year, but now it’s a 12-month, year-round deal.”
Flexibility: A solid pre-practice and pre-game stretching routine can help athletes avoid dreaded muscle pulls, often nagging injuries that can linger for an entire season.
“Flexibility is always a big component,” Wilkinson said. Adherence to these principles has, in many ways, helped make sports on the highest levels safer even as the athletes have gotten bigger, faster and stronger over the years with advances in training and nutrition.
“Look at the pro football players,” Wilkinson said. “Many of them don’t even wear thigh pads or knee pads, but because of their muscle tone they can absorb those hits. When you’re in good shape, your body gets used to it.
“It’s like in boxing. You’ll see someone taking those shots in the stomach, but he’s trained for it. The same punch would knock you or I to the ground.”
For his part, Collins thinks the expanding presence of athletic trainers has played a major part in making high school sports safer.
“I think the kids are better off now than they ever have been,” Collins said. “We have a trainer from University Sports Medicine (in Jackson) with us all of the time. That helps a lot because a lot of times I think injuries can be avoided. There’s a difference between playing through pain and playing when you’re injured. They (athletic trainers) can talk to kids and give them information.”
Most importantly for some, sports medicine experts also can provide a timetable for a return to competition.
Jackson Prep senior Pack Toler is one of the metro area’s top football players, but Toler’s summer workout schedule was limited as he gradually recovered from a broken ankle and severe sprain that happened in a basketball game in February.
“It was a much longer process than I expected it to be,” Toler said. “Even after you’re supposed to be well, it’s so weak that you really can’t do a lot of things you’re expecting to do.”
Toler, the son of former NFL wide receiver Ken Toler of the New England Patriots, learned long ago that injuries come with the territory. He was sidelined in eighth grade after fracturing a bone in his arm during football season.
“If you play long enough, it’s pretty inevitable you’re going to get hurt even if it’s not serious,” he said. “You just want to make sure that you’re in shape and hit the weight room hard to make everything as strong as possible.”
Topics Education Mississippi
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