Young athletes face more injuries

Alison Pelleymounter
pelleyar@uwec.edu

Some children get their eyes from mom and dad.  For others, it’s their nose. But for Northstar Middle School eighth-grader Sierra Sanders, a love and talent for playing basketball is the most obvious attribute she inherited from her parents.

With two parents who played varsity ball in high school, Sierra now plays for both a competitive “traveling” team and the Northstar Middle School team. The tall, slender 13-year-old plays nearly every day, she said, despite having stretched tendons in her knees.

“My knees are messed up from a combination of basketball and softball,” Sierra said. “I just think it’s kind of weenie-ish if you cut out because you’re hurt.”

Sierra is not alone in terms of the number of adolescent athletes who suffer from sports-induced injuries, particularly those caused by overuse, according to the National Youth Sports Safety Foundation. 

According to the NYSSF, about 35 million American children and young adults between the ages of six and 21 participate in sports.  Additionally, 3.5 million athletes under the age of 15 were treated for sports-related injuries in the United States in 2003, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

“I don’t worry about the injuries too much,” Dean Sanders, Sierra’s father, said.  “(Playing basketball) is something she feels she needs to do right now.”

A 1999 study conducted by the NYSSF found that overuse injuries, or those occurring when tissue is injured due to repetitive motions over time, accounted for more than 49 percent of all injuries incurred by adolescents.

The same study found athletes who had overuse injuries lost 54 percent more time from training and competition than those who had provisional injuries.

Sadie Miller, a physical therapist and athletic trainer at Northwoods Therapy Association, 4210 Southtowne Drive, said adolescents are more likely to experience sports injuries because of skeletal structure.

“They’re still skeletally immature, and damaging growth plates is very detrimental,” Miller said. “A combination of growth and inadequate conditioning causes most injuries.”

Such injuries can affect athletes for the rest of their lives, Miller added, especially if growth is altered due to strain.

She said knee injuries are the most problematic as adolescents mature, because there are major growth plates in the area, and children cannot always be operated on in the same capacity as adults.

According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the most common overuse injuries occur in athletes who participate in basketball, baseball, running, gymnastics and swimming.

Of those sports, basketball has the highest rate of knee injuries requiring surgery among girls, according to the AAOS.

As for Sierra, she wears braces on both knees when partaking in any physical activity because her chiropractor told her to, she said.

“Me kneecap can slide all around and my tendon that connects to my kneecap is stretched,” she said calmly. “You’ve got to keep going."

A higher level of play

As a physical trainer and adolescent sports coach for more than 16 years, Tom Stevens said he has treated a number of children with athletic injuries.  He said he now is noticing more young patients coming in, an observation he accredits to increased pressure on adolescent athletes.

“We’re not letting kids be kids more, what we’re demanding from them is a mistake sometimes,” Stevens said. “It becomes more of a job than a sport.  We’re starting them too young.”

Sanders said he and his wife encouraged Sierra to start playing basketball for fun at the YMCA, 700 Graham Ave., when she was 7 years old.  Once she reached middle school, Sanders said he and Sierra’s mother asked their daughter if she would be interested in a competitive traveling team.

“We play teams that are really good, way more competitive than school ball,” Sierra said of her traveling basketball team. She said her goal is to make the varsity team in high school.

Eau Claire Youth Hockey coach Marty Hickey said his Bantam 1A team, which is composed mainly of eighth-grade players, is the most competitive available for that age group in the area.  Like Sierra’s basketball team, adolescents must try out for the Bantam 1A team, and the tryouts themselves are competitive.

“We’re the last step of youth hockey before high school to prepare the team,” Hickey said. “The team I coach is the top 15 players.”

Coaches agree that playing on traveling or competitive-league teams, as opposed to school-sponsored teams, gives middle school students an advantage in making high school teams.

“The better competition you can play consistently, the better you can play as an individual,” former Eau Claire United boys soccer coach Tony Navarre said.  “A lot of (my players) have played since they were very young. Camps start at (age) five.”

However, Navarre said he understands his athletes are there to have fun.

“I think you can push high-schoolers a little harder,” he said. “I wouldn’t push that hard.  It’s more about fun and letting them enjoy the season.”

Photo By: Alison Pelleymounter

Delong eighth-grade students practice with their Bantam 1A team at Hobbs Ice Center last Thursday.

To view a larger image of this picture click here.