Girls' soccer overcomes injuries in preparation for its season

With up to eight girls out because of injuries during the pre-season, the Samo girls’ soccer team faces a huge obstacle this year. However, through countless hours of practice, sprints and even sprints, the team is continuing to improve and to both mentally and physically move toward their goal of starting the season strong and keeping a consistent level of play throughout the pre-season, season and all the way to CIF."We have had anywhere from 7-8 players out at one time who are all at different stages of recovery," Coach Jimmy Chapman said. "But our distractions are gone and despite the issues we have had with injuries we are focused solely on getting better every day at practice."The team is still recovering from the various injuries that debilitated almost half of its players for anywhere from two weeks to two months. According to captain Marie Salem (’14) who was out for six months last year because of a torn medial collateral ligament (MCL), not only do these injuries affect the individual players, but they affect the team as a whole.“For a while, a handful of the girls on the team, including myself, were hurt and that put more stress on our team because we’re still finding ourselves and the movement of the team," Gabby Dyrek (’15) who was out with a knee injury for six weeks due to a strained MCL said. "Relying on our teammates and working hard when coming back to practice is key.”According to the Youth Soccer Organization, women soccer players are prone to knee injuries because of their anatomy, and their joints undergo stress during tackles and while landing. Not only are girl soccer players prone to these injuries, but the combination of club soccer and high school soccer at the same time heightens this risk.For students who play both high school and club soccer, the fall is a busy time. With pre-season training at school, in-season training in club and up to two games every weekend, their bodies are put under a lot of stress.“I definitely think that being in club and Samo soccer has affected my healing process," Janet Coleman-Belin ('15) who has been out for over a month due to ankle injuries said. "It’s pretty detrimental, actually, because if I feel I am able to practice at high school I feel obligated to practice at club, and two practices in one day for injured ankles is not good.”According to Chapman, although the numerous injuries have been difficult, they have in some ways strengthened the team.“Being at 100% is probably the biggest challenge. With that, however, it allows some of the less experienced or younger players a chance to really step up and develop and grow so that all players are strong. Because of this, we will be much deeper and stronger from top to bottom,” Chapman said.Despite the overwhelming number of injuries, the team has been able to come together on and off the field and is looking forward to a successful season.“It’s really hard when so many people are injured because we don’t have as many people at practice so it is difficult to do drills that require the who team,” Salem said. "But  we’ve all been working really hard to recover during the pre-season, and despite our injuries, I think we are very excited and anxious to begin the season.”