Austin Smith
Sports Editor
Injuries are an unfortunate part of sports that all teams experience during the course of a season.
For Keene State’s men’s soccer team, injuries have been an issue all season. The Owls have suffered through many injuries and other instances that have kept key players from participating in games. Head Coach Rick Scott said, “We’re struggling right now because we have so many injuries. We had four starters on the bench against Western Connecticut.” Injuries can sidetrack even the best of teams, across all sports.
When a starting player gets injured, one of the reserve players are forced into the starting role with all of the other starting players. This can cause issues due to the backup player oftentimes not having the experience that the starting player has. Another issue is the backup player may not have the chemistry on the field with the other starters that the other injured player may have had.
The Owls were ranked number six in New England for Division III soccer before their loss to Western Connecticut; The Owls are now no longer ranked in New England, but are ranked number four in the LEC. Senior midfielder Donovan Harris said he feels “disrespected” by the ranking that they now have. Junior midfielder Lewis (LJ) Luster said, “We should be a lot better than we are. A lot of injuries have caused it.”
While the loss of ranking makes some of the players feel that they are being disrespected, Scott is not worried about their rank. “For me, I’m not really concerned about the rankings. I’m really concerned about where we are in the conference. We want to finish at the to of the conference so we can host the [LEC] playoffs,” said Scott.
While the team has had starters sitting due to injuries, some have missed games due to another reason: the team has lost players due to card count. In soccer (or Futbol) getting a red card is a form of penalty that results in ejection from the game and the player is not allowed to participate in the next two games. Scott said, “Our goal is to get healthy and keep our heads on the field. I think the card situation has hurt us and they’re realizing it now. You can tell them all day long, but they’re starting to realize it. Hopefully we’ll have more emotional maturity on the field and intelligence out there to keep us from getting any more cards that hurt us.”
Although the team has been suffering through injuries, they have been injuries that are not common to the sport. A couple of them have been bone bruises and other types of injuries that do not affect the soft tissue such as muscles, tendons and ligaments. “Those soft tissue type injuries are usually more common to the sport. Usually soft tissue injuries like hamstring, achilles; stuff like that,” said Scott. Even though the injuries have stacked up so far for the Owls this season, Scott said he has the right type of guys. “I got good kids, tough kids, who are doing all the rehabbing. They practice every day doing what they should do on the side with our athletic trainers,” said Scott.
The training staff is a vital part of all athletic teams, but is even more valuable to a team dealing with injuries. The trainers make sure that if and when an athlete gets hurt, they get the right treatment and do the right workouts and exercises to return as quickly and as healthy as possible. Scott said he appreciates what the trainers do for him and his team. “The athletic trainers are unbelievable. They really are. They don’t get enough credit for what they do,” he said.
At the moment the team is dealing with injuries, but when they get healthy: look out.
Austin Smith can be contacted
at asmith@kscequinox.com
