Junior Kyle Matynka stepped back with the football after the snap like he always practiced. Matynka was playing on the Freshman football team his first year of high school, and he was excelling as quarterback. Just as he was about to throw the ball, the unexpected happened.

“I got sacked by two kids,” Matynka said. “My leg was killing me, but I kept playing.”

But as Matynka soon figured out later in the game, this was a much more severe injury.

“When I couldn’t walk anymore I finally stopped playing,” Matynka said. “My mom rushed me to the hospital.”

After Matynka went to the doctor numerous times he found out the worst.

“I dislocated my kneecap, tore my ACL and broke my knee,” Matynka said. “I never expected myself to get such a severe injury.”

Such a harmful injury results in extraneous surgery.

“I needed complete reconstructive knee surgery,” Matynka said. “They replaced my knee with cadaver parts, it was insanely painful.”

Matynka was stripped from his ability to ever play a down of  football again, but he still found a positive effect to all this.

“I like having the wheelchair because people got out of my way in the hallways and girls felt sympathetic,” Matynka said.

Although Matynka had optimism regarding his injury, injuries in sports are a nightmare for athletes. Junior Chris Russel can agree.

“I have had to deal with many injuries interfering with sports,” Russel said. “But the worst of them was when I broke my scaphoid in my right wrist,” Russel explains. “My own teammate, in a game, accidentally buried his face mask into my wrist.”

Chris thought he just jammed his wrist and he was gonna be able to continue to play, but he found out the worst.

“I had to wear a cast from August 2013 to December 2014,” Russel said. “After the wrist didn’t heal by September I had a bone graft and screws put into my right arm; the surgery stopped me from playing football.”

Injuries can take the ability away from one playing their beloved sport, but trainer Ms. Krystal Cavin strives to help athletes not experience an injury.

“One needs to make sure he or she has a healthy and well balanced diet and adequate hydration,” Ms. Cavin explains. “One needs to learn proper mechanics and techniques for their particular sport. Also stretching is essential before any activity.”

Ms. Cavin has experience on injuries from all different kinds of sports, and observes that athletes push themselves past their body’s limit.

“It’s important that one knows their body’s limit,” Ms. Cavin said.