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OUCH, THAT HURTS!
WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE
INJURED DURING YOUR COLLEGE SEARCH
By Cathi Aradi
No
athlete wants to have to miss a season due to an injury. But injuries are a real part of the game, and
sometimes, they are unavoidable. Regardless of the cause—freak accident or overuse
injury—a serious injury can bring your college search to a crashing halt.
I encourage players to stay in good
shape; knowing how to take care of your body is as critical as knowing how to
use it on the field. I also urge athletes to start thinking early at which
sport they have the best chance of continuing to play in college. If you’re
playing summer and fall travel ball and spring high school ball, it's not going
to hurt you to take a few weeks off during the winter. Use that time to take
care of any minor injuries and to work on your conditioning.
But what if something does
happen to you? How might an injury like a torn
There
are some key factors that can help you determine whether or not your injury
hurts your chances for a scholarship. The first, obviously, is how serious the
injury is. If you tear a muscle or damage a knee, it may well require surgery
and extensive rehabilitation. In this case, it's critical that you find a
doctor who is a sports medicine expert and who has a good reputation for successfully
treating your type of injury. This can be tough, but if you want to convince a
college coach that you're healthy and ready to play, you'll need solid
documentation that the prognosis for your recovery is a good one.
Another
factor will be your own commitment to recovery. Rehab often takes tremendous
dedication and commitment. It may well be a test of how serious you really are
about playing softball in college. If you can't handle the hours of therapy,
the struggle to gain even a little ground, and the awareness of your own
limitations, it may be time to give up softball.
The biggest factor, however, in how
much of an impact your injury has on your recruiting may be timing. If your
injury happens as a sophomore and you are back on the field at 100% within the
year, there's no reason you shouldn't have a normal recruiting process. You'll
still be within the best "window of opportunity" for contacting
coaches, being seen over your junior to senior summer, etc. Don’t hide your
injury from coaches, and be sure you have medical documentation available so
that coaches can be assured you're fully recovered.
You might find some coaches still
shy away from recruiting you. But that can happen for a lot of different
reasons. Just deal with it and move on to another school. For the most part,
you should be able to conduct a thorough and aggressive college search with the
same results you might have expected before you were injured.
Junior year injuries may complicate
things a little more, but planning ahead can provide you with some
"insurance." If you’ve managed to send out your skills video and your
introductory packets before you get hurt, you can continue to write coaches,
let them know your prognosis for a complete recovery; and, show them what kind
of player you are via your video. You may have to contact more schools,
but if your doctor says you'll play again, and you stick with both your rehab
and your college search, you should find a team to recruit you.
I have seen players miss their
junior to senior summer of travel ball and still find colleges to recruit them
because they had their video ready for any coach who would look at it, and they
didn’t give up. (This is one reason I encourage all players to make a
tape. If nothing else, it insures you won't "disappear" from coaches'
radar if you're injured.)
What
is most unfortunate is when a softball player loses her scholarship
opportunities because of soccer or basketball injuries during her senior year. A
player who is hurt in the fall or winter of her senior year may have a hard
time finding a college team that will guarantee her spot on the team. But if you have your video, you may be able
to keep coaches interested.
Without
the skills video, your prospects may not be so good. You may have to pick a
college where you can walk on. Then, if you continue your rehab at the college
and work out with the team, you may be able to earn a spot--and possibly some
scholarship money--by your second year there.
Injuries are, at best, character
builders. But they don't have to mean it's all over. If you still really want
to play college softball, don't give up!
Use the time you're not on the field to write and call college coaches. Prove
to them how badly you want to play at that level. Players who are injured and
then recover often take that commitment with them out to the field and become
stronger for it. An injury can test everything about you--as a person and
an athlete. And if you are one of the
lucky ones who can come back, that process will have prepared you better than
almost anything else to compete at the college level!
* * * * * * *
For more information on giving your athlete the
competitive edge during her college search, consult my book, Preparing to
Play Softball at the Collegiate Level. The 2009 edition can be ordered from
the National Fastpitch Coaches Association in
© Collegiate Softball Connection 2008