THERE is a variety of sports programs here at Granger High. Student athletes practice hard and play harder. They show a great determination to win; however, accidents happen, and it doesn’t always end up in the best way.

“I was at practice with my team and we started to play this game that is like freeze tag,” Brian Sika (10) said. “I ended up tripping and broke my ankle and was in a cast for about six weeks,” he said. “I was out for the season but I still showed my support by going to practice and helping the boys from the sidelines,” Sika said.

Hurting oneself can have many consequences both good and bad, so staying optimistic about it can sometimes be the only way to get through it all.

“I hurt my ankle at Airborne, I was out on my prom day-date and I landed on it wrong,” Kaylee Warr (11) said. “It affected me because I’m on the Excaliburs, so I couldn’t perform in Pizzazz,” Warr said. “I’m not nervous about hurting anything else but I am nervous that I will hurt my ankle again,” she said.

With some injuries that aren’t that serious you learn to get up and wipe the dust off even if it hurts, but sometimes getting up and getting back on the field is just what a person needs to do.

“I got hurt twice and both times I told myself to buck up and just keep playing,” Matt Clawson (12) said. “I was sliding on a rock-hard field and gashed my leg,” he said. “A Cyprus player had pitched a ball and it hit my wrist, it affected me because I didn’t have as much power to hit with,” Clawson said.

Toughing it out is sometimes the best thing to do and most athletes know what it’s like. Most athletes know the struggle of getting hurt and having to bounce back and come back even stronger. It can be hard, but it is worth it in the long run.

“I am on Dance Company, and I hurt my feet really bad by peeling them” Natalia Davila (11) said. “Hurting my feet I think made me more determined. Although it hurt a lot, I just pushed through,” she said. “I don’t think I was in the best mood, and I was limping most of the time,” Davila said.

Sometimes it’s hard to get up and back on the field and then there are times when players physically can’t. Tiffany Nguyen (11) knows what it’s like to fall down and have a hard time getting back up. She broke her leg during an event for the track team.

“It makes everything ten times harder, and I’m always so used to having something to do–whether it’s for student government or for track and field. I often feel lonely, even though so many show support and help me,” Nguyen said. “I feel lucky because I know things could have been worse, I could have lost a leg instead of just hurting it,” she said.