Knee Problems

                I have never been a one sport type of person, in fact all throughout school I dabbled in about every sport you could think of. Sometimes this was fun but in other cases it caused problems and interfered with the one sport I really cared about, basketball. Playing all these sports before the basketball season was risky, and I knew that, but I could not just sit on the sidelines and watch other people play.

I was playing volleyball in grade nine, my last year of sports in the small town of LaGlace, when it happened. Being the competitive person that I am I always played hard, dove for every ball, even the ones people thought I could never get. People would say I played with a lot of heart but also a lot of danger. Every dive for a ball would make my parents cringe in the crowd, it is like they knew that one day it would come back to bite me. I played fearlessly every game, I was captain of the team so I had to. It was hard for me to hold back or even take a break from playing. I was always on the court and always on the go. That’s why it was so hard for me to sit out after it happened, the injury that would not only end my volleyball season but also ruin my basketball season and affect my skiing life forever.

In hindsight I guess I should have seen it coming in the way this game was going. I had got to the gym ready for the big volleyball tournament to start when I realised I had forgot my good kneepads at home. I only had my old stretched out pair that slid down my legs as if they were melting like the ice off the roof on a warm Alberta winter day. They sat constantly in a drooping manor, never quite properly covering my knees but they are all I had so I put them on and off I went to play. I did not think that this would be a bad thing until I started diving. Skin rubbing against the freshly waxed gym floor did not feel good but I kept pushing. Maybe I should have taken these two things as a hint to just sit out that game and wait for my mom to get back with the proper knee pads, but I did not.

It was during second set that things went wrong. The other team was only a few points behind us and were starting to push hard. I watched their play work out perfectly. A beautiful pass, flawless set, and bam, an amazing hit! The ball was headed a bit to the right of me so I had to dive or I would miss it and another point for them, one we could not afford at this point in the game, so I dove. It was then that I felt my knee cap shift over as it connected with the floor and seem to rip every muscle in its path.

I had stretched my meniscus, I would find out after a trip to emergency and would be out for the remainder of the volleyball season and for the basketball season as well. During this time all I could do was physiotherapy to help soothe the muscles so I could return to sports the next year. All of this could have been prevented with the proper equipment. From now on I always make sure that I have all the proper equipment packed in my bag before I go anywhere to help avoid any more unfortunate mishaps.