Let’s Get Physical
During a soccer tournament in Orange County, 15-year-old Hilary races from her sweeper position to head the ball out of danger--but not before an onrushing player launches a high kick, breaking Hilary’s nose and leaving the imprint of lace marks across her face.
That same weekend, at another soccer tournament in Arizona, Hilary’s 13-year-old sister quickly passes to a teammate, only to be hit hard by a player who arrives late and misses the ball--but not Kali’s ankle. The tibia and fibula are snapped and the growth plate is fractured.
Within days, both sisters are reunited in California, recuperating in separate hospital rooms after undergoing surgery.
As both a soccer coach and their father, I am left to ponder: What in the HMO is going on here?
What is happening is that the soccer field is becoming an increasingly dangerous place for female athletes, whose numbers are expanding in the popular sport. As women and girls become more commonplace on the field, so are the scenes of these athletes draped with slings, wrapped in medical tape, and hobbled by casts and crutches.
According to the Soccer Industry Council of America, last year there were 7.3 million female soccer players ages 6 and older, representing a 30% increase over the last five years.
While there is a scarcity of medical data to confirm a rise in injuries, anecdotal evidence has been sufficient to lead to a study to determine the extent and circumstances of injuries to young patients at his clinic, says Dr. Lyle J. Micheli, director of sports medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and the past president of the American College of Sports Medicine.
“I think there is a rate of increase in soccer injuries to young people, particularly among girls,” Micheli says.
Dr. Bert Mandelbaum, an orthopedic surgeon and physician for the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team, says his Santa Monica practice is also seeing a surge in injured young athletes--particularly knee injuries among females.
Even without concrete numbers, the National Youth Sports Safety Foundation has issued a fact sheet that bluntly concludes: “Girls generally suffer more injuries of all types in soccer than boys.”
Rita Glassman, associate executive director for the nonprofit foundation, said the intent is not to scare away females from soccer. “My feeling is that it is a wonderful opportunity for girls. They belong in sports and deserve the right to play . . . but we just need to be more sensitive to the individual risk factors.”
These injuries among female players should come as no surprise given the mushrooming population of girls and women who have been drawn to the sport.
A new generation of female soccer players has been spurred, in part, by the success of American women winning the 1991 world championship in China and capturing the Olympic gold medal last summer in Atlanta. Others have been enthused by plans for a new women’s professional soccer league.
*
Mike Sais, a 17-year veteran soccer coach, has led both recreational and competitive teams. Still, “I have never had a season like this,” he says.
Sais, of Torrance, coaches a club soccer team of 15- and 16-year-old girls. He has had half a dozen players sidelined by injuries ranging from a broken nose and dislocated elbow to a fractured hand and torn knee ligaments.
“With girls, we are seeing more and more injuries, and my personal opinion is that’s because there are more girls participating than 10 years ago, and the level of competition has increased so much. Competitiveness has made the game a lot more physical than it was,” Sais says.
For some parents, that physical play has been an eye-opener.
In April, Lara Press of Manhattan Beach was playing with her club team in a state cup game when she leaped to head the ball into the goal. As the opposing goalie rose to challenge her, she came down hard on Press’ ankle, leaving her with two broken bones. Her mother still shudders about the incident.
“Now, I really look at the game differently than I did in the past,” says Sarah Press, whose son suffered a serious knee injury last fall in a soccer game. “It makes me nervous. I’ve seen too many kids being helped off the field by paramedics.”
While some cite the aggressive and physical nature of club soccer as a contributing factor to injuries, playing a less competitive brand of soccer is no safeguard from injury.
Faye Johnson says her daughter’s AYSO team was playing two years ago at Hermosa Beach when an opposing player tripped the 14-year-old from behind. “She heard a pop before she hit the ground,” Johnson recalls, “and her leg was so twisted, we knew immediately something was wrong.”
Jennifer Johnson had torn her anterior cruciate ligament, an injury that would require surgery and nearly nine months of rehabilitation.
“I never thought serious injuries happened in soccer,” her mother says. “And I never thought it happened to so many girls, but when Jennifer got injured I heard more and more about these injuries.”
As it turns out, a torn anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, is the bane of female athletes, particularly soccer and basketball players.
According to an NCAA study, female soccer players reported an ACL injury rate twice as high as their male counterparts, while female basketball players reported rates four times higher than males.
Why the difference? The theories include such extrinsic factors as body movement, muscular strength and coordination, shoe surfaces, and differences in level of skill and conditioning.
Others suggest the differing makeup of the female body. Girls tend to have more ligament laxity and flexibility than boys, which some researchers contend may contribute to greater incidents of sprains and other types of injuries to the joints.
Females also have wider hips than males, creating a different alignment that can place added strain on knee compartments, muscular structure and ligaments, researchers say.
Even with uncertainty over the exact cause, the resulting toll can prove staggering. On one Indiana high school soccer team, for example, six players underwent surgery last year for torn ACLs.
*
While knee surgeries and other serious injuries have long been part of a male athlete’s lore, it is less familiar territory for women. But now that female players are experiencing similar injuries, some also are risking scholarships and athletic careers when they are hurt.
Kelly Adamson of Simi Valley was one of those elite athletes who had a blossoming soccer future when she went down with a torn ACL in 1993. At 15, she was the youngest player at a five-day camp of the U.S. under-19 national team in Boca Raton, Fla., when she saw her dream of a soccer career suddenly darken.
“It seems like it was just yesterday,” she recalls, “one of the worst times of my life. I was running in one direction and I went to change directions really fast. I went one way, and my knee went the other.”
During reconstructive surgery, surgeons replaced Adamson’s torn knee ligament with the tendon of a male cadaver. She missed her entire junior year and half of her senior year of high school soccer. But based on her earlier performances as a club player, she was awarded a scholarship to Stanford and went on to become the 1995 Pac-10 freshman of the year.
Last fall, Adamson underwent more surgery on her knee and was forced to miss the college season. But at Stanford, where several teammates also are recovering or have recovered from similar surgery, she remains determined to return to the field.
“I think it all goes to the love of the game. If you truly love this game, you’ll get through it. You’ll get through the injuries. Even with this, I couldn’t wait to get back. I never lost my love for the game.”
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Soccer Stats * In 1996, 7.3 million women and girls played soccer in the United States.
* The United States Youth Soccer Assn. estimates that about 41% of its 2.8 million members are female.
* At the youth level, the number of girls who are playing soccer has risen to an all-time high. A decade ago, female players accounted for one-fourth of the 282,000 players between the ages of 5 and 18 in the Hawthorne-based American Youth Soccer Organization. Today, girls make up 37% of the 560,000 members who play AYSO soccer in 46 states.
* From 1985 to 1995, student participation in high school soccer jumped 81%--the single largest increase of any sport.
* In 1981, there were 77 colleges with women’s soccer programs; by 1996, there were 617.
Sources: Soccer Industry Council of America; National Federation of State High School Assns.; National Collegiate Athletic Assn.
