Anthony Remedios
ASU Student Journalist

High school sports injuries on the rise as sports return to full seasons after the COVID-19 pandemic

December 8, 2021 by Anthony Remedios, Arizona State University


[L-R]: Quincy Wright, Jaden Ralston, and Jaiden McDaniel of Paradise Valley all suffered season-ending collarbone injuries early in the 2021 football season. (Courtesy of Nichole Reynolds / Paradise Valley High School)

Anthony Remedios is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Paradise Valley High School for AZPreps365.com.

A season-ending injury for any athlete is among the most devastating moments in sports.

For the Paradise Valley football team, the first full season since the pandemic was brutal. Three different players suffered broken collarbones over a span of three weeks, and a few other athletes went down to injury and never returned to the field.

As head coach Greg Davis recalled, a Trojans team that started with 30 players on the roster was down to 18 available players for the McClintock game on Oct. 29.

“It was a weird year,” Davis said. “I’ve never really seen anything like it, especially three consecutive weeks with (broken) collarbones.”

For the Trojans, the injuries began before the season even started. During an intrasquad scrimmage, a player suffered broken ribs and missed the first six games of the season. Later, several other athletes on the Trojans’ roster suffered season-ending injuries, including broken legs, an ankle, and a knee injury.

“I think we’re probably the most beat-up team in the state,” Davis said.

Although the injuries were unusually high for Paradise Valley this season, it’s also very rare for any football team to make it through an entire schedule injury-free, simply due to the physicality of the high-contact sport.

“I think all the schools have been hit hard … but I think most teams have had multiple injuries,” said Dr. Kristina Wilson, Medical Director of Sports Medicine & Sports Physical Therapy at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Wilson is also Chair of the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee.

Wilson said she and her colleagues throughout the state have definitely noticed an increase in injuries this season, evidenced by busier clinics since June and higher surgical volumes than normal.

Bone fractures have been one of the most common kinds of injuries Wilson and her colleagues have seen across all ages, including playground injuries in elementary school kids.

Additionally, ACL and meniscus injuries have been on the rise, resulting in longer wait times for surgeries.

“Usually, most kids we would try to get in [to surgery] within 1-2 weeks, and we’re usually pretty good at sticking to that [but] I would say it’s gotten pushed back closer to 3-4 weeks at times, and part of it [is because they are] bigger surgeries,” Wilson said, noting that one surgeon at Phoenix Children’s Hospital has been operating four to five ACL surgeries per week, while another has been doing at least two per week.

Wilson said these wait times have been the same regardless of which medical facility you go to.

Bone fractures usually take about four to six weeks to heal. ACL injuries, on the other hand, can take anywhere from six to nine months to heal and rehab, causing multi-sport athletes to miss multiple seasons during their recovery.

Typically, rehab for most major injuries will consist of physical therapy and training with the school’s athletic trainer.

“My strength built up a lot in a short amount of time,” said Trojans’ junior quarterback Jaiden McDaniel, who broke his collarbone in the second game of the season against Westwood on Sept. 10. “I was only [in physical therapy] for four weeks and they got my arm right.”

In addition to physical therapy at Spooner Physical Therapy, McDaniel has been working out with Paradise Valley athletic rainer Nichole Reynolds regularly since he was cleared about a month ago. Although Jaiden was cleared before the team’s last game on Nov. 12, about eight months after his injury, he did not play as a precaution to avoid another injury.

Smaller injuries, such as torn ligaments in the ankle, may not require surgery and instead, just need time to rest.

Junior cornerback and safety Jacob Weaver tore four ligaments in his ankle a little over halfway through the season, which sidelined him for two games.

He said he did massages and therapy with Reynolds as part of his recovery.

“Big props to Nichole Reynolds for the job she does taking care of these kids,” Paradise Valley athletic director Brock Heykoop said.

Medical professionals believe a variety of factors are contributing to the rise in injuries this season, with the pandemic playing a vital role.

Football and hockey, the two fall sports with the greatest number of injuries this season, are high-contact sports. In some cases, the impact of a hit alone is enough to cause an injury and not much can be done to avoid it.

Additionally, many fall sports teams began practicing in early June because of the missed time last season, resulting in more time the athletes have spent on the field.

For the past 18 months, youth sports have been at a stop-and-go status due to public health restrictions that vary by location.

In the fall of 2020, high school football teams played fewer games and there were fewer athletes participating, therefore, resulting in fewer injuries. Paradise Valley only played six games last season.

School classes were also held online via Zoom for at least six months in some districts, meaning kids were more reliant on technology than ever before.

“Many of us don’t think that going to school and participating in PE is much physical activity, but now that we’ve seen the consequences of bone health in kids by not going to school and being home most of the time, I think that’s why the fracture rate has been a little higher,” Wilson said. “None of us know for sure.”

Wilson also said they have noticed more osteopenia in kids’ bones. This means there is a lower bone density and weaker bones, leading to a higher risk of a fracture.

Davis believes the number of injuries for the Trojans is partly due to the fewer number of athletes available in his program, compared to other 5A schools.

“I think some of our guys are being put in a position where they are taking a pounding more than they really need to because of our numbers and our situation, which is one of the reasons why I really think we’re a 4A football team and not a 5A football team,” Davis said. “It’s a safety issue. When another sideline has 70 guys and they’re rotating one wave after another and our kids are going from one side of the ball to the other, you’re just increasing the risk of injury in that regard.”

Athletes also varied in how they were able to practice during the pandemic.

“Some had the opportunity to be training this whole time, but it’s definitely the minority, not the majority,” Wilson said.

To address equity issues, the AIA has encouraged schools to provide strength and conditioning resources on campus, such as designated workouts and open weight rooms. One local high school baseball team did exactly that during the fall instead of playing games, Wilson said.

“It’s something we need to continually push as coaches and athletic directors as we try to enhance [the students’] athletic careers,” Heykoop said.

This offseason, the Trojans plan to have a full weight-lifting schedule to keep developing their athletes.

McDaniel said his main goal for the offseason is to get back in shape and make sure his arm is healthy for next year.

“For the rest of the team, we all need to work out on our own time with each other outside of football,” McDaniel said.

Several Trojans’ football players, including McDaniel and Weaver, plan to run track in the spring.

The biggest takeaway from this fall sports season, according to Wilson, has been the importance of gradually returning athletes to full activity.

“What we try to tell many of our coaches and athletic trainers is that every athlete returning needs to be treated like they had a significant injury that took them out of practice for many months,” Wilson said. “But most have never experienced that so they didn’t know how to do that.”

To help prevent these injuries in the future, Davis also emphasized the importance of having “like opponents” because most opponents have played football for years, whereas at Paradise Valley, many kids like Erick Reyes-Aguilera are playing football for the first time.

Wilson said these high injury rates have been seen in other states as well, but other states will likely see a drop in injuries over the next couple months as winter weather restricts facility access. In Arizona, however, you can play every sport year-round, which serves as another contributing factor.

Although this season was not the prettiest for the Trojans, who finished 2-8, they made the most of the situation they were dealt.

“It was a fun experience overall, and I’m happy I got to play with the seniors this year,” Weaver said. “The game I had the most fun in was [when] I broke the school record with 17 tackles against Cactus Shadows.”

“Our kids really just have fun,” Davis said. “[They] just never complained. They genuinely felt bad for the kids who had something happen to them, but those kids would show up and cheer for the guys who were playing. And the guys who were playing were just trying to do their best. But you would never know in our locker room that we were having kind of the bad luck year that we got.”

“Toward the end of our season, maybe like the last four games of the season, we really started to build up and come together as a team,” McDaniel said.

Fortunately, the Trojans are now fully healthy and working their way back to full strength.

“This is the most resilient group I’ve been around in my whole [24-year] career. They found a way to come every single day, work hard and have fun, and that’s what the team is about,” Davis said.