They Tried To Make Me Go To Rehab

It was a crisp fall morning. Sun rays caught on slowly dying leaves hanging from trees lining the field. My mind was perfectly focussed thanks to free hotel coffee and Rachel P, Alex ‘16’s superb and highly nutritious breakfast cooking skills. Warmup was going smoothly. I breathed in cold air, which tickled my lungs as our team gathered the balls just outside the circle.   When my turn came, I herded a white dimpled ball from the pile and nudged it towards Caitlin W, Mack ‘16 who was standing parallel to me. Upon receiving the ball back, I tapped it just barely into the circle. With a deep breath, I gripped my stick just above my navy blue tape. Keep your eyes on the ball, shoulders square, step, cross, step, hit, follow through. I didn’t look up until I heard the sharp crack of my shot hitting the backboard of the net. I had just been called off the field. Brentwood had the ball, and it looked like we had a chance of scoring, so I was waiting for a better opportunity to run off the field. Our midfielders had just hit a pass up to the right winger: a perfect chance. I was off sprinting. No one was crowding me, I was free, I was open. As the goalpost – my favourite place to be—came up fast, something terrible happened. As my weight came down on my left foot, I felt myself waver, my ankle buckled and I began to fall in slow motion. I could see my teammates moving farther away from me as I moved closer to the ground. My stick drifted out of my grip and I heard a sickening crack coming from my ankle. I soon found myself on the ground; pain pounded and pulsated through my left ankle.  Being the - a) tough and determined or b) completely stupid - field hockey player I am, I attempted to get up and run it off. This soon proved to be impossible as I stumbled with the precision of a highly intoxicated person. After excessive limping, physiotherapy assessments, ice, elevation, Advil, precautionary taping, crutches, and finally a visit to the ER, my injury was declared a high ankle sprain. When I returned to school I saw that my schedule read Sport: Rehab. I was mildly confused at first, but I soon learned what rehab as sport was. On sport days, the amazing Mrs. Scheck runs a pretty decent sized rehab program in one of the gyms. Mrs. Scheck – with input from Brentwood’s physiotherapist—takes each of our individual injuries into account and decides what exercises and movements will benefit us the most. She manages to pay attention to us all, and make sure we are doing our exercises properly. I always just assumed that if someone was injured, they were off sport, and that sucked for them. However, now that I have (unfortunately) sustained an injury myself, I have found out about what really happens when you get injured at Brentwood. Coaches and other staff band together in an effort to get students back to sport as well healed and as quickly as possible. Mrs. Scheck and all the coaches honestly care about us and our injuries and it really shows in how dedicated they are and how well they do their jobs. I can now say that I truly appreciate it. Resting, icing, compressing and elevating, Jaclyn C, Alex ‘16