PAW PRINT October 2013
Sports 5
Payton Sailing to compete on national stage By Wade Wagner Staff Writer
While football, boys soccer, cross country and girls volleyball have been working hard towards success this fall season, Payton Sailing is quietly achieving it’s best season yet. The sailing team enrolled 15 new freshmen to its frosh and JV teams while returning juniors and seniors make up the Varsity squad, bringing the size of the team to over 22 sailors. In terms of practice, Payton Sailing moved to Chicago Yacht Club (CYC) at Belmont Harbor Station last spring, Chicago’s premier junior sailing facility that includes 25 identical sailboats, its own floating clubhouse and 12 powerboats supporting the practices. CYC also houses the St. Ignatius, Latin, and New Trier sailing teams. With these fantastic training partners, pristine equipment and fantastic coaching from col-
The sailing team has also had success at a national level. During the course of the fall season Payton Sailing has qualified for two national championships. First, in September, Payton qualified for the singlehanded national championship at Newport,
Rhode Island in November. Singlehanded sailing is a discipline of high school sailing where one sailor sails a class of boat called the Laser singlehandedly. Secondly, the team qualified for fall doublehanded nationals, called the Great Oaks Regatta, which takes place at the end of November in New Orleans at the prestigious Southern Yacht Club. “The success we’ve seen out of Payton in these past couple months is epic,” said two time college allamerican and Chicago Yacht Club head coach Stephanie Hudson. “Their hard work and focus is paying off massively.” In the near future Payton Sailing looks forward to success at both of these national championships. Down the road, Payton sailing and The Chicago Yacht Club hope to grow this budding team into a national force to be reckoned with.
themselves, so ACL tears need to be surgically repaired. Patients can choose not to get surgery and, through physical therapy, can return the condition of their knee close to a pre-injury state. Those who do choose surgery may choose from three different operations: the allograft (ACL from a cadaver), the hamstring, or the patellar tendon (located along the front of the kneecap). The allograft isn’t a very popular choice amongst patients but has the fastest post-surgery recovery time. The hamstring and patellar tendon each have longer recovery times because the patient has to have therapy on both their ACL and where the borrowed from for the repair but the success rate is typically higher with these options. Patellar tendon surgery has usually been the common choice amongst athletes, recently including Adrian Peterson and Derrick Rose. David Tekien ‘14, who also picked his patellar tendon to repair the tear in his ACL said, “The first few days after surgery were rough, but after a couple weeks of therapy
my knee is finally starting to feel a closer to what it used to.” ACL tears have been occurring more often due to several different factors. Many people blame artificial turf for causing more knee and ankle injuries. Studies have shown that athletes who play on artificial turf fields have a slightly higher percentage of damaging their ACL. This is caused by the turf lessening the athlete’s ability to twist his or her foot once he or she plants it in the ground. Another factor that plays into the increase in these injuries is young people’s over-participation in sports. Doctors believe that young athletes who play the same sport year-round have a higher chance of lower body injury due to the constant use of the same muscle groups without rest. It puts continuous stress on these muscles and wears them down. The best way to avoid it is to take a rest between sports seasons and play different sports. If athletes ever decided to take a break, we could get rid of the growing elevator lines and keep the stairs as crowded as ever.
Payton Sailing leads the pack in boat 17 at the Kickoff Classic Regatta in Wilmette. Photo by Peter Bied ‘14 lege All-Americans and professional sailors, it’s no surprise that Payton has quickly developed one of the most feared sailing teams in all of the Midwest. Over the past couple of months Payton Sailing has enjoyed some astonishing results. In their first
regatta of the season the sailing team became one of the top five qualifying teams to compete in the midwest fall championships. Throughout the season Payton has been at the top of the fleet, claiming podium finishes at nearly every regatta this season.
ACL tears – the rising epidemic By Michael Mazurkiewicz Staff Writer
As the number of injured students seems to rise day-by-day, leg injuries are the most common.There is a high proportion of sprained or broken ankles, butknee injuries are also prominent amongst the walking wounded. The knee injuries that have occurred are results of tears that require surgery to repair. The most serious among these injuries is the dreaded ACL tear.
“Studies have shown that athletes who play on artificial turf fields have a slightly higher percentage of damaging their ACL.” ACLs (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) are located in the middle of the knee underneath the kneecap. Ligaments are bands of connective tissue that can either hold a joint together or connect two bones. This particular ligament is used to prevent the shin bone from sliding in front of the thigh bone, as
well as controlling about 90% of the stability in the knee along with the PCL (Posterior Cruciate Ligament). The ACL also affects other muscles in the region, including the quadriceps, hips, and hamstrings. This ligament can be damaged in a variety of ways. Injuries can occur through overextension of the knee joint, violent hits to the side of the knee, and changes in direction after a sudden stop from running, jumping, or turning. When people do tear their ACL, early symptoms include swelling, a “popping” sound, and pain especially when trying to support weight. Due to the extremity of these occurrences, ACL tears are mainly found in athletes, particularly those who play basketball, football, soccer, skiing, or gymnastics. More of these injuries occur in males, however females are more prone due to physical differences. According to a study done by the NCAA, women are approximately six times more likely to have an ACL injury while they are playing sports. Ligaments are unable to repair
Mike Mazurkiewicz ‘15 waits for the elevator to arrive on the first floor. Photo by Wade Wagner
paytonpawprint.com Highlight (go to online paper to see full article):
What makes an American? By Yanira Gonzalez Staff Writer
Last year in American Studies we went over the question “What makes an American”? In light of racist comments that have been encountered online, specifically on twitter, I would like to bring the question up again. Is an American someone who, simply put, was born in America? Or are there other elements that contribute to the meaning of being
an American? On July 17, baseball fans took to twitter to rant about PuertoRican singer Marc Anthony performing “God Bless America” at an All Star Game, claiming that he along with his performance were “un-American.” Other racist tweets were made questioning the singer’s citizenship. To set the record straight, Marc
Anthony was born and raised in New York. Puerto Rico is also a commonwealth of the United States, automatically making anyone Puerto Rican born a U.S. citizen. Why then was Marc Anthony’s performance labeled as “un-American”? Must a person be of European descent and not a minority in order to be recognized by others as
an American? About a month before the MLB incident, a similar event occurred when 11 year old Sebastien De La Cruz performed the National Anthem at the NBA finals wearing a Mexican charro outfit. This time, basketball fans took to twitter to create a downpour of racist hate on an 11-year-old who was only expressing pride for his
culture.
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