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SPORTS
The Highlander
February 2016
Spring Preview Getting benched by your body “The loss of so many seniors has a significant impact on our team, but it means that there is room for new players to become leaders.” Baseball
Connor Loucks Senior
“We’re going to be a younger team this year, but once we get into the groove of things, I think we are going to do pretty well.” Softball
Jacey Phipps Senior
“It’s really amazing how much the program has grown in the three years I have been here, and I think this season will turn out great.” Lacrosse
Caroline Concilla Junior
“We have our sights set on an undefeated season. We did lose some seniors, but I am confident that we will step up to the challenge.” Swimming
Lukas Kelly Senior
“We did well last year and we didn’t lose too many seniors so I think we will do even better than last year if people kept improving.”
Tennis
Kevin Hutchaleelaha Senior
“Our team has a lot of promise. We have new players who can help contribute to our overall performance this upcoming season.” Badminton
Senior
Mitchell Netto Senior
“We have a few experienced players looking to lead the team. With a bit of practice, our team will be able to do really well this season.” Volleyball
You want to play. It’s your sport; it’s what you do. This is your game. But it’s also your body, and you only get one of those to last you your whole life. Getting sidelined by injuries involves a struggle between the athlete’s desire to get on back into the game as quickly as possible and the knowledge that going back too soon is an easy path toward worsening the injury and not being able to play for even longer. “I’d say that, personally, being benched for an injury, whether it’s in a game or practice, makes me feel almost anxious. It’s like I’m letting myself down or my team just because I’m missing time on the field or in the weight room,” said varsity football player senior Jake Kumamoto. “It also motivates me to work harder, like doing rehab or stretching to get back to 100 percent.” Returning to play isn’t just about being physically ready. Many athletes experience anxiety and fear about returning to play -- they may be worried about having lost their previous states of fitness and ability or re-injuring themselves, both of which are fears that can be detrimental to their performance and safety. “I know that in games when I had
THE
Chris Ding Junior
ALYSSA FAGEL
injuries, I would subconsciously try to avoid using whichever body part is hurt, which affected my ability,” said Kumamoto. Every athlete who has dealt with injury can relate to this dilemma. The goal is to get cleared to play, which does not necessarily mean the athlete is completely healed. “When it comes to injury rehabilitation, it’s really impossible to separate what’s going on in the athlete’s brain from what happens in the rest of the body,” said Douglas D. Glazer, assistant professor of sports science at Endicott College in Massachusetts. “If an athlete’s psychological readiness before competition is low, waiting a little longer before returning to the playing field may be the most safe course of action.” Freshman Kaylee Leong was injured on Jan. 14 during a girls JV soccer game versus Woodside High School. She was kicked in the knee by an opposing defender, and test results later showed that she had torn her ACL. Despite the severity of the damage, Leong maintains a positive outlook on her injury. “I wouldn’t call it being benched; it’s more that you’re on the disabled list. Being injured is hard to deal with because you aren’t able to train and
play with your team in the game you love, but there is also another side to it,” said Leong. “It lets you watch your team play and be able to see what you can do to help your team excel from a different point of view and cheer on your team.” Good, well-rounded fitness is a significant factor in avoiding injury in the first place, and can also help lessen the severity of injury and accelerate recovery. Prompt treatment and dedicated rehabilitation are key in responding to an injury so that an athlete can get back in the game as soon as possible. Sitting on the bench while an athlete heals can be frustrating, but it is a necessary process in getting back to their sport. High school students in particular often have a hard time weighing the pros and cons of pushing an injury too quickly due to the impatience to get back on the field. However, high school sports only last four years, and an athlete’s body has to last a whole lifetime. “It was really hard to go from playing a sport every day to not being able to do anything, and I was very bored,” said senior Lauren McDonnell, who was kept off the field by a serious concussion. “People need to keep their spirits up and realize that they can heal and get back to the game soon.”
HIGHLANDER
Editor-in-Chief Zoe Wildman
Managing Editor Alyssa Fagel
Art Director Minh-Han Vu
ScotCenter Editor-in-Chief Elena Mateus
Scot Scoop Editor-in-Chief Sarah Schisla
Faculty Adviser Justin Raisner
Editors Kelly Song Avery Adams Kimiko Okumura Adriana Ramirez Mona Murhamer Jill Albertson Connor Lin Sarah Tocatlian Jordan Hanlon
Alex Lay
“I think we are going to do well this year. We have a ton of really fast freshmen and a lot more runners this year than we used to.” Track
Aria Frangos
Staff Writers Lily Bakour Chesirae Barbano Rachel Borschchenko Brooke Chang Holly Chen Nicole del Cardayre Aria Frangos Karen Gao Nate Godwin
Josef Gonzalez Sophie Haddad Artie Hazelton Leea Ivanel Kian Karamdashti Bijan Khalili Estella Lippi Anya Meredith Seiya Mirande
Isabel Mitchell Jackson Monge Ivy Nguyen Mackenzie O’Connell Kiera PendletonWhite Sophie Penn Hanalei Pham Justin Som
Ally Stein Taran Sun Megan Tao Jiselle Vigil Skylar Weiss Celine Yang Hannah Young Jason Zheng
The Highlander is a newspaper dedicated to providing Carlmont students, staff, and the community with high-quality news, features, and opinion articles. We want to keep our readers informed on important issues ranging from events at Carlmont to international news, and want to engage them with unique stories and images. The Highlander is a publication completely run by the students of the journalism classes at Carlmont High School. Story ideas are generated by the students and the published content is up to the discretion of the editorial staff.