On Sept. 27, Senior Christian Peuser suffered an injury that ended the remainder of his high-school football career.
“It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life,” Peuser said. “My leg got really hot and then I could feel something moving in it and whenever I tried to straighten it out, it felt like my leg was ripping…it was bad.”
Peuser said that he had to have a four-hour long surgery to repair the damage.
“I had two torn meniscuses, a torn ACL and a torn MCL. They had to take out half of my left meniscus and they had to take off a piece of my kneecap and fill in the bone where it cracked,” he said.
Peuser is expected to be back to activities with his brace five months after the injury, and fully recovered about a year after.
“It probably will [affect me] later on in my life because John Pomatto, the high school sports trainer, said it was so bad that I have the knee of a 45-year-old man,” Peuser said.
Senior Kelsey Slawson has irregular cartilage in her knee.
Slawson played middle hitter in volleyball and post in basketball.
“I was able to play on it because no further damage could be done,” she said.
Slawson had an hour long surgery for her injury and is supposed to have three months of rehab while getting back to activity in six weeks.
Although on the bench, she said “I was just happy to be part of the team. I want success for them so I just cheer a lot.”
Football coach Mike Dumpert knows that sports injuries can have lasting effects on your body.
“I had a major ankle sprain my senior year in basketball that cost me most of my season,” he said.
Dumpert said that because of the injury, he now has arthritis in his ankle.
“In college I separated my shoulder, I have had both my knees operated on, broken six fingers… and I am arthritic because of it,” he said.