Injury is a negative in any person’s
life. For athletes, especially, injuries
are extremely devastating. Injury strips an athlete of a constant and a love in
their life. Without sport, some athletes
have a hard time coping with things because they cannot participate in
something that they have been doing everyday since they were kids. What makes things worse is when someone gets
hurt right before an important time in the season. This is what happened to me when I was in
high school. In one of my last meets of
the season I tore my ACL while shot putting.
It was a freak accident, but it happened and there was nothing I could
do about it. For a short while I was
demoralized. I was going to have to miss
the conference, regional, and state meets in my senior year. In retrospect, my mindset at the beginning of
this period in my life was horrible, but I think it was a pretty natural
response to such a disappointment.
Although I felt lousy and helpless,
I did have one thing on my side: my coach.
Fortunately for me, Coach Jordan knew exactly what I was going through
because he had torn his ACL when he was younger. My coach gave me the support I needed to stay
positive and helped me find other ways to assist my team. So, I ended up helping to coach some of the
younger throwers for the last few weeks of the season. If it had not been for Coach Jordan, I might
have just wallowed in sorrow for a couple weeks, but he made me feel like a needed
and useful member of the team.
The season ended and my summer
before coming to Notre Dame consisted of getting ready for school and doing a
lot of physical therapy on my knee. Before
I became injured, I had been thinking about trying to walk onto the track
and field team to throw. However, I
thought that at my torn ACL would close that door and I did not even bother
trying to contact the coach. When Coach
Jordan heard this, he gave me a call and told me to email the ND Throws coach
because he had already written an email to send him about me. Luckily I heeded his advice, and within a
matter of a couple months I became a member of the Notre Dame Track and Field
team. If Coach Jordan had not believed
in me, I do not think I would have believed in myself. Earlier this year, when I placed fifth in the
Big East in the weight throw, he called me to tell me how proud and excited he
was for me. This is a great example of a coach who cares about his athletes’
personal lives, sets high (but achievable) goals for them, and sticks with them
through thick and thin. If I ever become
a coach, I want to exemplify these same characteristics so that I can make an
impact on the lives of my athletes, just like Coach Jordan made an impact on
mine.
