Lately, the snapping of the football for the Albert Lea Tigers has meant more than the start of another play. It has also meant the snapping of bones.
In the first game of the season, junior Lucas Hansen was injured when he fell backward and his leg stuck to the ground in the wrong direction. He was in the hospital for the night. Hansen is out of football for the rest of the season.
Hansen isn’t the only person injured this year.
“It stinks that all of these players are out”, Hansen said. “Varsity sports are different.”
Hansen said injuries have held back the team somewhat. Hansen said the team can still recover, though.
“We need to get back healthy and work twice as hard”, Hansen said.
Also, injured was junior Ethan Abben.
“I dropped back to throw, and they rolled under me,” Abben said about his injury.
He was out for two weeks and is now back. This is the first major injury Abben has received.
“Things weren’t going our way,” Abben said, about all the injuries at the beginning of the year. “It happens.”
Abben says the team will have to tough it out together.
Abben said other teams are trying to injure certain players.
“They did it on Friday,” Abben said, referring to the Sept. 30 game.
A third injured player is junior Dan Peterson. Peterson sprained his ankle twice in a row doing drills. He’s out for the rest of the season.
“It happens,” Peterson said. “I don’t know.”
Peterson said the injuries have had an effect on the season as a lot of the injuries have been starters. He said these injuries just need time to heal.
Peterson also said he’s seen other teams injure other players on purpose.
“I’ve seen that happen before, but not usually,” he said.
Head coach Max Jeffrey said that the team is already light on depth, and these injuries deplete the team more. Jeffrey and the other coaching staff are doing what they can to help the team overcome the injuries.
“We’re preparing backups,” Jeffrey said.
Jeffrey said that “all injuries are bad, it’s never good,” but that Hansen’s injury is especially bad. He said the team will never be at 100 percent.
“We won’t be, injuries happen every week,” Jeffrey said. “We’re as close as possible.”
Injuries are going to happen in every sport. They’re a part of everyday life, and that’s not going to stop.
“Injuries are a part of every sport,” Jeffrey said. “It’s the freak ones that are scary.