Gotta play hurt

Gene Steinmeyer

Last fall, my 15-year old son, Sam, complained of headaches when he worked out. It first popped up when he was taking pitching lessons. Then he complained of headaches in Matt Webb’s Advanced Fit class.

Of course, being a crusty, old coach, my first thought was rub some dirt on it and you’ll be fine. I know Sam’s not a big fan of lifting, so I thought it might be a good way to avoid the barbells. Since he is my kid, I guess I worried when the headaches progressed into the spring. We finally found the problem. Sam had fairly minor surgery, although it was on the head, and now he’s fine. No excuses now.

One of my favorite authors is Dan Jenkins. Jenkins’ first novel was Baha Oklahoma, followed by Dead Solid Perfect and Semi-Tough. All of those novels are humorous looks at professional sports. Baha Oklahoma actually had an unknown actress playing a teenager by the name of Julia Roberts and Dead Solid Perfect made a pretty good HBO movie that starred Randy Quaid. However, even Burt Reynolds couldn’t save the disaster moviemakers put together based loosely on Semi-Tough.

Another of Jenkins’ books was called You Gotta Play Hurt. It’s a book about Jenkins’ favorite team, the TCU Horned Frogs. As the battle cry goes, “Fear the Frog.” Playing hurt has always been my philosophy when it came to injuries among the players I coached. It didn’t always turn out the greatest.

My first experience with serious injury came when I was functioning as an assistant junior high football coach in Milford, Nebraska in 1975. We had to walk about a quarter mile from the middle school locker room to the practice field.

After one practice, one of our defensive backs limped up and said he had hurt his leg. I looked at him and thought, “Rub some dirt on it.” It certainly didn’t look serious. I made him walk unassisted to the locker room. The next morning I found out the kid was in the hospital with a broken femur bone. He even needed surgery. I decided I wasn’t very good at diagnosing injuries.

When you are a head varsity coach, there’s a little more desperation to get your best players on the floor. Angie Miller was a post player for me at Wilber-Clatonia High School. She would go on to start for Nebraska all four years of her eligibility.

One morning before a big game Angie’s freshman year, her boyfriend called me out of class. His nickname while playing on the football team was “Pep Club” Peevler. “Pep Club” invented injuries to get off the football field and receive the sympathy of the pep club.

“Pep Club” was almost in tears as I greeted him. He told me Angie’s back was really hurting her. He told me if I played her, she could possibly be paralyzed from her injuries. I didn’t trust “Pep Club,” but it was at least worth checking with Angie.

I found Angie during the lunch hour. When I asked her about her back, she said she felt fine. When I told her with my visit with her boyfriend, you could see she was getting angry. I don’t think “Pep Club” kept that girlfriend much longer. Angie never missed a game in four years with injuries.

Sarah Vollertsen was a 6-foot-2 post player for the Bearcats. During her senior year in 2003-2004, she led Northwest women’s basketball to its first conference tournament championship in 20 years. She was named MVP of the tournament, a first-team MIAA selection and an All-American Honorable Mention.

There were three things you could always count on with Sarah. She would score a lot of points, she would block a lot of shots, and she would always be injured during preseason drills. It might be her knee or a pulled muscle.

One preseason she failed on her timing of her injury. Sarah had an appendectomy just as preseason was ending. Her body had let her down. A month earlier and she wouldn’t have had gone to a single preseason workout.

Stretching has become a big thing in sports. You now see long sessions of athletes stretching every conceivable muscle before practices and games. They tell me it’s prevention against injury. It also provides a great excuse for a break.

Some of my athletes figured it out. About the time practices would get really intense, I could count on certain players to come to the sidelines and ask the athletic trainer to help stretch them out. I thought all that early stretching should do the trick. I’m pretty sure their hamstrings weren’t tight, but it was just time for a break. I could hardly object. Did I want to see my basketball players injured?

Kelly Quinlin and Nick Peters, the head and assistant trainers at Northwest, work hard to get players back on the court. I don’t think Kelly or Nick ever ask a player to rub dirt on an injury, but even they will admit, sometimes you just gotta play hurt.