Special Health Care Section: Knee Injuries Plague Local Athletes

By Seth Herrold
R-T Sports Editor
Injuries and sports go hand in hand. You have to take the bad with the good.
Injuries happen at every level of sports from elementary school through the professional level. Some are minor, others are not. For the Trenton High School girls’ basketball team, however, injuries have come in a flurry, at least major knee injuries.
For three seasons in a row, Trenton has had to ride out the end of the season with one of their key players on the bench.
In the 2013-2014 season, sophomore Daryian Otto tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her knee. Otto was only a sophomore and the injury occurred in a junior varsity game, but on a roster that consisted of just 12 players that season, her loss was a blow to the program.
The following season, 2014-2015, McKinley Hurley went down at the end of a fast break at the Ketcham Community Center during North Central Missouri College’s Holiday Hoops. Another year, another ACL. This one, however also included a broken tibia and fibula. Hurley was Trenton’s leading scorer and a senior when she succumbed to the injury.
This past season, 2015-2016, Trenton lost another starter and senior in Ally Ockenfels, who suffered a meniscus micro fracture and cartilage damage in her knee.
“When injuries come up, it’s just part of it,” Lady Bulldogs’ Head Coach Brian Upton said. “You have to come up with a solution. You know, all of those injuries put us in tough situations, but it forced other kids into different roles and that isn’t always a bad thing.”
While Trenton’s run of bad luck has been prominent with three such injuries in three years, the number of knee injuries in girls’ basketball has been on the rise across the area in recent years. Several teams such as Gallatin and Cameron have lost girls’ basketball stars to knee injuries in the past years, though few schools have seen the ‘epidemic’ Trenton has.
While the injuries have definitely plagued Trenton, each of the trio of Lady Bulldogs has had success stories, battling back from the injuries. That’s thanks in large part to modern medicine which has made knee injuries, once career-enders, just a hurdle to overcome on the road to recovery.
For Otto and Ockenfels, basketball was a second sport. They needed to recover and quickly. Both had less than the standard amount of time to get back into action. Otto was able to recover from her ACL injury in time to pitch softball the following spring
“Rehab sucked a lot,” Otto said. “I was in there three times a week for three hours and then I had to do my own physical therapy at home too, so I had physical therapy every single day.
“But, I knew I wanted go get back by the end of April, beginning of May for spring season. That would be four or five months after surgery, which isn’t typical. It was my brace leg for pitching also, so that worried me. I just had to strengthen it a lot and it took a lot, a lot of work.”
The hard work paid off for Otto, though. The next fall she was 8-1 with a 1.38 ERA for Trenton’s softball team. She struck out 84 batters while sharing pitching duties. At the plate she was a .373 hitter with a team-high 27 RBIs. The ultimate reward at the end of her journey - first team all-state recognition.
Ockenfels’ turnaround was even quicker. Though her injury wasn’t as severe as the other two, Ockenfels was able to go through surgery and return just in time for the second half of the track and field season where she excelled in throwing the shot put.
“Once I got off crutches I had six weeks of light pressure so I was really only able to swim and ride an exercise bike,” Ockenfels said. “My injury wasn’t as detrimental as Daryian or McKinley’s. It was mainly cartilage, so once that got back and the cushioning was there again I didn’t even really notice it. It still gives out on me every once in a while, but I would say I’m fully healed at this point.”
For Hurley, the road back may have been the longest. The broken bones had to be fixed before the surgery on her ACL could be performed. But Hurley, like the others, got back. Her high school career was behind her but she was determined not to have that injury be her final memory in athletics.
“I had to wait a couple of months before I could get my ACL surgery because of the broken bones,” Hurley said. “After it happened I was like, ‘this is my senior year, this is really rough,’ but then I decided I didn’t want it to end like that. My coaches sent me a lot of texts encouraging me and Daryian was a big help too. As soon as it happened she said ‘let me know if you need anything or if you need to talk because it is mentally tough.’ It was a big help to have her there.”
Otto was able to be there for both of her teammates in the wake of their injuries lending a helping hand or ear whenever it was needed.
“I liked being there for them,” Otto said. “Everyone told me they were sorry for me and they understood, but really they didn’t understand. Now that I knew exactly what they were going through, I could tell them that it was going to get better, it really will.”
While the injuries were tough, they were also motivation for the three athletes. All three were able to find their way back from injury and write more chapters in their athletic careers.
“One thing they all had in common, after the initial shock and information about the injury, is that all three were determined to rehab and get back as quick as possible,” Upton said. “It was incredible how quick they recovered and got back from those injuries. The common thread is the hard work and determination those girls had.”