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Warrior girls sustaining ACL injuries at eight times the rate of boys

The journey through sports includes major setbacks
February 17, 2017

Warrior Girls - I read the book “Warrior Girls” by Michael Sokolove in 2009, when it was first published. The book focuses on sports injuries sustained by young girls, in particular ACL and generalized knee injuries. They occur for girls at eight times the rate of boys. Since I read the book, two of my granddaughters have sustained ACL tears, Anna at Temple and Katie while playing field hockey at Cape. The most recent bad news is Jamie Trabaudo tore her ACL and MCL while at practice with the North Carolina lacrosse team. Jamie is a stud athlete by way of Polytech, having bolstered their field hockey and lacrosse teams the last four years. Recently, more hip-related injuries have sidelined the warrior girls of the western world. Certainly all Division I college programs have injury prevention programs in place, but women in sports are bigger and stronger and faster than ever and, therefore, generating a lot of torque and tension on tendons and ligaments. I’d like to write a book about stud players from the women’s game who ran the wheel through college sports, having them look back at the journey and tell the story in their own words without coach or parent comments.

Dania down - Cape freshman guard Dania Cannon is the basketball team’s leading scorer and best ball handler. During the last game versus Smyrna, she went down with a knee injury that has apparently ended her season. Dania will undergo an MRI to assess the exact nature of her injury, hopefully nothing requiring medical intervention. 

Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen wrote the song about satellite radio cruising the highway at night where all music is the same - “This is radio nowhere, isn’t anybody alive out there?” Here's what I like about the Georgetown/Millsboro sports culture, which is very much alive and intact and makes no apologies and takes no prisoners. They are unabashedly proud of who they are and their traditions, and when it comes to wrestling against them, you are grappling with 50 years of people, many of whom are in the stands. I call it getting a good dose of a culture that never went away, and I like it. Cape couldn't close them out in the DIAA Dual Meet Championship semifinals Feb. 14, and the Golden Knights journeyed on to sting Smyrna for the state title in Phil and Chip’s last season (they don’t need last names in this column). Sussex Central has endured new school players on the block like Sussex Tech and Sussex Academy, but Tuesday was a proud moment for the Georgetown/Millsboro people who stayed true to their school. They broke my Cape heart - they are a pain in the butt - but I must be happy for them. They are street fighters and, like the country song, “The road goes on forever but the party never ends.”

Hat trick house - Temple had four players score hat tricks in a come-from-behind 18-16 home win over Monmouth University Feb. 15. Shown in the accompanying photo are (l-r) Nicole Berretta (Downington East), Amber Lambeth (Souderton), Carly Demato (Shawnee) and Anna Frederick (Cape Henlopen). Coach Bonnie Rosen told her team that the final four-and-a-half minutes of the game were simply stunning. I asked coach Rosen, “Have you ever coached a game with four players scoring hat tricks?” Coach looked slightly stunned herself and said, “I just don’t know.” Carly Demato scored her three goals in the first half before two yellow cards, which equals one soft red, sent her to the bench. Anna Frederick scored all three of her goals in the final 6:24 on the game, including one at .3 seconds remaining to cause the student website announcer to scream, “and there’s the nail in the coffin!” Wait, who puts a nail in a coffin? A rather macabre reference. How about, “Drone strike! Toast!”

Snippets - I have written this column for the last 35 years, so I can safely say it is my column. I write about where I am and what I see and sometimes I may mention a chicken dinner fundraiser or someone’s new puppy. I have an extended sports family that bleeds into other families - sports is all about connections. “What are you trying to say, Fredman?” I’m saying we all have families we like to talk about, but not everyone has their own column, but I do. Just wait until senility creeps into my brain wiring, then the columns will be really fun. Go on now, git!

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