During the 2023-2024 school year, Camas High School (CHS) students have been spotted roaming the halls with significant injuries. However, is this only a coincidence or the loose threads of a more substantial story? 

Kenyon Thompson, a member of the CHS football team, said he twisted his leg during a game about four months ago. He believes that student injuries could be coming from a lack of preparation, especially when it comes to nutrition. He claims that athletes may not be eating healthy enough diets, and it may lead to weakness during sports. He also says that football is a relatively easy sport to get injured in.

“If you sign up [for football], you know you’re going to get hurt. No one comes out of there fine,” Thompson said.

However, can all these recent injuries be boiled down to a lack of nutrition? Emme Nieto, a member of the Varsity Girls Soccer team, said that she hurt her knee playing against Union on Oct. 24. Despite this, she does not think it is a widespread occurrence for these injuries to happen. There may be no feasible relation. 

Jacob Howell, the Sports Medicine teacher at CHS, says that injuries tend to cluster. He has noticed that most sports-related injuries have been in soccer and football, and the most common type of injury as of late has been concussions.

Mia Thorburn, a member of the CHS Varsity Volleyball team, was playing against Prairie when she dove for the ball and hit her head on the ground, causing a concussion that she was unaware of until the next day. 

“I think [the injuries] are definitely connected [to sports]. There’s a lot higher risk of getting injured playing your sport than just sitting in the classroom all day,” Thorburn said.

However, have sports been the cause of all injuries? CHS student Lauren Mitchell says otherwise with her unlikely school injury story. On Oct. 20, Mitchell was working at The Lunchbox, and there was a puddle of water and ice on the floor that she slipped on, causing her to hit her head and gain a concussion. Mitchell claims that she thinks these school injuries are more of a coincidence. Some people got injured from sports, whereas Mitchell was wounded more unusually. 

So, are these injuries indeed all just odd chances? Coincidence or not, Howell claims that there should be more of a prime focus on what CHS can do as a school to prevent these injuries from happening in the first place. He hopes to start a concussion workshop or handouts to spread information to athletes and coaches. 

Even if school injuries might not be such a common phenomenon, both student-athletes and coaches plan to do their best to be informed on how to prevent these injuries and keep everyone safe in the future.