A sports injury can really hurt. It can take people out of  their sport for a long time, hurt your motivation, cause skills to regress and can really set you back. Yet, it can also make you stronger. When recovering from an injury, time is suddenly opened up for self-improvement and building mental strength, so players can come back even stronger and better than they were when they got hurt. Jamesen Wiley is a freshman who runs cross country and is a great example of this: he injured his foot and has been out from running for a few months. Now recovering from a fractured foot, he is on his climb back up to the top of the team. Wiley has spent the past few months in a cast from his foot injury and has been working on himself mentally and physically to come back stronger. 

“Staying positive while you are hurt is very important, and wanting to get better can be hard to do when you are hurt and can’t run, but staying positive and working to get better and not losing your focus can help you get better and get back to your sport fast” Wiley said. Wiley worked with his coach, his doctor and his physical therapist to find the right regimen for being healthy even when he couldn’t run or complete everyday tasks. He was motivated to make sure he was ready to come back even stronger than before. Wiley spent a lot of that time making sure he ate the right things and drank the right amount of water to maintain a healthy diet for a speedy recovery. Getting injured in a sport hurts both physically and mentally. It forces you to take time off from your sport, but Wiley worked hard to get healthy quickly to get back to running.