Torn ACLs, PCLs, and broken or dislocated bones are becoming the new norm for Etowah’s fall sports teams football and competition cheer, leading to a decline in wins this season.
Both football and cheer believed this year was their year, as their teams were stacked with some valuable assets. Football started the season undefeated, but following the injury of two quarterbacks and a running back, the team began to see more losses than wins. Alongside the football team, competition cheer had not even competed once before their athletes began to get hurt, causing a rocky start for the Lady Eagles.
“This season has definitely thrown the team for a loop. While, we are used to having a few injuries during our season, we have never dealt with anything like this,” McKenzie Miklitsch, Etowah competition cheer coach, said.
Unfortunately, two senior football players were injured halfway through the 2023 season, one of them being Jack Strickland, the first string quarter back. Strickland broke his wrist and needed surgery, putting a major setback in his final year of his high school football career. Shortly after, ACLs began tearing left and right, starting with the running back, Reece Wehr, and the second string quarterback, Xavier Mahoney, just a few practices later. Because of these devastating events, the football team has been working twice as hard to make up for the missing players.
“[It] sucks to be writing this 2 months early, but thank you to the best community there is for the best eight years of my life and the relationships I have built through it,” Reece Wehr, senior, said in an instagram post.
The competition cheer team has also had their share of ups and downs this season, as their cheerleaders injured themselves one after another before even competing at their first competition. Due to the multitude of athletes unable to be on mat, they did not go to the first competition; however, once the Lady Eagles had enough healed athletes able to compete, they went on to win first place at North Paulding. Most thought they would have a great rest of their season, until Morgan Bradley, one of their strongest athletes, tore her shoulder, leaving the team in a bind when going to compete at Regions.
“When my accident happened, the first thought that ran through my head was that my senior season was at an end. I was sad I could no longer cheer on the sidelines and on the comp floor, and all of that was taken from me in a blink of an eye. Understanding that everything happens for a reason is the only thing getting me through this accident. Etowah will always be number one in my heart,” Morgan Bradley, senior, said.
With injuries spreading like a virus, the football and competition cheer teams at Etowah are struggling to stay afloat. As winning streaks go down the drain, the Etowah community hopes for quick recoveries for each of the injured athletes.
