SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer The female ACL

Female athletes four to eight times more likely, than their male counterparts, to injure their ACL:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/03/26/hm.acl.girls/index.html

Fort Mill's Akilah Bostick tore her ACL (left knee) in last night's game against Clover. Last season, she tore the ACL on her right leg....now she'll have matching scars.

Akilah joins Jamie Gillette on the Fort Mill sideline. Jamie was first-team All Region last season and would have been a strong candidate for All-State and Super 22 this season.

Jamie, a senior, tore her ACL in an indoor game back in December.

Junior Storey DeBrew of T.L. Hanna tore hers on the first day of practice.

Junior Caitlin Robinson tore hers at the end of her freshman year in high school, but managed to make it back in time for encore season.

Boys team? Just don't have the same stories...

Too true! I've seen several girls tear theirs at the Plex and others just playing the game without any real contact. It has to be gender related.

It is my understanding that it comes from females having smaller Quads than their male counterpart. I have several articles reinforcing that female athletes need to extra time working on their Quads and making sure that their left and right Quads are strengthened at the same rate.

I have been around many female players who have suffered from torn ACL's. I know that the trainers have told them that the structure of the female differs so much from the male's in regards to their hips. This causes more stress to be placed on the knee's hinting the more injuries women suffer with ACL tears. The more rehab and strength training a woman does for her hips, the better off she will be in the long run of any athletics.

my team has 5 tears, two of them by one person

Westside's freshman forward, Danielle Boltin, tore her ACL in the opening minutes of a game against Laurens, no contact was made with any opposing player, she just tried to pull back too sharply when crossing the ball. Boltin had 21 Goals and 7 Assists through 11 games to lead the state in scoring at that point in the season. Needless to say, she will be missed.

I feel MASH's pain with Caitlin Robinson's injury in her freshman campaign. The upside is that a younger player, like Boltin or Robinson in 2005, knows that with training and rehab they have more seasons ahead of them to help their team.

As a coach, teammate, fan, or friend, you feel terrible for players like Bostick or Gillette, that are injured during their senior year.

Ryan Roseberry
Westside Girls Soccer