What are the chances of high school athletes getting injured during their four years of high school? A whopping 90% of student athletes get some kind of sports related injury. All student athletes take on big risks by participating in sports.

Some risks come with higher odds that others.  The top three high school sports that rack up the most injuries are football at 50%, soccer at 45%, and basketball at 44%.

The most common type of injury that occurs in football is the knee injuries.  Because of the aggressive tackling, studies have shown that many students are known to get ACL tears due to this reason.

In soccer, it has been proven that concussions are at the top of the list for soccer-related injuries.  In a Perdue University study, researchers found that up to 22%  of all high school soccer injuries are concussions.  The study concluded that because of players’ eagerness to use their heads to direct the ball, many players end up concussed.  According to a 2016 study conducted by the University Colorado,  43 percent of high school soccer injuries overall (including concussions) happened when athletes collided with another player.

Basketball may not seem like an injury-prone sport, however, that has been proven wrong time and again.  Many players get broken or sprain fingers from this activity, but the most common high school injuries that need advanced sports treatment include ankle sprains, achilles tendonitis and knee tendonitis.

Sports injuries may support the idea that playing is not necessary, but sports may be the one thing that helps high school students succeed.. In order to play on a school sports team, students need to also be doing well academically.  It is a school rule that if you are failing classes in school, you are not able to participate on the sports team.

Many student-athletes use this as a motivation to strive and do better academically so that they can continue playing the sport they love!