Hitting your head with an opposing team member. Being cleated while trying to gain possession of the soccer ball. Aggressively pushing and shoving the competition. Twisting your ankle while running down the field. These are just a few examples of what could happen to any player while participating in the sport of soccer.

It was Saturday, September 30th, when the Girls’ Varsity Soccer goalkeeper Meredith Iverson, 9, was guarding the net. She sustained an injury after a girl, from the opposite team, hit her in the face around her left eye.

“It was the first half and there was three minutes left,” said Iverson. “The ball came at me and I went for it and the girl just kept running and kneed me in the head.”

Iverson was pulled off the field immediately and eventually taken to the hospital once they realized further medical attention would be needed.

“We went to the hospital” Iverson said. “I got a scan and they told me my orbital bone, which is a bone in my eye socket, had a fracture in it and that tissue was caught in the bone.”

Iverson is now not allowed to play soccer until the doctors decide if she needs surgery or not. If she does need surgery, Iverson guesses it will be another month until she is allowed to be active in sports again.

Iverson, however, was not the only girl to experience an injury this year on the Girls’ Varsity Soccer team. The team’s strikers, Addy Crouse, 9, and Kadenn Martin, 9, were also injured.

Crouse suffered a concussion during a game against Greencastle. Having hit her head twice in the game, Crouse didn’t realize something was wrong until afterward when she was feeling dizzy and her head hurt.

“The trainer for Greencastle came over to me and was checking me out,” Crouse said. “She just said to go home and rest, but then I was trying to walk to the bus and I couldn’t even stand up straight.”

Crouse was then taken to the hospital where she was told that she could not play for two weeks. To prevent concussions from happening again, Crouse is supposed to wear a headband while playing soccer so that impacts to her head will not be as severe.

One of the other strikers, Martin, had torn her ACL. About eight months ago, Martin said she had hyperextended the tendon and that is when it originally tore. However, Martin did not realize  she was injured until a Northern game a few weeks ago when it started bothering her. After playing a whole season being injured, Martin’s ACL is completely torn and she has to receive surgery.

“After that [surgery], it will take up to nine months to a year recovery,” Martin said.  “It [ACL] hurts all the time, but there’s nothing I can do about it until I get surgery.”

All three athletes had a huge role on the soccer team and their absence forced the team to shift their line-ups and strategy. The girls are on their way to recovery so they are hoping to be ready to play next year.