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Past Injuries Inspire Athlete to Help Others
By Andrea Powell
Sarah Brandenberger, pole vaulting champion and junior representative
for Homecoming at Mars Hill College, is also an athletic training major who
enjoys helping injured players. Few of those she has helped know that her
compassion and caring has come from a first-hand understanding of what it
is like to be injured when you are a competitive athlete reaching for the
top.
When Brandenberger was eight years old, she attended a gym called Horizon Gymnastics in
Port Charlotte, Florida. She trained in all four events of gymnastics --
base, beam, vault, and floor exercise. She started at level two and moved
quickly to level six. By the age of ten she was already to level eight.
"I had to switch to another gym because Horizon was not able
to help me go further at such a young age and a high level of gymnastics,” she
said.
She then began attending Gymnastics World, which was in Fort Meyers,
Fl. She drove an hour and a half to practice, practiced for three hours,
and drove for another hour and a half to return home. She didn't have time
for friends or anything but training and school.
She began training at level nine the following summer. She spent two years
in level nine, traveling all over the country, from Florida up to Ohio and
all the way over to Nevada. “I had the time of my life until my last
season of level nine. At the second meet of the season I was doing vault,
which is called a tsukahara, and I landed wrong.” About
ten minutes later her ankle had swollen to the size of a softball. She learned
at the hospital later that she had broken her ankle.
It was a set-back, but she recovered and had qualified to level
10 by the age of 15. Level 10 is considered the pre-elite level, the level
right before the Olympics. By the time you get there you are considered a
Division One prospect.
She was now a sophomore at North Port High School and already had offers
from two Division One colleges. Her ankle was feeling great. However, just
as she thought her body was back to normal, she felt a sharp pain in her
left knee.
When Brandenberger went to the doctor, she was told she had severe Osgood-Schlatter
Disease in her left knee. The doctors discovered through X-ray that she was
about two weeks away from breaking her knee.
She realized that if her knee broke, she wouldn't just be out of gymnastics
for the rest of her life, but out of every other athletic activity as well.
After talking with her parents and her coach, she decided to take a six-month
break.
"At that high level, without any training for an extended period,
I lost skills and I just couldn’t get back to where I needed to be…
“A big part of me deciding to pursue athletic training
in college had to do with my injury. I wanted to be able to help others,
hopefully helping their injury so they can continue with sports.”
Sarah (front right) with friends
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She might have been devastated. But in fact, during the break, she realized
she had been missing out on other things. She got to experience "high
school life" for the first time. She had been spending all her time
in the gym. "Honestly I loved getting to have a social life."
She began track in high school and shortly became very good in pole
vault. She placed fifth in district her junior year and first in district
her senior year.
She then received a scholarship for pole-vaulting at Mars Hill and
was eager to join the Athletic Training program.
So far at Mars Hill she is the conference champ and holds the school record
in pole vaulting and her 4x1 relay team.
"I’m attempting to start learning javelin; I have improved
a little since last year, so maybe that will turn out good for me this year."
After graduating next December she plans on attending a graduate
school to earn her masters degree. She is not sure where she wants to go
yet but plans to master in athletic training.
She passes onto others what her experience has taught her: "For almost
any sport, try not to let set-backs influence you. If possible, try and work
your hardest through it. What at one point you thought was what you were
meant to do can lead you to other great things that you can do just as well."
Once she was a top-level gymnast, ranked at the top of her age group and
within sight of competing for the Olympics.
Injuries caused her to change direction.
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