As a high school athlete you take your sport seriously and have your goal of an athletic scholarship uppermost in your mind. Your sport could be your ticket to help pay for college. Every high school athlete knows that in a matter of seconds the dream could end. Nothing kills a college athletic career faster than an injury.

But we’ve all heard the phrase “tough it out”. So you’re torn between protecting yourself and being accused of babying your injury.

In a perfect world your coach would immediately recognize the need for you to properly treat your injury, but we all know that doesn’t always happen. So the responsibility is all on you. Only you know if you can “walk it off” or need to spend some time on the bench.

Of course, if you take the proper precautions you can avoid the threat of injury to a certain extent:

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• Practice good nutrition. Eating carbohydrates (pasta, potatoes, rice and breads) the night before an event will help provide your muscles with glycogen, the energy chemical utilized by your muscles.
  
   
• Stretch before and after practices and events.
  
   
• Warm-up for 15 minutes before any event and 5 minutes when you’ve been sitting, such as during halftime.