SPORTS

TENNIS

BASKETBALL
Photo Courtesy of Patricia Song (11)
and Yanis Park (11)

SIS GIRLS TENNIS TEAM

FACES RISK OF BECOMING
OVERCONFIDENT

NBA PLAYERS IN A CYCLE

OF WEAR AND TEAR

By Erica Choi

It took him 21,936 hours to return to the hardwood of an NBA

court. Derrick Rose, former Most Valuable Player (MVP) and three
time National Basketball Association (NBA) all-star had to endure
914 days of rehabilitation recovering from his season ending Anterior Cruciate Ligament and meniscus injury. It is evident that the
former MVP was one of the many victims of the wrongly planned
schedule and it is this very schedule that is in need of a change.

Ready to finish the season of 2014, the SIS varsity girls tennis team has achieved great success in emerging victorious in all matches, but now coaches and affiliated personnel worry that the players might lose their original mindsets.
The team has come a long way in terms of their tennis skills, but
its a little concerning that they have never experienced defeat.
In the previous years, they were challenged throughout the year
as they lost matches occasionally, but this year we lack that little bit of motivation, Brent Chesterman, coach of the girls varsity tennis team, said. I think that we can all get complacent
when we continue to win and defeat can help us improve further.

With a notable winning streak as a team, individuals in the team have
also never lost. From the very beginning of the season, the team has
won a victory against SFS, the age-long sports rival, and continued
their march to defeat all other schools easily. As the team continues
to march on, the possibility of the teams overconfidence increases.
I started to take winning as granted because throughout the
season, everyone has won every match. I really gained confidence as I went through the season as I saw how our team was
always victorious, Cinji Lee (9) said. I think that our sportsmanship can become an issue because, at least for me, I
would always enter matches thinking that I would win easily,
The team, in the past, have never showed lacking sportsmanship, but concerns do rise up as the number of victories increase. People who have watched the teams games worry that in the future, the winning might go to the players heads.
I have gotten to know the tennis team really well and I know that they
will never show bad sportsmanship on purpose. However, I agree that
with all teams, a winning streak can lead to arrogance, said Anna
Song (9), manager of the girls varsity team. Hopefully the tennis season will end in a high note with the KAIAC tournament in October 31st.

By Timothy Kim

In each 12 minute quarter, players are forced to grind through highly

intense games where fatigue is bound to follow. This is what their
bodies strives to overcome. But when an athletes body fails to provide enough energy to overcome fatigue, major injuries are inevitable. Even though players realise the only solution to counter this
problem is getting enough rest, this is technically impossible due
to major contributions from the NBA. Such contributions include
cramming mass amounts of games in a limited amount of time.
Players that have sustained severe injuries like Rose are quite common
these days. Considering that 62% of players that suffered ACL tears
were all injured in the second half, it is reasonable to say that these
players arent given enough time to recover because of the wrongly planned schedule that forces players to play continuous games.
With not enough time for recuperation, injuries are bound to follow.
Its just the games. We all as players think its too many
games. In our season, 82 games is a lot, James said.
The solution to this problem is rather simple. Give more time for
players to rest. At the moment, the NBA regular season only last
for three months but in practicality, it can last as long as 6 months
including the playoffs, international competitions like the Olympics
and pre-training camps. To simply expect NBA players to always perform at their highest level every game is the next thing to impossible.
Now with more and more players getting injured, shortening the season is essential and is an action that must be taken by the NBA.
This enables players to come into each game at their best conditions. Shortening the season may be the only reasonable solution, as this is a players only exit out of the cycle of wear and tear.