Many injuries end in a bad note, meaning they can never play the sport they love ever again, dance team member Jade Venable was lucky enough to only tear her ACL and nothing else. Venable is on the dance team and tore her ACL and meniscus last May during her tryouts to try and make the team. She missed out dancing with her teammates during football season.

“I loved dancing at football games so much,” Venable said. “Being on the dance team is easily my favorite thing about school.”

The recovery time for injuries like Venable’s takes a lot of time to heal, she has to be out for 6-12 months post surgery. Being out for that long would not be pleasant, not being able to participate with your teammates and doing the sport you love. 

“I still feel very a part of the team, which I am super grateful for,” Venable said. “I can not wait to get back on the team with my girls, I miss it more than anything.”

Usually when you play a sport in high school the player will most likely go play that sport in college. Venable wants to apart of some college team, but before she can even think about that she needs time to heal and focus on that right now.

“My goal for dance is to hopefully be on some sort of college team,” Venable said. “I feel like it would be such a great experience, but right now I need to focus on healing correctly.”

“Even with her injury causing her not to be able to perform, she still supports the whole team, dance team member Jewel Marsh said. “She shows up to every practice, getting ready with us before games, and just being her positive self throughout the whole season.”

“it really sucked what happened but her ability to bounce back and stay positive has inspired me and the rest of the team,” team member Ruth Steinshouer said. “I am very excited for her to join us again soon.”

“I know this year has been really hard on Jade. Being sidelined from dance team due to her ACL has been disheartening. She has been such an awesome supporter of the team though,” head coach Kymberlee Garcia said. “She still shows her commitment to the team, always coming to practice, team dinners and get togethers. We are really hoping that she will be able to come back and join us for our basketball season.”