Atlantic High School football has had to face many challenges and has gone through a lot of adversity this year. It seems as if there was a domino-effect with injury after injury.

There have been many members of the team that have sustained an injury of some form. The injured members of the team include or have included: Zac Stork, Kyle Nelson, Dillon Sonntag, Noah Bruckner, Nate Gifford, Ben Renaud, John McConkey, Nick Edwards, Drake Roller, Zeke Whetstone, and Grant Podhajsky.

Stork, Nelson, Sonntag, Bruckner, and Edwards have all had concussions. Head football coach Eric Waldstein said, “Concussion protocol has been amped up so they are on the lookout for concussions more than they have in the past.” Stork, Nelson, Sonntag, and Edwards have all returned, but Bruckner will not be returning to finish out the 2015 season.

There have been other injuries with other players as well. Roller has had a sprained MCL, but has since returned. Gifford tore his ACL, McConkey broke his femur, Renaud broke his ankle, Whetstone has a stress fracture in his ankle and an enlarged spleen, and Podhajsky had his appendix removed. These players will not be returning to play in the Trojan Bowl this season.

Waldstein said that this has just been a “bad year” when talking about the amount of injuries. “Most of them are unavoidable, freak things, not much we can do,” Waldstein said. Never in his 18 years of coaching has Waldstein seen this many injuries in one season on one team.  “It’s worse with a lot of these guys because they are two way starters,” Waldstein said.

Everyone on the team has had to step up in some way, shape, or form this season. Every person on this team has worked harder and gotten more reps in to fill in with what players the team has lost. Waldstein said, “Just about every guy on the team has had to step up. It has affected everybody, everybody has had to step up.”