Jennifer Botterill
“Jennifer Botterill couldn't drive a car without getting a headache. Bright lights and loud sounds made the symptoms worse. Physical exercise was out of the question.
The two-time Olympic gold medallist and member of Canada's women's national hockey team was suffering from the worst concussion of her career, one that kept her off the ice for four months. The cause: a full speed collision with another player at practice.
"It's one of the toughest injuries to deal with, because honestly, you just have to be so patient," says the Winnipeg native, a fixture on the national team for the past decade.
"Other injuries, you can be active and do active rehabilitation. All I could do was rest."
According to recent findings, Botterill is far from alone. A study of NCAA sports found women playing hockey were more than twice as likely as their male counterparts to suffer concussions. The female game even topped football in concussion numbers, according to the study.
"The honest answer is yes, this is a surprise," says Dr. Michael Czarnota, neuropsychology consultant for the Canadian Hockey League. "There's no fighting in women's hockey, there's no intentional checking. What's left? It's the unintentional collisions, or catching an edge, stepping on a puck or something like that. You take out the two largest contributors to bodily force, fighting and checking, and you still end up with rates that are equal to or higher than men's hockey.
'Alarmingly High' Concussion Rate in Women's Game
Read more:
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/alarmin ... e-1.748095
Brandi Frakie
Former Wayne State forward Brandi Frakie has passed away. She was 22. Brandi Frakie played for Wayne State from 2006 to 2009. Frakie finished her collegiate career on injured reserved.?
“Frakie, who played for the Warriors from 2006 to 2009, died Wednesday, according to?an obituary in the?Star Tribune?of Minneapolis. She had 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in?67 games for Wayne State, with most of her points coming in her freshman season. Frakie was a CHA all-rookie team selection in 2006-07, when she had nine goals and 15 points. She missed the final 13 games of her sophomore season and the first 18 games of her junior season with an injury.”
Former Wayne State Player Frakie Dies
Read more:?
http://www.uscho.com/2010/08/27/former- ... akie-dies/
Sarah Devens
“She told friends that she wanted to take a break, but she didn't dare. How could she? She was Sarah Devens, the best female athlete Dartmouth ever had. She was never the richest or the smartest kid in her class, but when the games began, no one was better. How could she quit sports? Sports was probably the
reason she was there, in the Ivy League, at the top of the academic ladder. The teams needed her. The school needed her.
She was Dartmouth's Tasmanian devil in a do-rag, indefatigable in practice and competition. She never slowed down. "People think sports is so much fun, but it's not always like that," says Daphne Clark, who had known Devens since kindergarten. "Sarah couldn't just go out and enjoy herself. She had to be great. If you're the Devil, people expect perfection."
Of Devens, they may have expected too much. In early July she returned from a field hockey camp in Maryland and was preparing to travel to Boulder, Colo., for the Olympic Festival. In addition, she had made the U.S. "B" team; naturally, she wanted to be on the first team. She was disappointed and depressed, but
most of all, her friends say, she was exhausted. She was tired of trying to be everything to everyone. "In her mind, quitting probably would have seemed selfish," says George Crowe, the women's ice hockey coach at Dartmouth.
Last week, in her bedroom at her father's house in Essex, Mass., she took a .22-caliber rifle and killed herself with a shot to the chest. The Devil couldn't outrun her demons. At age 21, about to begin her senior year in college, Sarah Devens finally slowed down.
...Sarah learned to play ice hockey with her father, Charles Jr., and her two brothers, and she was the captain of the boys' hockey team in junior high. She was twice named the outstanding female athlete at her boarding school, St. Paul's, in Concord, N.H.”
An End Too Soon Dartmouth Grieved Over The Suicide Of Sarah Devens, A Rare Athlete And Friend
Read more
http://www.si.com/vault/1995/07/24/2049 ... and-friend