Author: bristolhardman2

The Impact injuries have on College Athletes

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By Bristol Hardman
Madison County High School

When it comes to student athletes injuries, there is a lot that goes into their recovery behind the scenes that fans don’t get to see. The athletes have to go through physical therapy and have to build strength back up in whatever part of their body got hurt. Lots of athletes can develop what is known as ” Depression”. Depression is a mood disorder that has persistent sadness, lack of energy, and loss of interest in an activity. This can lead to athletes giving up during physical therapy or during the practices to help them come back healthy, which could also result in it taking longer for the athlete to get back on to the field/ court.

“I felt like I let my team down,” said the Georgia Bulldogs running back, who has just finished his junior year at the University of Georgia (UGA) and has won 2 SEC championships. He is from Compton and South Central, California. He started football when he was 5, after his mom signed him up for a youth track club. After starting football, he went and scored three touchdowns in his first game.

After limping off the field at the Red and Black game. The running back suffered an ankle injury that resulted in him not being able to finish the scrimmage on head coach Kirby Smarts orders. “It prevented me from playing the sport I loved,” he said. He was asked how he kept his mental wellbeing high, “You have to keep your head up.” During the Georgia Bulldogs running back’s freshman year, he was on fire. The stats were high and the speed was even faster.

Baylee Beachler, a softball athlete at Robert Morris, agrees that her injury affected her mentally. “My injury affected me physically by making me feel out of place and without a purpose, it messed up my every day routines and took away my ability to do what I love.” In 2025, she was the first women in Pendleton County High School to sign with a Division 1 program. She is from Franklin, West Virginia. She suffers from a torn tendon in her shoulder. ” It affected my mental health by making me feel left out because I could never do anything with my team. It also made me feel worthless because my every day revolved around softball and I didn’t know what to do without it.”

In 2024, she was throwing in a game, when the injury occurred. It ended her 2024 season and she couldn’t throw until December. “It impacted my daily life by messing up my routines of going to the gym every day and working on softball every day, now I just have to sit around and go to therapy once a week. It pulled me away from most of my relationships because I was unable to go out and do things with my friends and family, I am working to get back to hanging out with all of them again now that I’m recovering.” She was a huge gym junkie and when she got injured she couldn’t work out. All she has now is physical therapy.

For injured athletes it’s a long road ahead. “It’s a long process. I get better everyday,” the running back explains. Before his injury, he took on a huge role to bring the Georgia Bulldogs 671 yards and nearly 1,000 rushing yards. The players and coaches would describe him as “a little ball of energy,” and that he has a team-first attitude.

Although the road is long , mindset is everything. Beachler agrees, “It was hard but I just changed my mindset to look at the road ahead and think about all the good things that come out of it and how I’ll be stronger next year.” Her coaches would describe her as a very hard worker and that she never gives up on what she sets her mind to.

Athletes have different ways in dealing with their injuries.”I have not participated in any of that other than physical therapy. I turned to God to help me with my struggles and he has helped me the most,” said Beachler. Both athletes have had very hard recovery journeys and have both explained they have to keep their head up and work hard to be able to recover. “Rehab daily,” said the running back when was asked about how he was dealing with his injury.

Everything changes when you get injured because you have to adapt to the situation and try and stay positive through it all, so you can get through it. “Routine was wake up, lift, go to classes, go to practice, sleep. That was my every day. After my injury it was no lift, some classes, lots of dr appointments, sitting at practice and watching, which was super hard for me to do,’ explained Beachler. Although injuries are very hard on athletes, it enables them to prevail.










Behind the Wheel: Beyond the Stereotype

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By Bristol Hardman
Madison County High School

For many people, Nascar is just a group of drivers making endless left turns around a track. But spending a few minutes inside a race car — traveling nearly 200 miles per hour, enduring extreme heat, split-second decision-making and hours of physical strain — and that opinion quickly changes. The belief that Nascar isn’t a real sport ignores the athleticism, mental toughness, and skill required to compete at the highest level. If sports are defined by physical ability, strategy, training and competition, then Nascar deserves a place alongside football, basketball and every other major sport.

Brad Keselowski is a 42-year-old Nascar Cup Series Champion. All throughout his Cup Series career, he has had major injuries like a broken femur and fractured ankle and he has had to recover through physical therapy. But he still got in the race car and raced.

On March 2, 2025, Brad Keselowski’s cooling-suit failed and he was sent to the infield care center to be hooked up to an IV to get the fluids he needed. The race car he was in got up to 150°F and his body heat was 130°F, so in total the race car felt like 280°F. Athletes in other sports do not have to experience what 280°F feels like, but these racers feel that heat every time they step into a car to race.

Photo by Sean P. Twomey on Pexels.com

Christopher Bell is a 31-year-old All-Star Race winner. Bell is one of the younger drivers and he is a little smaller than the other drivers. On June 7, 2026, he was racing for the lead at Michigan and he collied with Chase Elliot and hit the wall at 200mph and demolished his car and Elliot’s race car as well. His injuries were a fractured wrist. He did not speak with broadcasters after to get his side of his story.

Nascar drivers have to go through extreme practices to get their bodies to even be able to stand the heat and exhaustion that goes into racing. They go through cardiovascular conditioning, extreme heat training, hydration protocols, and extensive mental and stimulator practice. During their cardiovascular conditioning they tend to cycle, run and swim to learn how to keep their heart rate down under stress. While doing heat training, they sit in warm environments like hot yoga to get their bodies used to the high temperatures in the race cars. They also work on their strength and flexibility, which focuses on neck strengthening and upper-body stamina to withstand the weight of the helmet and the steering force.

People tend to say that these drivers aren’t athletes because they think the machines do all the work and that the drivers don’t do the standard athletic movements. Nascar doesn’t change anything major in the race cars unless there is a major injury or death so until something physically happens, the rules stay the same. That is not right. They should be changing the race car every time a driver enters it because the safety of these drivers should be the first priority.

Yes, fans do not like the changes that the teams do because it could make the race car slower, or that it is not the same as the 1980 stock cars that everyone fell in love with. But in this day and time, you can’t have those cars because of the competitiveness and how light these cars are, and that can result in more injuries and flips.

If the fans of Nascar would actually think about these driver’s safety instead of just thinking about their experience and how fast the car can go, there wouldn’t be as many injuries, deaths or malfunctions happening to these drivers. Athletes get in these race cars because this is what they love to do, even if there is a chance that it is their last, because anything can happen in a split second.

Morgan Hardy: a biography

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By Bristol Hardman
Madison County High School

Going from earning her Bachelor’s Degree to now getting her Master’s in Journalism and Mass Communications to now helping produce the documentary ” We Will Rise,” Morgan Hardy enjoys all aspects of journalism.

“It takes a great amount of creativity to do the different types of Journalism,” said Morgan Hardy, who launched her high school’s newspaper and later produced a new digital storytelling content. “It’s always been something that I’m drawn to and video and audio have always interested me.”

Hardy has always wanted to be in journalism since she was a kid. She said that “It’s always been something, I’ve always wanted to do, but the news always interested me.”

When she was in middle school she participated in her middle schools morning show broadcast. She then went to UGA and as an undergraduate she had many experiences come her way. While she could not name them all, she did name that she got to experience being an intern as the Digital Producer for the Olgethorpe Echo and she also got to do many other internships and create content.

“The University of Georgia ( UGA) has opened many doors for me and helped my network,” she said, explaining that she believes ” If I hadn’t gone to UGA, I don’t think I would have got the opportunities.”

She originally went to Louisiana State University( LSU) her freshman year of college and got her basic courses done. After her transfer to UGA is when she had all her opportunities open. “I’ve been surprised the doors that can lie and what I have learned and all the opportunities it has opened.”

Hardy has learned that “journalism can be hard and it can be uncomfortable sometimes, but if you get to know your people your interviewing, it makes it easier for them to trust you and makes them feel more comfortable in answering your questions. You lean on your friends and other journalists and find little corners.”

Attempting new things is important for young journalist entering the field. “You won’t know till you try.” said Hardy, who is entering her final year in graduate school. “I’m very blessed and grateful to be here and will be very sad when I have to leave.”

Bristol Hardman

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Hi, my name is Bristol! I’m from Danielsville, Georgia and I go to Madison County High School. Im going to be a junior in High School. I want to go into the MotorSports Industry but more specifically the Nascar Industry.

I love Nascar. The energy and passion the fans bring to the race and even if you’re new or have never been before, the fans are so welcoming and helpful. The drivers are so close with the fans, even if they have a bad race or just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, they still have a smile on their face. The MotorSports industry is so interesting to me because of all the different cars and people you meet.

A little bit about me is, I can talk a lot when you get me talking. I love to hear about people’s dreams, what makes them happy, and everyone’s different story because no one is the same and everyone’s story is unique. I would love to one day be one of the big reporters for Nascar and be on TV and be able to hear all the drivers stories and what they strive to be one day behind the scenes because what you see on TV is not always what the person is.

Another dream is I want to be in the booth with the other drivers because to be in the Nascar booth you have to know what your talking about and be able to explain to the fans what is going on and what is going to happen before it actually happens.

I want to attend the University of Tennessee, but if I have to I would also love to go to the University of Georgia because both have amazing Broadcast and Media programs to get the job you want. I have always wanted to race a race car like my dad did and even though he didn’t make it to the Big Dawgs. He still races like its the most freeing thing in the world, like that is the only time he is actually peaceful. My mom on the other hand, She works at the University of Georgia in Grady. She is also a big Nascar fan and she is the one who opened my eyes to Nascar and ever since we have been the biggest Nascar nerds and we almost compete with each other to see who knows about it. My dream is to be able to bring my mom to all the tracks and experience all there is to experience in Nascar to going inside the shops and meeting the drivers to just being in a pit box with a crew chief hearing and seeing everything that goes into the race car, team, and technology behind it.

I am a joyful person, who loves the loud sounds of a race car to how much work goes into the races, and I love to hear people actually voice there struggles and how things impact them because in experience talking out about things and actually feeling you can trust someone is the most comforting feeling ever.

To close about myself, I really strive to be the best I can be and I work hard for everything I want to achieve even if I think I can’t do it, I still try. I want to learn everything there is to know about the MotorSports media and how to continue to learn and grow into the person that I have been trying my hardest to become.