The Navy football team had players who were suffering foot injuries throughout the season, and when they fell to Army they knew something more must be wrong.
After the season had started off well for the team, they started to fall off the wagon. Coach Ken Niumatalolo decided it was time to figure out what was going wrong with his team.
The Midshipmen are required to wear their uniform with dress shoes unless participating in athletics or in the privacy of their dorm room.
Coach Niumatalolo told The Washington Post, “What could it be? Somebody brought that up, and I thought it was a pretty valid point. Guys are walking around in hard-soled shoes all day.”
Jim Berry, the assistant athletic director for sports medicine, said that wearing shoes for hours can affect your foot and cause supination. The Naval Academy gives out shoes during their first year, and they wear the shoes all four years in the academy.
Obviously during that time the shoes are going to start to wear down. As a result of this, Coach Niumatalolo is requiring his players to get their shoes repaired before they kickoff the season against Florida Atlantic University on Friday.
The team also had specialists from Walter Reid National Military Medical Center come to the school and players who looked like they were more susceptible to injury were fitted for orthotics. The orthotics will be used for their uniform shoes and some players will also use them with their cleats.
“We’ve got to do the best we can and make sure that we look at everything, look under every stone,” Niumatalolo told The Washington Post.