Overcoming an injury

When you love a sport and all you do and think about is that sport then having an injury is probably one of the worst things that can happen to you. Unfortunately when I was a freshman in high school I had horrible knee pains which I soon found out that I had torn my meniscus which is a disk of cartilage that serves as a cushion between the ends of bones that meet at a joint. I thought my life was over, soccer was my life and a stupid tear in my knee was trying to take it away from me.

The doctor told me that I needed to get knee surgery and to recuperate from surgery takes months. I ended up getting the surgery at the end of the summer and I didn't play at all after I got the MRI to play it safe. I missed half of my high school season and that summer my club team went to Europe for a soccer tournament and I had to sit on the side lines and watch them play all of the European teams. It was horrible because playing against European teams was my dream and it all went down the drain because of my knee. After my surgery I didn't play for about 2 months and I went to physical therapy 3 times a week. When I finally started playing again my knee swelled up like a balloon and continued to do so after every time I played. Something wasn't right so my mom took me to the doctor again and he had told me that I retore it, would need another surgery and that I should stop playing soccer. I was extremely upset and I didn't know what do. I was only thinking the worst and figured my knee would never be back to normal.

I got the second surgery that winter and the recuperation process went much smoother than the first one. I tried palying indoor again which was ok at first but then my knee started swelling again. By this time I had had enough and was tired of sitting out. My mom stopped taking me to that doctor because whatever he was doing wasn't working. That is when I started going to a doctor downstate. The doctor I went to downstate was the doctor for the Detroit Tigers baseball team. He did not give me surgery but every 3 months he would inject some type of steroid into my knee to relive the pain and keep it from swelling. It ended up working like a charm. I still had pain now and then after that but nothing like before.

I ended up sitting out from soccer for almost 2 years because of my knee problem. I always wonder how much better I would be today if I would have never gotten injured. It was definintely a life changing experience for me because I had to learn to deal with the fact that the biggest part in my life was being taken away from me.

Playing on a boys club team.

One of the happiest days of my life was October 21st, 2004. The Suttons Bay middle school boys team was going to scrimmage the Northstorm select boys soccer team in Traverse City. They didn't have enough people so they asked me to come play in scrimmage with them. Knowing me of course I said yes. There was only one other girl who played on the team so I was excited to play with basically all boys. I knew we were going to get creamed because all of the Northstorm teams are very talented. When we arrived we did alot of stretching and jogging to get ready for the game, I was getting pretty nervous by that time. When the game started they dominated like crazy and no one on our team could get the ball away from them. In the second half of the game someone sent me a through ball and I ran like crazy and I dribbled it through the defenders and I ended up scoring the only goal for our team. The ending score was about 8-1 which was pretty embaressing. After the game the Northstorm coach called me over and said he was very impressed with my play and ability to keep up with his team and wanted me to play on his select boys team. I was speechless and I didn't know what to say it made me feel so happy after that because that was a pretty big deal. I ended up calling him and telling him I would play on the team. So now I was playing on a northstar team and a northstorm team at the same time! The first practice was beyond scary and nobody talked to me. We were training to get ready for an indoor tournamentat CMU. At the indoor tournament I ended up scoring two goals. Ever since then the boys learned to accept me because I showed them I could really play. The next summer we traveled to Minnesota for the U.S.A. cup. Since I was a girl I had to stay in a dorm with one of the boy's moms. We stayed there for about a week and it was an awesome experience. They had T-shirts there that said "iscored at U.S.A. cup" and I really wanted one but I hadnt scored yet. The first game we played there I scored 2 goals and I was so happy because I could get one of the T-shirts. When we were there we went to two pro soccer games. At the pro soccer game there was a half time juggling contest and the best juggler from each team could sign up for it. One of the dads on the team signed me up to do it. I was very nervous because we had to go out on the middle of the field in front of thousands of people. I didn't have on appropriate shoes so I had to borrow one of the mom's tennis shoes. There were only two other girls in the contest and the rest were boys. The two girls got out right away and I was still in. I ended up getting third place and my picture on the website. The next day there was another pro game and I entered the juggling contest again but this time I got fourth place. I was still very happy with myself even for trying in front of all of the people in the staduim. During this trip I got to know the boys team much better and they actually started talking to me. The coach was very happy with how well I started getting along with the team. I stopped playing on the boys team after that summer because it was becoming too much with playing on Northstar also. The boys were also becoming much stronger and faster so it was harder to keep up with them. Playing on the boys team was one of the best experiences that I have had. I was the only girl to ever play on a boys northstorm team in the history of TBAYS and the coach told me I was the only girl he would ever ask to play on his team ever. I am one of the very few people to have an experience like that and I will never forget it.

How I got into soccer

When I was a little girl I never thought I would ever get into any type of sports. I would watch my older brothers soccer practices and say to myself "wow that looks so hard I could never do anything like that". My mom ended up signing me up for an AYSO team that was co-ed without even telling me. I went to the first practice and I ended up loving it. I played on AYSO teams all of elementary school until I wanted to start getting more serious about it. In sixth grade I started playing on TBAYS because the coaching was better and the competition was much better. Playing on TBAYS for a year didn't cut it for me, I wanted more. That is when Northstar came into the picture, which is a club travel team in Traverse City. I tried out for the team when I was 12 but I didn't make it. I was very upset and felt worthless. After that I worked my butt off for the entire summer I went to six soccer camps along with taking private lessons every other day with a former college player. I was going to make sure that I made the team the next year. I did pretty much everything thing I could. I would practice in my back yard for hours everyday. I would practice juggling for hours and practice all sorts of moves until I had them perfect. Soccer was basically all I did that summer and in the winter I would play indoor at just for kicks. I was on three different teams sometimes just so I could get extra playing in. It sure paid of the next summer because I tried out for the team older than the one I tried out for the year before and I made it. The team I made was also ten times better than the one I tried out for the year before. I felt very accomplished after that because I worked so hard and I got exactly what I wanted. I played on that team for about four years and in the spring I would play highschool soccer which I loved just as much. In highschool soccer I was a varsity starter all four years and made all state my senior year. People would always tell me I had such natural talent in soccer but I disagree because I worked harder than anyone I know to get where I was. It was the drive and motivation that made me a successful player, and all of the the one on one hours with the ball. One of my favorite quotes is, "The Vision of a Champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, and the point of exhaustion, when no one else is watching." By Anson Dorrance. I loved this quote because it really reminded me of myself and how hard I worked.