Knee-Deep in Defeat Complete all twenty reps, ordered Dan, my eighth grade basketball coach.

Every exercise we do here is to prevent an injury. The cold gym floor creaked as all twelve of us, eager basketball players walked into our lunges. The prevention exercise routine we repeated before every practice was believed to keep players from joint injuries- usually. An injury like that would never happen to me. It wouldnt happen to any of us. How could it occur to someone who practices every day and stays in shape? Sure, weve all seen athletes like Manteo Mitchell from the United States Olympic 4x400 relay team break his leg, or Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn tear her ACL. But those are freak accidents; nothing more serious than a minor ankle sprain would happen to me or to my team. My high school track coach told me that strengthening the leg muscles would keep stability in my knees. Dont do anything stupid before the race, he would say to me. Of course I didnt. I didnt run, jump, or even walk uphill on the day of a track meet. Because my love for sprinting was so strong, nothing could jeopardize my ability to compete. I found happiness in every aspect of a race: the smell of an all-weather track, the pressure of beating my opponents, and the momentary sensation of flying as my feet propelled from their blocks. All tensions were released from my body when the official said, Runners to your marks... Set... Bang. Yet one tension was continuing to build inside of me. Year after year of basketball and track began to result in minor body aches and pains; however, I never worried about the consequences of body overuse. Sophomore year brought high expectations for success from not only myself but from my coaches as well. A summer spent training would be guaranteed to pay off. I daydreamed about

breaking new track records as I ran in P.E. class where my ultimate frisbee team vowed to finish undefeated. Be careful, shes got hops! said Ms. Martin, my P.E. teacher and basketball coach from freshman year. It was a hot, September afternoon on the field behind the Casa Grande gymnasium and my frisbee team was in the lead. I spotted an opening in the end zone where the defenders had cleared, so I ran for it. A teammate lobbed the frisbee as I leapt to catch it. Everything was perfect: the pass, the catch, the extra point. However, something was wrong with me. My right knee felt like it had bent sideways, and a loud cracking noise followed as I landed to the ground. I fell to the dry grass, gritting my teeth in pain as I had just unknowingly ended my chances of competing in any sport this year within a few seconds. Bang. The only question I could ask about my injury was why. When I was told that I needed an MRI, when I was told that I strained my MCL and tore my ACL and meniscus, when I was told that I couldnt play sports for a year, my only response was Why? My hopes and dreams were devoted to track and basketball, and with the horrible news from my doctors, they had all been shattered like glass; along with my knee and my heart. Questions that crossed my busy mind before falling asleep every night consisted of, Why did this happen to me? and Why now? My curiosity led me to browse the internet for the causes of ACL injuries. An online version of MedicinePlus magazine led me to the article titled An Athlete's Nightmare: Tearing the ACL. I found that females are eight times more likely to receive an ACL tear due to the way their hips are shaped. Though this helped to answer my burning question of why, it did nothing to help the long journey of recovery I had ahead of me. After getting through the excruciating pain of surgery, I finally gathered enough courage to start physical therapy. Jason, my physical therapist, helped me to regain strength in my right

quad by having me lift my leg from the floor to the cold table I was sitting on. He praised me for my hard work after I had accomplished it for the first time. I could have been getting praised from my basketball coach for stealing a pass, or getting praised from my track coach for beating my record in the 100 meter dash. Instead, I had reversed back to learning how to walk again. Because I could not participate in sports, I spent a great deal of my time reading books. One book in particular, titled The Running Dream, inspired me the most. It told the story of a high school track runner that was in a car accident and ran once again with a prosthetic leg. I read the words over and over again, Eight months ago I couldnt do anything. This race made me believe that theres nothing I cant do. This is my new starting line (332). The novel reminded me to be thankful that I will be able to walk on two legs again, and that I will be able to return to sprinting at full strength. When it was time to throw down the crutches and knee brace, I couldnt have been more excited to not only walk again, but to also throw away my nicknames of gimp and cripple. The feeling of isolation from my basketball team started to fade with my ability to shoot baskets with them. Physical therapy began to feel like a real workout, rather than struggle to accomplish the basic motions of a leg. My eighth grade basketball coach can count me as one of the few players who was injured- even with the prevention exercises. However, something greater than sadness came from the physical setbacks I experienced. From what seemed like an eternity of pain and discomfort came perseverance and healing. My question of why had now been answered: my knee injury helped me to acknowledge the vulnerability of our bodies, and the importance in caring for them. The scars on my knee remind me that though I was broken once, I will continue to strive for success with great strength and determination. This is my new starting line.

Works Cited "An Athlete's Nightmare: Tearing the ACL." MedicinePlus. U.S. National Library of Medicine, Summer 2008. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. Boyle, Christina. "U.S. Sprinter Manteo Mitchell Breaks Leg Mid-race - and Keeps on Going ." NY Daily News. N.p., 10 Aug. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. Stone, Kevin R. "Lindsey Vonn and the ACL Dilemma ." The San Francisco Examiner. N.p., 19 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. Van Draanen, Wendelin. The Running Dream. New York: Ember, 2011. Print.