Those Three Little Letters

Those three little letters that affect most women's sports teams and many women's athletes are ACL. Anterior Cruciate Ligament.

Injuries to this ligament happen to teams pretty much every year. It's affected our program ever since I can remember following the team. Every year a good player is out.

I usually know the injury when I see it, or should I say, hear the player, or see their face, or see the reactions of their teammates.

Last year a player tore her ACL at Boston University. She had torn it the year before. From the press box during the game I saw the player go down on the turf and not get up right away. I saw her require assistance to get off the field and then saw a lot of teammates go over and hug her a little while later. I picked up on it pretty quickly and realized that there was a great chance she tore her ACL.

The second I saw happened right in front of me. Thankfully I was filming and didn't exactly see what happened or how it happened. Unfortunately I heard the players reaction. I knew right away from her scream that she had more than likely torn her ACL. I saw teammates go up to her while she was on the bench. Although nothing had been confirmed I was fairly sure she was done for a long time.

The last one that happened was the most frustrating to me. I was far away from what had happened, and since we already had an ACL injury this year, I couldn't believe we would have another one. Especially not to the player it happened too. I thought this player would be fine. Sort of like she was unsinkable, like the Titanic. When she first went down, I thought she would pop right up. I wasn't too concerned at first, but as every second went by my nervousness went up. Then I saw our trainer go out. They spent a long time, or atleast seemingly a really long time tending to her. As I saw the player walk off the field with assistance I noticed her face and body language. Her face looked white. She seemed numb, had no energy and looked beat up. She looked like she had been pulled out of the wreckage of a building that had collapsed but without the blood. On the tenth anniversary of September 11th, she looked exactly like the people on TV that I had seen evacuated out of the World Trade Center ten years earlier. Dazed, confused, battered. I will never forget her face because her face said it all. I knew she tore her ACL. I had no doubts about it. I prayed I was wrong, but was pretty sure I wasn't.

I heard that player ran today and that's music to my years. I was so tempted to say something to this player to try to cheer her up. However, I knew there was nothing I could say. I said nothing, even as we sat not that far from each other on the bench. I have to give credit to our trainer for keeping a conversation with her going, because I would have been unable too. I remember pretty vividly sitting on the bench staring up at the sky and wondering why god had done this to this player.

I have to reiterate that nothing makes me happier than to hear that she ran again. It makes me so happy. It just sucks I won't be able to see her dominate next year.

I remember thinking the same thing when Mel Thomas tore her ACL for women's basketball, and when Caroline Doty did for the second time.

I also was reporting on the game when Kalana Greene tore her ACL vs South Carolina. She was my first introduction to ACL injuries. I remember Greene yelping in pain and cursing and than seeing Geno and the trainer come out to see her. When she got up I could tell she was in serious pain.