Old Story - Meant To Be

I wrote this as an intern for the Boston Breakers on a Professional Player, Jordan Angeli.  I guess the article was never published but here it is.  I recently sent the article to Angeli and she liked it, so I feel even better about posting it.   

Jordan Angeli: Meant To Be.

Jordan Angeli had always planned on playing soccer after college.  However, if everything had gone to plan right after the end of her junior season at Santa Clara University it just might not have been with the Boston Breakers. 

Growing up in Colorado, Angeli played many different sports from soccer to softball to basketball to snowboarding and skiing.  Even with all that activity she had never broken a bone, had a sprain or even stitches.  After three seasons of collegiate soccer Angeli seemed impervious to injury.  Unfortunately in the spring season before her senior year the inconceivable happened.       

It happened during an excellent spring practice in 2007.  “Choima Igwe was on my team at the time and she was dribbling at me.  She cut with her left foot, so I was going to my right, and as I pushed off my left leg I looked down and my knee was in between my legs,” said Jordan of the day she tore her ACL.  “I screamed really loud.”   

That injury forced Angeli to redshirt what would have been her senior season in 2007.   After an operation to remove scar tissue, Jordan finally got back on the field in the spring of 2008.  She was getting ready for her second chance at a senior year. 

Then, during a spring game, she tore her ACL again. 

 “I went up for a defensive header five minutes into the game and I just landed and felt my knee shift.  I just bent over and went ‘Oh no!, what just happened?’ But I played for a while after that, just not really cutting very hard.  Afterwards I just broke down,” said Angeli. 

She didn’t know what exactly was wrong with her.  She had an MRI and a few days later heard the bad news.   “I went in to the doctors office the Monday after having a pretty normal weekend and he was like ‘well you tore your ACL again,’ and I just lost it.”   

Tearing your ACL, not just once, but twice, is without a doubt, both unlucky and hard for a person to come to grips with.  When Angeli tore her ACL for the second time she asked herself “Why me?,” but over time she found out why it was meant to be. 

Angeli relied on her spirituality along with family, friends, teammates and college coaches at Santa Clara to help her get through the tough times.  They were indispensable to her.  She recalled how her roommates supported her the day after she found out she had re-injured her knee and would have to sit out another season.     

“That day it happened, I remember just laying in my roommates bed for hours with her and I was just crying and crying.  I remember my other roommates didn’t go to class because they had heard [about the injury] and they just came home.  It was an emotional day, but I knew that it had happened for a reason.” She knew something great would come from her troubles.  

She was right.

While recovering from her injury Jordan also got to know Santa Clara alum Leslie Osborne.  Like Angeli, Osborne was rehabbing from a knee injury.  The two of them would rehab together when Leslie came up from Los Angeles for therapy.  “We just grew really close and became really great friends,” she said.  She added that “It was always exciting when Leslie was in town because we would each have a buddy to get through our workouts.”

Being selected by the Breakers with the 16th overall pick this year meant that Jordan would be playing with Osborne, the person she rehabbed with. “When my name got called when I got drafted we kind of just looked at each other and knew that this is why that had happened.”

Angeli’s injury also gave her more time to learn the game in college where she would watch practice from the sidelines. “I watched practice every day.  I learned from other people’s mistakes, I learned from what they were doing good,” said Angeli. 

What she learned from the sidelines has helped her on the field with the Breakers.  “I feel like I am more mature in my play and I think I see things better than I used to,” she said.  “My vision on the field has always been one of my strong points but I think I am seeing even more.” 

It wasn’t long before Angeli found success in WPS.  She scored her first career WPS goal on June 13 against Sky Blue FC. 

“It was just cool to have everyone coming at you,” she said.  “As they were running towards me they all just had the biggest smiles on their faces and I was like, ‘This feels so awesome.’”

Since her first, she has added four more goals and two assists to her stat sheet in the month of July en route to a WPS Player of the Month award. 

Angeli gives as much credit to her teammates as she possibly can because she said they put the ball in the right place and at the right time. 

“I think my teammates make it easy for me to score goals.  Alex Scott plays me a perfect ball across the box and all I have to do is hit it on frame and it’s going to go in.  I think all my teammates do the hard work”

Angeli had to overcome two difficult knee injuries to get back on the field but she says that they were actually a good thing for her.  “I think it has made me a better player and a better person.”  With the success she had in the last month, it’s hard to argue with her.