Ready to start preseason of last year, senior Ava Cantu, forward on the women’s varsity soccer team, tore her ACL for the second time in her life. A regular season game quickly changed the course of her soccer career in mere seconds.
All the way in Dallas, Texas, Cantu’s team traveled up for a Saturday game. To their dismay, they arrived to fields that could only be described as unfit to play on.
“We were playing on these awful fields with barely any grass. It was mainly dirt and yellow specks of something sticking out of the ground,” Cantu said.
The game was well underway when at the 87th minute, the opposing team received a corner kick. Corner kicks take place when the ball goes out of bounds on the goal line, without a goal being scored, and having last been touched by a player on the team on defense. Cantu had been playing the center midfield position, which made her have to mark a player and drop into the 18-yard box to defend the goal.
“I made my way towards the ball and I made contact with another player, I felt a pop in my knee and I collapsed on the ground. I was screaming and crying, and I just knew that I had torn it,” Cantu said. “I didn’t want to have to go through the nine months of torture all over again.”
Amy Trocquet, head women’s soccer coach, recalled the exact moment that she found out that Cantu had torn her ACL. Cantu’s parents reached out immediately to Trocquet to let her know the devastating news. Trocquet was gearing up for the beginning of the soccer season when one of her rising star’s careers came to a sudden halt.
‘I actually cried when they told me,” Trocquet said. “I just really empathized with the struggle that she was probably feeling, and the heartbreak that it caused right before her season.”
The first month after the tear was especially hard for Cantu. With the harsh reality that she would be missing her junior season, and the pain of walking around in crutches, made dealing with everything a lot worse. Having to talk to people about the injury over and over kept the wound fresh in her mind.
“I let it take a hold of me for a good month, and I want to say I was pretty depressed,” Cantu said. “I remember going to school and not talking to anybody, or crying at the end of the day because I was hobbling around in crutches.”
With the free time that the injury gave her, Cantu took it upon herself to support her teammates on and off the field. She offered words of wisdom on the sidelines and acted like a hypewoman for anyone who needed it. Though she couldn’t step on the field to change the game, she stayed as involved as she could.
“I was just staying involved with other people’s lives instead of surrounding myself with my own one,” Cantu said. “I would offer my advice whenever someone needed it, whether it was in high school or club.”
Trocquet, having torn her ACL in the past, helped Cantu to stay positive and to focus on getting better so she could come back stronger than before. Having gone through a similar experience made Trocquet the perfect person to help Cantu during her recovery period and to keep her an important part of the team.
“I tore my ACL when I was 30 years old and it was literally the hardest thing that I’ve ever been through, emotionally and physically,” Trocquet said. “To have your athletic ability taken away from you and have to depend on other people to help you do simple things, it was depressing honestly, so I completely understand her pain.”
Mental and emotional problems are common products of injuries, which make the recovery process even harder for athletes to cope with. Cantu shared some words to those who may be going through a similar thing as she has.
“Anyone that has to go through an injury or any sort of ailment that sets them back from something that they love to do, try your best to fill the hole in your life,” Cantu said. “Whenever something you love is taken away from you, just try your best to dive into something new, meet new people, and involve yourself in someone else’s life.”
With the ‘24-’25 soccer season rapidly approaching, Cantu is aiming high for her senior comeback season. She has set in place a list of goals for herself and her team to make sure that this season is the best it can be.
“I want to get offensive MVP, get our team far in the playoffs, get ready for college soccer, and I just want everything,” Cantu said. “I want to go out with a bang and to end our season on a good note.”
