Imagine having the one thing that you’ve worked so hard for being taken from you in a single moment. Annemarie Abeyta has not only had this happen to her once, but three times. On October 28th, 2015, the then freshman tore her ACL while participating in an open gym held at Broomfield High School. One month later she had surgery to repair the ripped ligament, postponing her playing time for 6 months. This not only spanned over the whole season of high school basketball, but it also cut into her club season, expecting to be cleared to play around mid May. Annemarie describes the eye-opening feeling she had after the first tear; “The first time I tore my ACL, I was completely shocked and overwhelmed, but I now realize that I didn’t actually know what to expect. I was a freshman at the time, and had been looking forward to playing basketball at Broomfield for as long as I could remember. I also play club, so I was upset about missing out on the beginning of that season as well”.

After months of rehabilitation and physical therapy, Annemarie was just weeks away from being cleared when she tore her ACL a second time. “The second time I tore it I was actually at physical therapy, on April 26, 2016. It actually happened right when I had taken my return to sport test to be cleared. I only partially re-tore it, so the surgery was minor. I only had about a six weeks added to my recovery time, which wasn’t bad, but physical therapy became much more difficult because I wanted to get back faster. So the mental and emotional part was easier, but the physical aspect was definitely more intense,” she explains. Although this experience has not been ideal for Annemarie, she has been able to find the silver-lining, “Despite what people might think, and definitely opposing to what I believed before, physical therapy and returning from injury is incredible. Doing the same basic and – what before were easy – exercises everyday was hard, but not even so much physically as it was mentally. There are so many tests I had to pass to get to the next level of difficulty, and no matter how much it hurt I had to push myself to do more. Most of the time when I was working out, I was basically alone, because although I was with a physical therapist, so were five other people. I think what it taught me the most, was how to rely on myself, and be mentally strong on my own. That was probably the most difficult part, but I also learned to most from it”. After her second tearing, Annemarie was out until the end of July. This meant the while a normal teenager would be hanging out with their friends, Annemarie was spending her summer rehabbing and strengthening her knee for the upcoming basketball season that was just months away. Annemarie recounts the handicaps that her injury had put on her; “The most awful part was that I had to sit and watch other people do what I loved when I physically couldn’t. It was also hard, because for a long time I felt like I wasn’t normal, even now I sometimes I still don’t. I couldn’t really do much with my friends besides sit at home and hangout for a while, because I couldn’t walk as fast or do the same level of physical activity that they could. Also, I was pretty sore all the time, and my legs got tired easily from physical therapy. I wasn’t allowed to go sledding, skiing, or ice skating, swimming or hiking, and a lot of other teenage activities for a long time, so I kind of isolated myself.”

By the end of that summer Annemarie was ready to play and was slowly getting back to her normal self – both physically and mentally. By the time basketball tryouts came around, Annemarie was eager to officially get back onto the court and play her first season of high school basketball. It was clear to the coaches that she had exceptional talents, and she was put on both the Junior Varsity and Varsity rosters. Her aggressiveness and desire to exceed payed off, and she earned playing time against some of the toughest opponents on the girl’s basketball schedule. During a game against Greeley West on January 13th, the unlikely happened and Annemarie tore her ACL a third time, this being the worst of them all. “I knew that something wasn’t right as soon as I fell. My MRI result showed that I have absolutely no right ACL at the moment, so I will be getting surgery on February 8, 2017,” she explains. Although Annemarie has had a rough and unfortunate past two years in regards to basketball, she is anxious to get back onto the court again, though this time being a bit more careful; “I basically know what to expect this time, and I am definitely ready to work even harder than I did the first time. However, I know that this time I will have a longer recovery, because I need to be more cautious than I have been the past two times.” Although Annemarie has gained a lot of independence through this experience, she could not have done it alone. Thankfully, she has had continuous support from her family, friends, and teammates. “My parents definitely played the largest role in all of this, just because they are the ones who had to drive me to all of my many doctors and physical therapy appointments. They were also the ones who took care of me when I had to stay home while my friends were out having fun. But on a more personal level, I would 100% say that it was my club teammates who helped me the most. They checked in on my all of the time and encouraged me to work hard so I could be back playing with them. My club coach also helped me out a bunch because she has had six knee surgeries and still went to play D1 basketball at UCONN, so her support really meant a lot to me. Also, just the entire Broomfield community, over the past few weeks I have had more people say that they were upset to hear what happened than I thought I would. The news seemed to spread like wildfire, because I don’t even know how some of these people found out!” she describes. Taylor Gilmore, a senior Varsity captain for Broomfield, explains what makes Annemarie a great athlete and teammate; “Annemarie has constantly supported the program and cheers us on when she hasn’t been able to play. It’s really inspiring to see her continue to work hard with her head up even though she has been injured. It was a shame to see her tear it a third time after she had put all of that effort into her recovery”. With the goal to play in college, Annemarie has no intent of cutting her basketball career short due to an injury; “When you come back from something like this, you basically have to block all the fears you have about re injury. There is no way to play without doing that. However, if you would have asked me three weeks ago, I would have told you that another injury likely wasn’t possible”.

“…when given the opportunity to do what you love, you have to put everything you have into that one thing; You should never waste a second doing something that isn’t helping you achieve your end goal”

Although this unlucky injury has prohibited Annemarie from doing the thing she loves most, she has been able to learn from it and grow both as a player and a person; “I think this whole experience has made me more independent and confident in myself. Before my absolute biggest fear without a doubt was a re-tear. Now that that has happened, I think I have learned that when given the opportunity to do what you love, you have to put everything you have into that one thing; You should never waste a second doing something that isn’t helping you achieve your end goal”.