Junior Samantha Kim has always dreamed of playing professional lacrosse. Since seventh grade, the sport has been her passion, the thing she worked toward every day. But in just a matter of seconds, her dreams went from possible to unimaginable
“I was running down the field with the ball,” Kim said. “I had planted on my left knee to do … a split dodge, and I tried to move a certain way. I saw [my knee] pivot, and my entire thigh and the top half of my right knee on the right side literally split in half … I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t hurt. I fell to the ground and could not physically stand up [or] move at all. I was carried off the field.”
Kim was overwhelmed with confusion in the moment. As she lay on the field, pain searing through her leg, her teammates waited with worry. After seeing the doctor, she learned the devastating news. She had torn her Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL), an injury that would likely sideline her for the entire season. It was a crushing setback, but having her team and family, especially her father, by her side made the process a little easier.
“My dad was there [at the time of both injuries], and he was a big help in this,” Kim said. “He had torn both of his ACLs, too, so he already knew what was going on, and he had later told me that when he fell to the ground, he absolutely knew it was an ACL tear. It was comforting, and it definitely helped calm me down, knowing that he’d experienced it twice before me and that he knows what’s going on and he’s aware of what’s happening.”
Beyond the physical pain, the injury took a major emotional toll. The reality of not playing lacrosse for months was hard to process. The frustration of being stuck in bed, relying on others for help, and going through the exhausting process of physical therapy made her feel trapped. Then, just as she had started to come to terms with her recovery, another injury struck. At the end of February, Kim injured herself again at practice.
“I think I just tore [my ACL] again,” Kim said, “I don’t like to think about it because it makes me cry when I think about [the fact that] we had not even made it to our first game. Our first game was going to be in a couple of days, and literally, I was heartbroken. That’s the only thing I can say. I was on the near verge of crying because of the pain, but also the fact that it’s happening again, and the first time was just so painful. All those feelings are just coming back, and it just made me feel horrible.”
Reliving the injury was devastating. The first time had been painful enough, but the second time felt even worse, mentally and emotionally. Surgery was inevitable.
“I had surgery at the end of July,” Kim said. “I was cleared to do running in full 100% stuff in early December. The first week out of surgery was genuinely the worst pain I had ever felt. I cannot move. I cannot walk. I can’t shower. I couldn’t just sit in my bed and sleep. I would have to have my parents come and help me to go use the restroom because I easily could not stand after they did surgery on both knees, so then that was just hard in itself, but luckily, it was during the summertime, and I wasn’t missing school.”
Kim was lucky with the way her doctors and family helped her with her recovery, and she speedily made it back to the field. The second injury is terrifying for Kim because it was exhausting and hurtful to go through it once already.
“They’re going to cut up and both knees again,” Kim said. “I’ll have to go over the same processes over and over again, but overall, I think the second [injury] was a lot worse knowing that I had a whole season just waiting for me, days away from my first game. It was going to be a big season. We had a very, very, very strong chance of going to state this year, and it just definitely doesn’t feel great knowing that what I’ve worked for this entire preseason in the last couple of years where this snow bit literally can be gone just like that and I think that takes away from a lot of things too of just like how life is like everything can be gone and just like that.”
