Playing Through Recovery: How two athletes at East are managing recent injuries

By Maggie Kissick

Sophomore Gia Tuso immediately knew something wasn’t right.

Her left knee had just given out in the middle of her soccer game after making a sharp turn on the field. She knew her knee felt weak, knew it didn’t feel normal.

But she kept playing anyway, hoping to push through and finish out her first game on a higher-level Fusion club soccer team. That’s the kind of athlete Tuso is, wanting to put in as much effort with every pass in soccer and every toe touch at cheer practice. 

She recognized this feeling in her knee, having torn her right ACL in early 2021. Only this time, the pain was in her other knee. 

Tuso makes the most of every stunt inside the stage gym and every goal scored at soccer games. She knows what it’s like to not be able to perform or play after missing most of her freshman year cheer and soccer seasons while recovering from her injury. 

As she headed towards the goal, the same knee gave out for a second time. Something definitely wasn’t right.

Sure enough, she had torn the other ACL. She would have to spend another season in recovery, another season watching from afar, another season not being able to fully participate.

“I’m pretty sad about [my injury] since I had to miss my freshman year,” Tuso said. “It sucks that I’m missing another year, but I’m just glad that I hopefully won’t be injured in my junior and senior year.”

While Tuso is upset about missing another cheer season, she puts her effort into encouraging her teammates. She enjoys supporting her team, yelling things like “You’ve got this!” and “Keep working hard!” as they practice their routines. Her coaches have told her that she can miss practice if she needs to, but she goes to every practice anyway. 

Varsity cheer coach MKilar Otte has given her the role of manager, making it official with an SME cheer shirt that says “manager” on the back. She plans on attending every game, sporting her black manager shirt and supporting her teammates while she recovers. 

“I’m a cheerleader for the cheerleaders,” Tuso said. “I love every single girl on the cheer team so being [at the games] is so much fun because I’m basically just hanging out with and supporting my friends.”

Tuso’s surgery isn’t until Oct. 21. Until then, she’s trying to squeeze in as much stunting — her favorite part of cheer — as she can, from basing extensions to trying new stunts. Despite not stunting very much last season, she’s improved a lot in a short amount of time — learning the correct grips and proper technique quickly.

She’s improved in other areas of cheer too, especially her motions. Because she’s restricted in other areas of cheer like jumping and tumbling, Tuso works hard to hit her arm motions sharply, something that’s improved despite her injury. 

“I have improved my sharpness and my motions so much because that was the only thing I really had to focus on,” Tuso said. “It’s nice because my injury actually helped me improve and now I don’t have to think about my motions as much, it’s become a habit.”

Tuso sits at the front of the stage gym during every first hour cheer class. She sits by JV cheer coach Jenna Witteman during football games, too. Even though she’s not out on the mat practicing or on the track cheering, Tuso says that watching her team has become enjoyable and gives a new perspective.

“Being able to sit on the side kind of gives you a vision of what the team looks like,” Tuso said. “It’s really nice to be able to see how everybody brings their different aspects of cheer to the table.”

After surgery, Tuso will have to spend six to eight months without dribbling a soccer ball or shaking her pom poms. She’ll start easing back into cheering — starting to slightly jump off the ground and practicing for longer — after about three months. But she’ll have to hang up her soccer cleats and miss the rest of her soccer season. 

She plans on taking her recovery slow and building up her strength, learning from her first ACL injury to not jump into things too quickly. She knows what to expect from recovery, so she believes the process this time around will go much smoother since she knows what to expect.

“I think [recovery will] go a lot faster since I know what I need to do and how to recover properly,” Tuso said. “In a way, I think that going through recovery for another torn ACL has definitely set me up for success. I know what I need to do and what I don’t need to do.”

By Luke Beil

Senior football linebacker Ethan Curran was playing in a football game against Olathe East. After a long and difficult game, Curran went in to make a tackle on the opposing team’s running back and their knees collided, resulting in Curran bruising the bone on his fibula.

“I couldn’t walk after it and the coaches needed to help me off the field,” Curran said.

Curran had to miss two days of practice until he was cleared to play by his doctor and now only needs to wear a brace while he practices and plays.

“Walking on it’s fine,” Curran said. “But when I start running, jogging or any type of lifting movement, that’s when it really hurts.”

Curran doesn’t feel that the injury has held him back in terms of his football play. As of now, he’s able to move at full speed. With the help of pain relievers such as Advil, the discomfort is minimal. Although he’ll feel slight pain in his knee for the remainder of the season — due to the slow healing process — he will still be able to play without limitations

“The doctor said that I’m lucky it’s a bone bruise because I can play, but I’m unlucky it’s a bone bruise because it takes longer to heal,” Curran said.

Going forward, Curran is going to keep playing as he would if he didn’t have an injury. It’s not something Curran focuses on or is always worried about.

“If worse comes to worst, I could injure it further, but it’s not really what I’m thinking about,” Curran said. “I just want to play.”