Last September, then-sophomore Erin King was in her first practice of the year for Syracuse women’s club soccer. She was just named captain and wanted to prove to her teammates that she deserved it. As she sprinted around and tried to intercept every ball, she hyperextended her knee. She heard a pop. She’d seen 10 people tear their ACLs on her club team alone — she knew what happened to her.

She sat down in the middle of the field and refused to talk to anybody. Eventually, she limped to the sideline and drove home.

“Knowing that that’s a year long process,” King said, “I freaked out a little bit.”

King, now a junior center back on Syracuse club women’s soccer, is healthy again. The SU club team (9-0) is looking to make it to the NIRSA Soccer Nationals after a regional finish last season. The native of Avon, Ohio scored eight goals in her freshman year — seven off corner kicks — in a semifinal finish at Regionals in 2016.

King started playing soccer at three years old. Her love for the game was apparent at an early age, King’s dad Henry said — she was nicknamed “Smiley” for her infectious smile and positive attitude. One game, King played defense and an opponent took a hard shot, which knocked her in the face. Her coach tried to pull her out of the game and King started to cry.

“She was crying over having to leave the game,” Henry said. “Not the injury.”

King continued to improve. She moved up the ranks: She started at the recreational level, advanced onto travel and an academy soccer club and eventually made her high school’s varsity team freshman year. She wanted to follow in the footsteps of her idol Michelle Akers.

Akers was a superstar player for the United States women’s national team during the 1990s. She threw her body everywhere and she didn’t shy away from tackles and physical plays.

“She was like Abby Wambach through the air,” King said, comparing Akers to the former U.S. National soccer team star.

King was committed to Carnegie Mellon, a Division-III school, for soccer, but was denied by the engineering school there. Ultimately, she decided to attend Syracuse to study engineering, but she still wanted to play soccer. She tried out for the club team to get her “soccer fix” and made the team as a freshman.

When she tore her ACL the next year, everything stopped.

After she suffered the injury, she called her parents. Henry tore his ACL in both knees, each on different occasions.

“I knew she was in a lot of physical pain, but I knew the harder road for her was going to be the mental piece of just not being able to go out, lace up her boots, and go out and play every day,” Henry said.

King elected to have surgery during winter break back at home with her family. After the procedure, she struggled to bend her knee or even walk. Her dad acted as her comedic relief — he cracked jokes, most about her knee brace, to make her laugh.

When Akers played, she battled through chronic fatigue syndrome and led the national team to two World Cup victories. One of the main things that attracted King to Akers was her ability to overcome adversity, Henry said.

“Her two options were too either give up or put on a brave face, keep her head up and be the best captain that she can be,” King’s best friend Kyle Rosenblum, a junior in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences, said. “King is the kind of person who’s only ever going to choose that second option.”

King wouldn’t let the injury ruin soccer for her. She rehabbed for three months prior to surgery and has done physical therapy to repair her knee ever since. She’s participated in noncontact drills this year and her goal is to come back stronger than ever and lead the club team, even if it means she has to put her body on the line.

“Going to nationals this year is a goal for us,” King said. “I think we got a shot.”

Published on October 29, 2018 at 8:27 am

Contact Gaurav: gshetty@syr.edu