Around Iredell Sports

2008 Apr-21

VIDEO: Girls provide mutual support during injuries
INTERACTIVE: Explore the knee and its ligaments
INTERACTIVE: Plyometric exercises may help in prevention

South Iredell duo share common bond

Becky Moose is forced to the sidelines this track season due to a knee injury. Her teammate and friend Carly Couch bounced back from a knee injury to become a competitive runner. Bruce Matlock photo

By Brad Norman
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They were both so young and talented.

Becky Moose, the tall and technical jumper. Carly Couch, the explosive and versatile runner.

Naturally, they met during track season at South Iredell in the spring of 2006, when Moose was a sophomore and Couch a freshman.

They were both underclassmen and the stars of a small track team, so the two connected instantly.

“There’s never really been very many girls on the track team,” Moose said. “Carly used to be really shy, and I kind took her under my wing.”

They advanced to the 2A state meet that season, with Moose finishing 11th out of 16 competitors in the high jump and Couch taking seventh in the 800-meter run.

With both participating in the state meet as underclassmen, multiple trips appeared sure to follow.

But as they soon learned, sometimes the unexpected happens.

Sometimes life delivers twists of fate.

‘THE HARDEST THING’
During spring 2007, her sophomore year, Couch was hanging out with friend Mattie Williams.

Couch wasn’t placing herself at risk of a serious knee injury while competing in a sport. She was with a friend, chasing after a horse that had escaped into the pasture.

A large fence surrounded the field and, rather than walk around to the entrance and then backtrack, Couch did what most teenagers would do.

She decided to jump it.

Couch approached the fence, which was buried in soft soil and angled on uneven terrain.

She vaulted over and, as she landed, felt her knee explode.

“I came down and it just popped right out,” Couch said. “I knew it was serious. I heard it pop, and I walked and it just wobbled all over the place. It was a freak accident.”

As a sophomore, Couch had been a standout on the cross country team during the fall.

She was in the midst of a smooth transition to track, developing into one of South’s most electric runners and qualifying for the 2A Midwest Regionals in the 800-meter run and 100-meter dash.

She had a good shot to run in the state meet for the second consecutive year.

That ended as soon as she landed in the pasture.

“It was really tough,” she said. “When I first went to the emergency room, they told me it was a sprain. Then I went to my new doctor, and he took one look at it and said, ‘Your ACL is torn.’

“I just broke down there in the doctor’s room. It was just a shock.”

Scary thoughts raced through Couch’s mind as she wondered if she could ever run competitively again.

But as rehabilitation began, Couch did what she has done so often on the track.

She sucked it up. She pushed herself to the point of exhaustion during intense rehab sessions inside a physical therapist’s office.

Then she pushed some more.

The worst moments came afterward, with Couch helpless on the training table.

Her therapists hovered over her, bending her knee as far as possible to measure the flexion angle, twisting, pushing and prodding like some form of cruel and unusual punishment.

“They would stretch it as far as they could get it,” Couch said. “That was the part I dreaded the most. Rehab was honestly the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I had a lot of support from family.”

And friends.

Moose provided a sympathetic shoulder while never letting Couch get too down.

And she helped build Couch’s fragile psyche back up, often through the use of humor.

“She always used to call me gimpy,” Couch said with a chuckle. “She helped me stay optimistic through the whole thing. She would make jokes and make me laugh. That’s all you can do, look at the bright side of things.”

‘MY KNEE JUST GAVE OUT’
Couch was on the fast track to recovery during the winter of 2007, building her knee back up in hopes of returning to her freshman form.

Moose, with track season in the back of her mind, was playing basketball for the Vikings.

It was only Moose’s second year playing after cheerleading as a freshman and sophomore.

“Everybody had always told me that I was so tall and I’d be so good at basketball,” Moose said. “I was like, ‘Have you guys seen me dribble a ball?’ ”

She was swayed, though, and through the same effort she put into becoming a track star, Moose developed into one of South’s most consistent basketball players.

She became a relentless rebounder and low-post defender, and she even learned how to dribble properly.

“She had a big upside,” South Iredell basketball coach Gary Sherrill said. “She was a great rebounder. If she had a good season, I thought hypothetically she could play at another level.”

Maximum effort, hard work and intelligence are a necessity for strong rebounders, and Moose certainly embodied those traits. When two players both go for a rebound, it’s often whoever wants the ball more that gets it, and that’s where Moose excelled.

That’s what happened when she went up for a rebound in the first quarter against Mooresville on Dec. 3, 2007.

Moose did everything correctly in a basketball sense. She put herself in good position and grabbed the ball at the peak of her jump.

It was a perfect play.

Then she landed.

“I guess I came down wrong,” Moose said. “My knee just gave out and I collapsed.”

Moose heard the telltale, ominous “pop” that typically accompanies an ACL tear, but didn’t think the injury was too serious.

She limped off the court, iced her knee on the bench and jogged slowly in a back hallway to test her strength.

During the second quarter, she told Sherrill to put her back in the game.

Chasing a loose ball down the sidelines moments later, Moose couldn’t stop herself.

She pulled up quickly, but without the support of her ACL, her body kept going.

Jolts of pain rippled through Moose’s knee as she collapsed into Sherrill’s arms in front of the South Iredell bench, her left meniscus freshly ripped.

“That time hurt really, really bad,” Moose said. “Then I was like, ‘Yep, it’s time to get out of the game now.’ ”

Her basketball season ended that night.

So did her track season, which had yet to begin.

“All throughout cross country season, my knees killed me,” Moose said. “I had actually scheduled an appointment ... but then I tore my ACL before I went to the doctor.”

With track season being done for, her chance of advancing to states was finished, too.

As a junior, Moose decided not to go to the 2A Midwest Regionals. She had qualified in the high jump and 300-meter hurdles.

But South’s prom was May 12, the same day as regionals. Moose picked prom, thinking she could go to regionals next year.

Her ACL tear meant that memorable trip to the state meet as a sophomore would be her only visit.

“I chose not to go to regionals and now I’m like, ‘Wow, maybe I should have gone,’ ” Moose said. “I kind of regret it now, but I try not to.”

‘STILL AMAZING’
Other than aching when it rains — “the weather does strange things to it,” she said — Couch’s knee is fine.

Moose hopes hers will be, too.

Moose is on the other end of the dynamic. Now, she’s the one turning to Couch to find her hope and strength.

An already-strong friendship has taken deeper roots, as it can only when two people share the same anguish and endure the same battles.

When Moose groggily awoke from surgery, Couch’s face was one of the first she saw.

“She had a smile on her face,” Couch said. “She was brave through the whole thing.”

Not all serious knee injuries have to end badly. That’s what Moose tells herself, and Couch provides a daily reminder.

Couch’s sophomore season ended prematurely, but through rehab and sheer will she has strengthened her knee and her resolve.

After surgery, Couch’s doctor told her she would never be competitive in the 100-meter run again.

She was supposed to quit, to focus on long-distance running.

But Couch ripped apart her knee, not her heart.

Less than one year after tearing her ACL, Couch qualified for regionals in the 100-meters, the event she supposedly could no longer conquer.

She did so by running a faster time than last season.

It’s instances like those that keep Moose moving forward through agonizing rehab, and even more agonizing doubt and questions to which there are no clear answers.

Will my knee get better? Will I ever be 100 percent? Will I ever run track competitively again?

Moose will attend Appalachian State next fall, and the goal she and Couch both set — of running in college — remains unchanged.

She’ll do whatever it takes to get there.

They both will.

“Carly is better than she was last year,” Moose said softly, her voice breaking. “Watching her run in these track meets ... she’s still amazing.

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