Imagine the rush of scoring a touchdown; the thrill of leading a team to victory; the excitement of winning a game. Imagine running down the sidelines, breaking a tackle, jumping over an opposing player, and hearing the roar of the fans cheering. All too abruptly be disrupted by the worst experience that may be experienced by a 17-year-old, the snapping and tearing of the most important ligament in the body: the ACL.

Senior Tanner Kameda experienced this his junior year.

“This injury really sucked, because I missed out on participating in sports,” said Kameda.

The play that ended Kameda’s season happened on a punt return. Kameda previously scored a touchdown on a punt return against West Washington. Eager to score again, Kameda picked a muffed punt off the ground and tried a spin move. He was tackled around the knees and went down.

“I knew I was hurt, but I thought I broke my leg. I didn’t think anything else,” said Kameda.

He was transported the hospital to be diagnosed. After finding out exactly what happened, the long road to recovery started.

Kameda had surgery on his leg by Dr. Urch and spent seven days in the hospital on bed rest. The ACL surgery is not a complicated process. It can consist of getting tissue from a donor or from one’s own body. In the case of Kameda, the tissue was brought from his other knee. Kameda also had another problem, his patella, or knee cap, was badly injured and some of his patella was transported over. These are held in place with metal screws to insure nothing moves around. To many people surgery is a scary process.

“This was my first time going into surgery and I was really nervous,” said Kameda.

Kameda then went through intense stretching and rehab to finally be back to normal. He is a healthy senior today, and flourishes in his sporting activities.

Story By Todd Osborn