Photos courtesy of Warrior Dash
Rust did not take the call at the
time. When she got home, her
mom told her the bad news. The
knee was again injured.
“They said to stop whatever
you’re doing and get off your
feet,” Rust said, recalling the
phone conversation with her
mother, Lori. “I went from this
really good runner’s high to this
really low point, and I started
crying.”
Of course, the teen didn’t go
directly to the couch.
“She still said, ‘The lidocaine’s in my knee. I’m still going to shoot on
net, mom,’” Lori said.
At this point, the process of healing her knee continues. Lexi wears
a special brace, and her family is pursuing potential options to help the
knee heal.
“She is too young for a knee replacement,” Lori said. “Most knee
replacements last only 20 years and most second knee replacements
don’t take as well.”
Coach Rust
When she first suffered the knee injury, Lexi was focused on
recovery. But her mother knew she would need something to fill the
gap left by not playing soccer.
“My mom realized that there are going to be mental and emotional
effects, too. Soccer’s been my life, and it’s part of who I am,” Lexi said.
“To go from soccer all the time to no soccer, it was definitely going to
be a change that I was not ready for.”
Lori talked with Gregoire about the possibility of having Lexi help
out.
“It was a pretty seamless transition,” Lexi said. “Kary also coaches
the Flames, and their practices were right before our practices. I still
had practices on the same days. I still went to the same tournaments. It
was pretty smooth.”
Lexi made her tournament coaching debut just a week after her first
knee surgery.
“It was painful. I’d be on my feet all day,” Lexi said. “But it would
have hurt a lot more to have not been coaching, to have been doing
nothing.”
Both sides were unsure about the arrangement at first.
“I was really nervous at first, because I didn’t know how they were
going to respond to me being only a couple
of years older than them,” Lexi said. “At the
beginning, I kinda stood back, watched how
Kary coached, helped out if he needed help.
“As I got more comfortable around the
boys and around Kary, I started to use my
voice.”
For the players, there was an adjustment
period as well.
“Before, they would look at me when she
said something,” Gregoire said. “Now they
know to do what she says.”
From helping out, Lexi has progressed to
planning practices for the team and coaching them in tournaments.
When Gregoire is not available to be on the sidelines, another parent
has been with Lexi on the sidelines for matches.
As a coach, Lexi has a “laid-back” approach, according to Gregoire.
“She doesn’t get excited about too much. She never yells at the boys,”
he said. “You can tell she likes to be around it.”
Earlier this summer, Lexi even got the traditional “coach” treatment
of getting doused with water after a tournament victory.
“It was the Norfolk tournament, and we had just won,” she said.
“One of those boys started it, and they all dumped water on me.
“It’s a lot of fun when they feel comfortable enough to join in like
that.”
Moving Forward
Lexi has done her best not to let the knee injuries slow her down,
even following through on a decision to compete in a “Warrior Dash”
obstacle course race that she signed up for with friend Aly Fedde
before the second knee injury. She did not run the course due to her
injury, but she did handle the obstacles, Lori said.
“Lexi did jump over the fire and climb the walls because the
adrenaline masked the knee pain,” she said. “It was so worth it. They
met some great people from Gretna, Lincoln, Omaha and McCook,
Nebraska. The hills and trees along the trails were breath-taking, and
everyone there was in a great mood and covered with mud.”
She plans to continue her coaching career as she completes high
school, and possibly college, but is currently looking at a career in the
medical field. Until then, though, she plans to remain on the sidelines.
“I know I could sit around and get pretty down about all this knee
stuff,” she said. “But I go to practice, and they’re teasing me and it’s
light-hearted, and it just kinda brightens my day.” n
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