Super Y-League North American Finals Feature
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
BRADENTON, Fla. – Alliance Academy’s Carter Crossman sat on his U15 team’s bench, watching as its hopes of claiming a Super Y-League North American Final slipped away in a penalty shootout against VSI West Florida on Monday night.
Crossman, pictured second from right, had scored the goal that sent Alliance to the Finals, earning his side a 1-0 win against the Toronto Lynx in its final game of the regular season on August 5. But soon after came a discovery that would have the potential to change everything.
After completing the Super Y-League regular season, Crossman continued training as he always does. But as he and his coaches prepared for a fall season that would allow him to compete against local college players to continue his development, a dull, throbbing pain enveloped his knee each time he took the field.
“There was just constant pain whenever I was playing in my knee,” Crossman said. “I mean, normally I just push the pain to the back of my head and keep playing, but it was just every time I played. It was like an aching, throbbing pain all the time.”
Things came to a head when Crossman’s knee buckled out from under him during practice.
“He’s a hard worker and he has a high pain tolerance, so we knew that when he was going down on the ground from pain that there was something really wrong,” his mother, Lori Crossman said.
Crossman began physical therapy to try and fix the problem, and in time the pain gradually lessened. But with the opportunity to have an MRI taken of his knee, Crossman’s family decided to make sure there was nothing else that could cause the issue to return.
“They had offered us an MRI before they had started treatment, and they said, ‘well, let’s see how it goes and we might do it’,” Lori Crossman said. “They got him what they thought was fixed, they got it resolved, the pain had gone, and they said we didn’t have to have the MRI, and I said, ‘why don’t we just do it, let’s just get a look in there.’ ”
When the scan came back, the decision to have the MRI taken proved the right one. Discovered just below one of his growth plates, on the epiphysis of his femur, was a tumor.
Quickly, a biopsy was scheduled. As Crossman and his family waited for the results, the youngster tried to distract himself with other things, but couldn’t avoid always returning to what the results of the test might bring.
“It’s completely nerve-wracking. Absolutely horrible,” Crossman said of the waiting. “There wasn’t really anything I could do. Everything I tried, I just ended up coming back thinking about it.”
After a long five days, the test results came back: The tumor was benign. And quickly, Crossman’s thoughts moved to when he might be able to return to play soccer again.
It wouldn’t be a swift process, though. While the tumor was benign, it would still need to be removed, and on November 1st, Crossman was operated on, with the lesions from the tumor being scraped off in a process called curettage. Bone was then scraped off his femur, higher up the leg, and in addition to the bone from donors being used, was inserted into the base of the femur to replace that which had been removed. Crossman can now look down and see two large scars, a reminder of what he’s been through.
“I really just think of how glad I am that they caught it when they did, and I didn’t have to go through this later in high school,” he said.
A little more than a month later, Crossman is still not allowed to place weight on his right leg, using crutches and a wheelchair to navigate his way around on his own. But despite this, he was adamant that he be with his team this week in Bradenton, Fla. to support them as they competed for a North American Championship.
“I think it’s just a tremendous commitment,” Alliance coach Zsolt Bertalan said. “That’s what the parents show, that’s what he shows. It was a difficult trip for him given the fact that obviously he was on crutches, and he had to have special transportation created for him, so it shows a fantastic commitment from him and his family, and for everything that we do as a club and the kind of young men that we are trying to raise.”
The next step for Crossman will be continued physical therapy, with his brace set to be removed on February 1. The prognosis for his recovery is good, with the cartilage around the knee becoming strong with the assistance of scar tissue, and with the help of the expert care of Jason Robinet and the Institute of Neuromuscular Medicine and Rehabilitation in Rockford, Mich., Crossman is hoping to be ready to line up if not next summer, then at the 2013 Super Y-League North American Finals.
“Definitely,” he said. “I think as soon as the doctor releases me to start training again, I’m going to get right back at it and start training every day.”
With his commitment to the sport, and his team, that Crossman has shown, it would not be surprising to see him step out onto an IMG Academy field again next December.
“He’s been with us here before last year,” Bertalan said, “and we sure hope he’s going to be making the trip with us again next year.”