SoCal Sports Spotlight: Maddi Desiano
The Little Things in Recovery
Injuries are unfortunately inevitable for all competitive athletes. This can be detrimental to not only the physical, but mental health of an athlete whose sport dictates his or her lifestyle. After suffering from back-to-back torn ACLs (anterior cruciate ligament), UCLA women’s soccer player Maddi Desiano, 21, is no stranger to the trials of recovery.
Maddi is an accomplished soccer player who has been playing competitively since she was 10 years old. She found success early in her competitive career while playing for the SoCal Blues where she helped her team win the ECNL (Elite Clubs National League) National Championship in 2015 and the Surf Cup Championships both in 2015 and 2017. Maddi also credits her club organization for creating the opportunity for her to represent the United States while playing internationally. In the fall of her Sophomore year in high school, Maddi committed to play for UCLA where she is currently a Junior studying political science.
Despite graduating high school early to enroll and play sooner, Maddi tore her ACL in April of 2018 cutting her debut short. It was a routine non-contact injury that occurred while crossing the ball and landing wrong. Unfortunately, ACL injuries are increasingly common, especially in soccer. According to Beaumont, there are approximately 100,000 to 200,000 ACL ruptures per year just within the United States with women also having a 2 to 10 times greater risk than men. While most ACL injuries are not career-ending, they are usually season-ending. Recovery is typically a 9-to-12-month process including surgery and extensive physical therapy. Despite a typically less than 5% re-tear rate, Maddi unfortunately reinjured the same leg a year later in April 2019.
Getting injured was one thing but reinjuring herself was another. Maddi recalls it was emotionally easier to recover from the first injury as she recognized how common sports injuries are - especially at the collegiate level. However, she felt defeated after re-injuring herself. This meant another surgery and going back to physical therapy.
On top of that, Maddi is a full-time student studying political science. Balancing school, sports, and a social life is difficult enough for a healthy collegiate athlete. Therefore, the added struggle of being on crutches at a large campus only made it harder for Maddi to find the motivation for her classes. She was candid about her grades slipping as her main focus was on recovering until she found the self-motivation she needed in order to persevere.
Maddi recalls her change in perspective when she was asked, “Why do you do rehab?” Without hesitation, she responded, “To play again.” She was then asked to take soccer out of the equation. If she wasn’t playing soccer, why would she want to go through rehab? This made her think, and she began to realize she wanted to get better for her overall health. She wanted to be able to go to the beach, to run, ride a bike and be mobile without ailment. Maddi remarks, “When I was able to isolate soccer, I was able to get through the tough days”.
“Patience is one of the biggest things I learned. I now consider myself to be the most patient person I know. ”
Throughout this process, Maddi learned a lot about herself as an athlete and an individual. “Patience is one of the biggest thing I learned. I now consider myself the most patient person I know,” Maddi says. She reveals how she has never been the most positive person, but this process taught her to dig deep within herself to become her own biggest supporter in order to persevere. Most importantly, she learned to listen to her body and to “not be this hero all the time”. If something was hurting, she made sure to take a step back and not force or rush anything. It took months for her to finally recognize these little things, but eventually, they would pay off. After nearly 2 years of recovery, Maddi played in her first game back on February 16, 2021 with a 3-0 win against USD.