Missouri teen creates support group for those with ACL tears
LEAWOOD, Mo. (BVM) — An ACL tear is arguably the most devastating injury in sports, no matter what level athlete you are. It takes a long recovery mentally and physically to get back to full strength. But imagine tearing it twice. That is what happened to 18-year-old Leawood, Mo. native, Ty Toney.
Toney is a recent graduate of Pembroke Hill School in Kansas City. A gifted soccer player, Toney has played the game as long as he can remember and has excelled at it, even being selected to the Olympic Development Program team in Kansas.
The soccer star also grew up playing the game of basketball. But during a hoops game in seventh grade, things would take a turn for the worst as Toney injured his left knee.
“We think I had just turned around funny in practice previously because when I went in for the MRI the injury looked old,” Toney said.
It indeed was a torn ACL, and at first the 18-year-old had a tough time wrapping his head around the devastating injury.
“It was kind of the worst-case scenario. I fully understand there are a lot of worse things out there and I could have done worse things to my knee even. But especially being such a young kid, it was tough,” Toney added.
Perhaps the most difficult part of the injury for him was the isolation. When healthy and playing a sport you are able to be around your team everyday at practice and work together for a common goal. But when rehabbing from injury, you lose that.
“Instead of teammates, you are with your physical therapist for the day,” Toney said. “I was really lucky to have such great surgeons and physical therapists who really cared about me, but there is a big difference between that sense of community you get from your team compared to your doctor.”
As if one isn’t bad enough, any athlete who has to face two ACL tears in their career knows the challenge, and unfortunately that’s what Toney dealt with during his junior soccer season. The second tear came at a much more unfortunate time, suffering the injury to the same knee in practice just two days before his team would be playing in the state tournament.
“Again, there was that initial stage of disappointment. That lasted through the tournament as I was disappointed I wasn’t able to do my best for the team,” Toney said.
While it was hard at first, Toney actually felt fortunate to have the experience of rehabbing in the past and it helped him to come back quicker the second time around. He was ready to play soccer again as a senior in the fall, certainly a meaningful accomplishment.
“Even though we didn’t win state it was still great to be able to come back and play with all the guys I had been playing with for years,” Toney said. “Being back out there made me appreciate the game that much more.”
Again though, Toney still felt the isolation and lack of community during his second recovery. Rather than sulking about it like most would, the Pembroke Hill grad instead saw his injury as an opportunity to come together with others and create more awareness about ACL tears. While recovering over the winter, he created a support group called ACL Connect.
“I wondered how I could get resources and the community to people that might not otherwise have them. That’s how ACL Connect was born,” Toney said.
With help from parents, doctors, and physical therapists, the soccer star knew he would be able to put something special together having resources not everyone else has. Being able to give others “that community and sense of hope” along with the resources and information about the process of an ACL tear was the driving force behind the group.
After debating how exactly he wanted to get his message through, Toney decided to create his own website. The ACL Connect site has many features on it, including: an introduction from Toney with the mission of the group, videos about the recovery process, reference materials regarding ACL injuries, a mentor program sign-up, and a forum to share experiences and ask questions.
Toney has seen many people visit the website and is able to refer people to the site that he meets in person who have suffered ACL tears. However, he aspires for the website to become even more popular.
“Where I would like it to be is that people see the website and it is a standalone thing that attracts people before they even hear about my story. I would like to also get the forum more active and hopefully get more people who are willing to do their own stories on ACL Connect,” Toney said.
After graduating from Pembroke Hill this summer, Toney will now attend Stanford University in the fall. Although he wants to do activities that lower stress on his knee, Toney does think he can play intramural soccer at Stanford, but will also look to branch out and try new things in and out of sports.
While it is tough to see anyone suffer two devastating injuries like that at such a young age, Toney has taken a negative situation and used it to help others, which is just the kind of kid he is.
“It’s less about me having a cool website and more about getting people the support they need,” he said as we ended our interview.
ACL Connect is a great opportunity for those with the injury that may need help, support, or just want to share their stories with others. Please take the opportunity to click the link listed below to visit ACL Connect.
