There was no way Langley senior

midfielder Stephanie Dansereau

should have been marking the Northern

Region's most dangerous striker.

Dansereau hasn't played a full season

of high school soccer since she

was a freshman. She's been operated

on four times — both ankles and one

knee, twice — in two years and

missed all of last season.

She quit her club team, Reston

F.C. Milan, at the end of last year, and

Langley girls soccer coach Melissa

Bibbee isn't the only one who resists

the urge to cringe every time

Dansereau makes a sharp cut.

But last week Dansereau dispelled

all fears with a dominating performance

against Chantilly's All-Examiner

scoring sensation Amy Smerdzinski

(17 goals last season), holding her

scoreless for 90 minutes in regulation

and overtime as the Saxons defeated

the Chargers, 1-0, improving

their record to 4-1.

It's been a long time since

Dansereau felt that confident about

her game. Three years to be exact.

As a freshman, Dansereau led the

Saxons with 8 goals and 14 assists.

She was a speedy forward then

who never had an injury keep her off

the field. At times her ankles, banged

up from years of various sports,

bothered her. But she never expected

the news she got during a doctor's

visit in the fall of her sophomore year.

"When I brought her in for an

evaluation, [the doctor's] first comment

was, 'Is she walking on these

ankles?'" said Betty Kautt,

Dansereau's mother. "I said, 'She's

playing soccer on them.' And he said,

'Not for long she isn't.'"

Dansereau's ankles had become so

loose they were almost a sideshow

act. The solution: two surgeries, five

months on crutches, and permanent

screws in both ankles. Rehabilitation

hampered her comeback that spring,

and Dansereau played only four district

games.

The bigger setback came later

that year in her first game back with

Milan. She tore the anterior cruciate

ligament in her right knee.

Nearly a year to the day of her ankle

surgery, she went under the knife

again. It began another long road to

recovery, spending two to three

hours a day three to four times a

week in physical therapy.

"She beat all the odds with her ankles,

and that was miraculous, so I

think she thought, 'Alright,'" said

Kautt. "That's her attitude, and that

was mine and it worked."

But it didn't work. Dansereau

knew it was difficult and the pain of

physical therapy often brought her to

tears. But after months of rehab, the

range of motion in her knee — the

measurement of recovery from an

ACL injury — hadn't returned.

Dansereau sat out her junior season,

her grades started to suffer, and

she began to lose her connection with

the sport she had played since she

was five. She backed out of a chance

to be the varsity girls' soccer team

manager and barely spoke to Bibbee

because it was too upsetting.

"If you knew her last year and had

seen her around, you would've

thought she was a completely different

person," said Bibbee. "Soccer is

everything to her, and when she

couldn't play, when she wasn't even

able to run … we speak all the time

and she wouldn't come talk to me."

By the time her parents sought a

second medical opinion and convinced

a hesitant Dansereau to undergo

another surgery, not playing

again was a distinct possibility.

"The doctor told me, 'I don't even

care about soccer, you won't be able

to walk when you're older if you don't

do this,'" Dansereau said.

And so for the third consecutive

November, Dansereau had surgery,

this time a scoping procedure to investigate

the situation inside her

knee and clean out the scar tissue.

The results stunned everyone.

"Even after the surgery, the doctor

told me, 'I'm very concerned she

won't get [the range of motion]

back,'" said Kautt. "A week later, it

was back. It was just unbelievable."

Just like that, a year's worth of

pain and injury were gone. Her full

range of motion returned.

"I can't even explain it," she said.

"Before, I was doing all the exercises

at home, I was doing everything, crying

every day. I didn't do any exercises

at home for this one … I still got it

all back in two weeks."

At tryouts in March, Bibbee was

suspect. But not for long.

Dansereau felt like her old self

again, and now she's one of Langley's

fastest, most versatile players and no

longer afraid of a physical challenge.

She's one of three team captains, she

can play with both feet, and she's

played every game so far this season,

tallying one goal and one assist.

"Now she's perfectly fine," said

Dansereau's best friend and co-captain,

Caitlin Walko. "It's so great to

have her back."

Although Dansereau visits the

school trainers often, ices, stretches

and lifts weights, she said nothing

hurts at all.

"I was so hesitant to do it for a

year that it's all in my mind that I

can't do it," Dansereau said. "It's not

my body."

Her next goal, besides winning a

district title, is to prepare for Purdue,

where she'll walk on this fall.

"I think I'll really surprise them,"

Dansereau said. "That's what I'm really

looking forward to is just proving

myself to everyone. Just to say, 'All of

you who thought I was injured, all of

you who threw me off your list, look

at me now.'"