McCormick's postive attitude gets her through

by Matthew Ondesko: Managing Editor

She knew when it happened, but was still hoping it was a bad dream.

When Williamsville South High School soccer player Morgan McCormick tore her ACL she knew it right a way. She heard the loud pop and the pain that goes with it. In her mind she was thinking the worse possible outcome.

But, in the beginning, McCormick wasn’t diagnosed with a torn ACL. She walked around New York City for a couple of days. It wasn’t unlit she came home, and got the MRI, that her worse fears came true.

“The moment it happened I knew. I received the ball on the wing and went to accelerate forward and I heard a loud pop and my knee just gave out. Immediately my mind was thinking about the worst possible outcome. I talked to a bunch of trainers and doctors and all of them told me my ACL felt intact and it was most likely just a subluxated knee cap,” stated McCormick. “I believed them because I wasn’t in a lot of pain and I was even able to walk around New York City for 2 days afterward. I got an MRI to rule out a possible tear. My results came back when I was at lacrosse practice and I was told I had completely ruptured my ACL, medial meniscus, and lateral meniscus. Obviously I was devastated because nobody wants to hear that after being reassured your ACL was perfectly fine. Then it sunk in, that I would be missing my senior season and most of my club season.”

With the ACL gone, and surgery over, the hardest part of the process is rehabbing to get back on the field. While the physical rehab is hard, it’s the mental side that takes a beating. There are days McCormick feels like she has made a lot of progress, and things are going well.

Then there are others days where she feels like she took two steps back, and nothing is going right. Through all the ups and downs that comes with this type of injury, McCormick has kept a positive attitude.

“Going through an injury like this is not easy at all in any aspect. Mentally it’s extremely hard, some days it feels like you’ve made so much progress and then the next week it feels as if you’ve backtracked. There's so many ups and downs with this injury that you just have to keep a positive mindset and keep your goals in mind. It’s really helped me to write down how I’m feeling and to also talk to my therapist. Being and staying mentally strong is just as important as physical strength,” explained McCormick. “This past summer I became an ambassador for Morgan’s Message which is a mental health organization focused on breaking the stigma surrounding mental health. I’m very grateful to be a part of a supportive community and to share Morgan’s Message. I’m also very lucky to have an amazing support system around me to keep me going.”

Through it all the biggest challenge for McCormick has been just regaining the range of motion that she once had. McCormick had four different procedures done on her knew, so she was on crutches for a while.

The first part of her rehab went slowly, but slowly she started to raging her strength and mobility back in her knee.

“The biggest challenge I’ve had has definitely been regaining my range of motion. It’s been especially hard for me since I had to have four procedures done on my knee. I was on crutches and in an immobilizer for six weeks due to my meniscus repairs, so the first portion of my recovery went very slowly,” stated McCormick. “My physical therapist, Brad Bowen, has been amazing with helping me regain strength, mobility, and feeling confident in my movement again.”

After a great 2024 on the pitch, it has been extremely hard for McCormick to be sitting on the sidelines watching her team play. All she wants to do is get out there and play soccer. For the time being that has been taken away from her.

During the time away from the game, McCormick has gotten a different perspective of the sport and herself. She has been able to take this time and learn much more about herself as person, which she is grateful for.

“It has been extremely hard to watch, the only thing I want to do right now is play soccer. Soccer has always been a big part of my life and being forced to step back and watch has opened a new perspective for me that I am very grateful for,” stated McCormick. “I’ve learned so much about myself as a person and a player that I never would have if I was currently playing. Being named as a captain this year has allowed me to step into a new role on our team and be as encouraging and helpful as possible. I pride myself on being a good teammate and that will never stop no matter if I’m playing or not.”

She also become almost a second coach on the team. As a senior McCormick has seen it all. She has been able to use her knowledge of the game to help her coaches and teammates, and to be able to give a different perspective.

She has always been a leader, but this season she has grown into more of a leadership role.

“I definitely have stepped into a bigger leadership role now that I’m a senior and am on the sidelines. I love helping out my coaches and giving feedback to the girls on things they do well and some things they could work on,” stated McCormick. “I try to use my best insight and experience to give the best advice, especially with a very young team this year. I think it’s taught me a lot about myself and that I’d definitely want to coach my own team one day.”

On the pitch, McCormick is a dynamic player playing in the attacking midfield role. The role allows her to either distribute the ball of take it herself and try to score. Her play on the pitch is one of the reasons why the team went 12-4-2 last season.

Last season was also special because she was able to play with her younger sister, Having the McCormick sisters on the pitch at the same time was pretty special.

“Last season was particularly special because it was the first time being able to share the field with my younger sister,” stated McCormick. “That year I felt like a true leader on the team while knowing I was able to control the midfield. Playing as the attacking midfielder I had the ability to distribute the ball or take it myself and score. I felt it was one of the best seasons of soccer I’ve ever played, which led to me continuing to play at my best during my winter club season. We ended up finishing the season 12-4-2 and had a disappointing loss in the Section 6 semifinal.”

McCormick’s game is predicated on seeing the field. She has great vision and is always a play or two ahead. That just doesn’t come naturally, that comes with hard work. McCormick watches a lot of soccer in her spare time, and that ha shelled her with recognizing what is going on the field.

She can pick out the right play, because she can see it already happening. This is why she lead the team in assist last year. She was told their midfield was hard to defense because they never knew was gutting the ball.

That’s a testament to the hard work that McCormick and the rest of the midfielders, have put in.

“The best way to work on your field vision is to see plays happen in other games. I watch a ton of soccer and I think that’s what has helped me improve so much. It feels very methodical seeing a play happen in your head when you’re on the field and then trying to make it happen. I also think having my dad be a former college coach is a tremendous advantage because I learn so much from him and have always been around the teams he’s coached from a very young age. My dad always says, you should be seeing what’s happening 2 plays in advance,” explained McCormick. “I think one of my favorite things to do in the midfield is distribute the ball. Especially when I had really strong teammates who I knew would score when they received the ball from me. My mindset has usually always been to look up and give myself the option to find the passing lanes. A lot of people have told me our midfield was hard to defend because our opponents never knew what we were going to do with the ball. I think seeing certain things on the field where others usually would look past is a really good skill to have.”

While her senior season hasn’t gone according to plan, McCormick does want to continue to play soccer in college. She was recently a commit to Division I St. Francis, but they recently moved down to Division III.

McCormick felt best to recommit and is now starting the process of recruiting again now that her knee is getting better.

“I was previously committed to play Division 1 soccer at Saint Francis University. I felt it was the perfect school for me, and I even was recruited with one of my WNY Flash teammates,” stated McCormick. “Unfortunately following a ton of NCAA regulation changes, they made the decision to drop in division to D3. I decided it would be best for me to decommit and look elsewhere. I had just restarted my recruitment process when I then got hurt. I put a pause on looking at colleges to take the time to recover and better myself. I just recently started focusing on recruiting again and I’m in the process of making a decision but I definitely want to continue my soccer career in college.”