VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR)- Sports have always been a part of Ava Rassool. From soccer with her teams to tennis with her family to other activities, she's always loved to compete.
"Through middle school I kind of realized I like the team aspect a lot and working together," she recalled. "My heart was pulling me towards soccer a lot."
Ava began her varsity career at Frank Cox High School, which would pull her towards even bigger goals. She set an ultimate target of playing soccer at the collegiate level. Last spring, however, as her sophomore season was winding down, she hit a setback late in a game against Ocean Lakes.
"I was in the air to go get [the ball] and another girl and I just collided and I heard a pop," she said. "I was on the ground and I wasn't really sure what had happened yet because it didn't hurt that badly, to be honest with you. I just couldn't get up."
"When she goes down, she gets right back up," added Erin Tonelson, who was the Falcons' head soccer coach at the time. "This time she did not. We knew she was hurt."
The diagnosis was a torn ACL, not an uncommon injury for athletes and one that often carries a recovery timeline of nine months to one year. Some uncertainty regarding the future would enter Ava's mind, but once she got past the initial shock of the incident, she chose positivity. The motivation she had to get back on the field and get back to playing provided all the hunger she needed to get to work.
"She stayed positive, she knew she had to," Tonelson remembered. "She took everything in stride, of course she was upset."
"Take the little victories," said Ava of her approach. "Even being able to walk and then jump and then run and little things like that, it did take a lot of time, but just focusing on the positives because it's so easy to focus on the negatives."
"I pretty much had to tell her 'don't worry, things are going to work out, do what you need to do and good things come to good people,'" added Cox head tennis coach Elizabeth Absher. "She's certainly one of those people."
It was a grueling process of surgery, recovery, physical therapy and rehabilitation, but through it all Ava kept her eyes on the prize of getting back. Now, one year later, she's easing her way back onto the field with her club soccer team, Beach FC.
"Every practice I feel myself getting back to where I was," she noted. "It's not even a physical thing. Physically I know I'm able to do it. It's a mental thing."
Not wanting to go full speed on the pitch lit a spark in Ava to try something new. She's always enjoyed playing tennis with her family, but now she's on a tennis team and competing in the sport for the first time, suiting up for the Falcons' varsity squad. Even though it's a different sport, it didn't take long for the junior to find her groove.
"From the very beginning I knew I had something exceptional," Absher pointed out. "To this day, I say I had Christmas in February."
"Even though it hasn't always been my number-one sport, it's something I've always [enjoyed]," Ava said. "As a little girl, I would drive by the Cox courts and see them practicing and just be like 'wow, that would be so cool to be one of them.'"
Now she is one of them and has wasted no time making an impression. She's worked her way up to the number one spot on the team and is undefeated on the season. Even more impressive might be her attitude off the court and field. Both coaches point to her as a positive role model for her peers and leader of her fellow student-athletes.
Now she continues he journey, learning more about herself and what she can do thanks to an injury that pushed her out of her comfort zone.
"She did not let what could've been a potential career-ending injury keep her down," Absher said. "She just kept working and working."
"She's just a phenomenal person all around," added Tonelson. "She never gives up and that's a huge amazing quality for a person to have, especially someone so young."
"Anything I put my mind to, I can do," Ava said of what this experience has taught her. "There's not really anything that's not possible if I have motivation for it. If I want something enough, then I can go out and do it."
Speaking of which, Ava said her goal hasn't changed. She is still focused on playing soccer at the college level following her high school career.
