THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406260211
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940626 LENGTH: Long
She doesn't remember the name of the team she was playing against or what stadium she was in.
{REST} She has to think hard to even come up with the name of the town - it was Manchester - where she was on that fateful day when an opposing player slid into her left knee and snapped the anterior cruciate ligament.
What Echea distinctly remembers - maybe too distinctly - is the sound . . . like a popping balloon.
``Oh yeah, I heard it,'' Echea remembers. ``It was a loud pop.''
It burst what was the most promising bubble on the local girls soccer front. Echea was Hampton Roads' first legitimate All-American in the sport, the player nobody wanted to face.
As a high school sophomore, she was unstoppable, scoring 47 goals and registering 22 assists. Prior to her junior season, she was named to the player pool for the U.S. National Under-19 team and was bestowed first-team All-America honors by the National Soccer Coaches Association.
Fleeting and fiery, Echea made enemies on the field almost as fast as she scored goals.
``I remember in her sophomore year she singlehandedly beat us with three great goals,'' said Norfolk Academy coach Kevin Sims. ``She had blazing speed and could cover a vast range on the field. She combined a lot of different things. She was strong, fearless and crushed the ball with either foot.
``And she was widely despised. She was a first around here: a tough, talented girl who always played to win.
``She didn't play dirty, but she played hard and there were some players who didn't appreciate it when they came up against Lisa Echea and she got the best of them.''
More of the same was expected as a junior and Echea didn't disappoint. In that season's first three games, she had 10 goals, including a six-goal outburst against Maury.
In early April last year, she headed for England over spring break with the U.S. Region I Under-19 team for a series of exhibition games. When the injury occurred, she denied that it was serious, although deep down she knew differently.
``As I sat on the sidelines, my knee blew up really big,'' Echea recalled as she reclined in the den of her parents' home in the Fairfield section of Kempsville, spinning a soccer ball in her hands. ``We were on a 12-day trip to England and this was only the third day.
``I woke up the next morning, couldn't move my knee and knew it was bad. I'd never even broken a nail and now this. I limped around for the rest of the trip. I waited seven days before I called home to tell my parents. But my mom knew something was wrong when I asked her to set up an appointment with a knee doctor.''
Not wanting to believe the worst, Echea saw three doctors before reality set in. Finally, orthopedist Dr. John Schaffer made a tiny incision on the outside of the knee and replaced the ligament with a cadaver's. Echea's own ligament was a mess, irreparable.
``When ligaments tear, they never heal again because they don't have any blood supply,'' Dr. Schaffer said.
In comparison with most ACL surgeries, the scar is tiny.
``I begged him not to make a big cut,'' Echea laughs. ``I wanted to feel comfortable wearing skirts without hose.''
Echea had once matter-of-factly stated that she would one day play college soccer for perennial national champion North Carolina. She will not.
But don't cry for this scoring dynamo. For this is not a story of shattered dreams. It is one of momentary setbacks.
Echea might not be a Tar Heel, but she says she's about to become the next-best thing, a George Mason University Patriot.
George Mason lost to North Carolina in last fall's NCAA final. Echea, who turned 19 Monday, expects to sign a letter-of-intent with the Patriots in the coming weeks.
The only matter delaying her signing is the necessity for an NCAA qualifying score on the Scholastic Assessment Test, which she took June 4, or the American College Test, which she took June 11.
Still, will we ever see the Echea that graced Hampton Roads soccer pitches two years ago?
This past season at Kempsville, Echea had 12 goals, a solid year by most standards, but sub-par for the girl who would once have been Tidewater Player of the Year. She didn't even make the All-Tidewater first team, having to settle for second-team honors.
``The brace I had to wear definitely slowed me down,'' Echea said. ``I know I didn't play like my old self. Speed used to help me a lot. I used to change speeds all the time. But with the brace I couldn't run as fast or cut as hard.
``I never heard the whispers (of opposing players), but I could sense what they were thinking. I could see it in the eyes of the First Colonial and Cox players, the ones I'd really had some rivalries with. I think they were glad to see I was a step slower.''
First Colonial standout Stephanie Smith, who had been a youth soccer teammate of Echea's said, ``I think she's got the same skills she had, but that brace definitely slowed her down a bit. It wasn't the same Lisa Echea this year.
``In the past, we'd take a defender and mark her throughout the game. We did that this year the first time we played Kempsville and realized afterward that it wasn't necessary, that we were pulling a player out of our normal defensive set.''
Stephanie Reavis, First Colonial's All-Tidewater goalie, said she believes the injury could help Echea be more of an all-around player.
``I used to worry about her getting around the defense and breaking in one-on-one,'' Reavis said. ``She was still a threat this year, but when she got the ball I was thinking more about who she was going to pass to. She was more of a team threat and in the long run I think it's going to make her a lot better player.''
All Echea knew was that she was finally playing. For months following surgery, Echea spent her days brooding over her situation.
``She was very, very down,'' said Echea's mother, Janis. ``She felt she'd never be able to play again. She'd have crying fits where she'd just go into her room and close the door. We just kept encouraging her, reminding her everything happens for a reason.''
It probably didn't help that Echea could roll over on her bed and see a shelf lined with soccer trophies.
Away from home, Echea did her best to keep her emotional state bottled. ``I think my rivals would have loved it if they'd known I was at home crying every day,'' she said.
Her graduation day, June 12, was cause for a twofold celebration.
Echea rose at 4:45 that morning, traveled to Northern Virginia and played a club game for the Vista United College Under-23 team, a squad comprised mostly of college players, many from George Mason.
Although she did not have her doctor's approval, she shed her brace to play for the first time since surgery.
Like a falcon whose hood had been lifted, Echea once again took flight, scoring two goals in a 4-2 victory over another college-age team.
``She's headstrong and hard to hold down,'' Dr. Schaffer said. ``It's not necessarily a good sign, but it's a sign of a competitor who wants to do well.
``Her knee is pretty close to being back to par. Her playing now depends on fear . . . or should I say her level of fearlessness.''
``It felt good,'' said Echea, who returned that evening in time to make her high school graduation. ``It was the first time I really felt like my old self.
``I might get back to the days when I made regional and national teams. I once thought I was at the end of my soccer career. Now, I might be playing when I'm 50.
``I thought I was missing out on so much, having to rehabilitate a knee injury during my senior year. But now I think about college and all the great things I have ahead of me.''
by CNB