Three days before her Siloam Springs teammates played in the Class 6A state soccer finals last May, Odalys Palacios underwent surgery to have the ACL in her left knee repaired.
Palacios then went on to watch from the sidelines as the Lady Panthers defeated Mountain Home in penalty kicks to win the program's first-ever state title.
"It was really hard for me to watch that and not be able to play in the game," Palacios said. "But I feel like everybody helped me through it and motivated me to get where I am now."
Now is nearly a year later, and Palacios is back on the soccer field for the Lady Panthers, who played Tuesday in a 7A/6A-Central Conference game against Russellville. Results were not available at presstime.
Palacios spent the entire summer rehabbing at the fieldhouse with head trainer Brian Nitz and was back running around six months after the injury took place. She injured her knee nearly a year ago on April 18 in a home game against Springdale Har-Ber.
"I've recovered really fast," Palacios said. "I feel pretty much the same, just not as fast. I feel like I still have the same ball skills that I had before."
Head soccer coach Chuck Jones said Palacios' recovery has been nothing short of "miraculous."
"A lot of kids, they come back and it's tough for them," Jones said. "She's healed very quickly. To her credit, talking to Coach Nitz and (assistant trainer Tiffany) Evans, they're just saying that she worked extremely hard. It's so much easier to get back to full speed if you're working your tail off. That's what they're saying she did."
It wasn't easy though, Palacios said. She said she felt like she went through a small depression being away from the soccer field, and she credited a fellow senior teammate with helping her through it.
"It was hard, but I felt I was able to get out of it from my friend Kaylie Lane," Palacios said. "She went through it. I had no clue what to do or how to handle it. She was able to help me out throughout the whole time and was able to motivate me and get myself up and play again."
Before her injury, Palacios was one of Siloam Springs' most dynamic goal-scorers from the forward position. As a freshman she scored nine goals for the Lady Panthers, and followed that up with 25 in her sophomore year as Siloam Springs reached its first-ever state finals against Searcy in 2013.
Last season she had 13 goals at the time of her injury and still led the Lady Panthers in scoring, despite missing the final seven games of the season.
Through the Lady Panthers' first six games, Palacios had scored two goals, including a game-winner in the 75th minute last Friday in a 1-0 conference win against Van Buren.
"I was just looking for a good opportunity for a good pass," Palacios said. "I knew I would take that opportunity and try and score. We were tied up 0-0. Our team needed a score, so that was the opportunity, I took it and it was awesome."
Jones said the game-winning goal was a big one for the Lady Panthers, who in their previous game had been held scoreless against Greenwood and eventually lost in penalty kicks.
"The girls were knocking on the door and for whatever reason we couldn't put it in the net," Jones said. "We (the coaches) were over there talking about penalty kicks when (Palacios) took it and dribbled it into the net. That was big for us. I think it was big to kind of get the pressure off of us too because it had been a while since we scored."
But the victory came with a price.
Earlier in the match, junior forward Khenli Harp went down with a knee injury that could keep her on the sidelines for sometime. The Lady Panthers are supposed to learn later this week the extent of Harp's injury.
Palacios, who has been playing an attacking midfielder position so far this season, may move back to the forward position.
"It's probably going to push Odalys into the top," Jones said. "We've got several solid midfielders and probably Odalys is going to get the first shot at that forward position."
If history is any indication with Palacios, that move will be just fine for the Lady Panthers.
"All of my life I've been playing soccer," she said. "That's my passion. Now I'm really happy I'm able to play again."
Sports on 04/15/2015