Lake Central senior midfielder Liana Navarro began playing soccer when she was 6 years old. It was her whole world.
Last year, it all came crashing down.
During a club tournament, Navarro had the ball at her feet with space in front of her and a defender closing fast. One wrong step changed everything.
“My life got flipped upside down, and everything that could have gone wrong went wrong,” she said. “Everyone takes for granted what they have, and that’s what I learned. I took every little thing for granted — learning how to walk, how to run. For the first three weeks, I couldn’t shower by myself or use the bathroom alone.
“It shifted my perspective because I was like, ‘Wow, this stuff can be taken from you so quickly, and you don’t realize it until it happens.’”
Navarro, who suffered a completely torn ACL and bone bruising, said her mother pushed for the MRI that confirmed the damage. Months of recovery followed, and she watched her Lake Central teammates move forward while she remained sidelined. But her positivity made an impression on them.
“You don’t see many people like Liana,” Lake Central junior defender Ashtyn Adams said. “She recovered from an injury, a big injury that affected her a lot, and she came back better. Every time we saw her during her recovery, not one time was she in a bad mood.
“She is always positive. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in a bad mood.”
Along the way, Navarro learned something about herself.
“I realized soccer isn’t the only thing about me,” she said. “My whole personality, like when you thought of Liana, was soccer. But when I had the whole year off to be by myself and work on things and wasn’t able to play, I had to find myself outside of it.
“That changed my relationship with the sport for sure. I realized I love soccer. I have a lot of fun playing it. But it’s not my whole life.”
Navarro, who is unsure whether soccer will be a large part of her life after high school, knows she wants to stay local and is interested in pursuing criminal law. But she’s excited to be back on the field and has big goals for her senior season.
The mission statement couldn’t be clearer from coach Matthew Plawecki: Beat Crown Point, win the Duneland Athletic Conference title and win a sectional championship. Having Navarro, who scored at least 10 goals in each of her freshman and sophomore seasons, makes those objectives more attainable, Plawecki said.
“Liana demands the best out of everybody,” Plawecki said. “There are days where I show up and I can tell she’s frustrated with how practice is going, and I’m like, ‘Dang, I didn’t do a good enough job planning this practice.’
“Then it trickles down and goes from me demanding the best out of her to her demanding the best out of me to demanding the best out of everybody else on the field. That’s the biggest thing for me, and technically speaking, she’s one of our best all-around players.”
Lake Central’s Liana Navarro moves the ball during a nonconference game against Andrean in Merrillville on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (Michael Gard / Post-Tribune)
Navarro wants to make the most of her second chance. In doing so, she hopes the team can check off some boxes.
But Navarro begins the season with one overwhelming feeling.
“I’m grateful,” she said. “I’m grateful for the people I get to be around now and that I get to play in general. I’m just really grateful for everything I have — my coach, my team, being healthy and being able to play and do things I wasn’t able to when I was injured.”
Noah Poser is a freelance reporter.