Soccer player tackles adversity with positive attitude

Katie Allen, 17, has been kicking around a soccer ball since she was a little girl.

She has played on teams in and out of school, with dreams of playing through high school.

Sometimes we’re handed a lemon, and Allen, in her sophomore year, tore her ACL, a ligament in her knee. Lots of pain and surgery followed.

She was off the playing field for that whole season, but instead of wallowing, she mixed up some lemonade.

“I cried sometimes,” she said. “I was so eager to play.”

Now as senior at West Valley High School, Allen has accepted the fact that she will not play as often as she would like, and she has, for the past couple of years, embraced her new role.

“Through all of this, she has kept up her spirits and been supportive and positive and, in my opinion, a good role model to her teammates,” said her mother, Elaine Allen.

“She has shown that a person can be of value to a team by her presence and by her example. … Her coach, Shelly Totten, has come to appreciate Katie’s presence on the sidelines.”

“I have learned in the last couple of years that you are an equally important member of a team even if you are on the bench. …You can help pump up your team and be supportive,” Katie Allen said.

“I am just as happy watching them play and do well as I am if I were playing myself.”

She serves as an adviser to her teammates on and off the field.

Other students at West Valley benefit from Allen’s supportive nature, as she is active in Link Crew, a peer support group.

Family and friends are important to her, and “partying” is a big waste of time, she believes.

College and a fruitful future are more important to her than any high school antics. She has her eye on a career in the medical field.

Allen’s advice to others: “Don’t worry about what other people think. Do what you want, and do what makes you happy.”