Athlete of the Week: Gilson overcomes adversity for Poway High
By Michael Bower
When Cecily Gilson steps on the soccer field she cannot help but recall all the pain she has suffered from playing the sport she loves so much.
Poway High’s Cecily Gilson, with the ball above, has overcome two major injuries on the soccer field and is now the leading-goal scorer for the Titans. Photo by Beverley Brooks.
One reminder comes from the ankle brace she puts on her left foot before every game. Another comes when she jumps up for a header. But even with the two serious injuries she has gone through weighing on her mind, Gilson’s play would make you believe she doesn’t have a worry in the world.
“It’s on my mind all the time,” said Gilson, a senior forward for the Poway High girls soccer team. “When I am on the field, I am playing for the purpose to win, but also to avoid injury. Avoiding injury is my top priority, because I love the sport, and I don’t want to stop the sport because of an injury.”
Gilson, who made the varsity team as a freshman, tore her MCL before the start of her sophomore year and tore two ligaments in her left ankle going up for a header while playing for her club team before the start of her junior season.
“The ankle was probably the most detrimental of the two since it impacted me so much,” said Gilson, who also runs the 400-meter, 200, 100 and 4×100-relay for the track team. “Sitting on the sidelines so much brought down my confidence level because I was worried about getting hurt again.”
But that lower confidence has never showed. Gilson returned during the CIF San Diego Section Division I semifinals match against Rancho Buena Vista last season. She ended up scoring the decisive goal, which sent the Titans to the championship game.
And this season, Gilson has been healthy and a shining bright spot for Poway. She has a team-leading five goals this season. Last week, she scored three goals in two Titans’ victories (2-1 over Cathedral Catholic and 2-0 over Bishop’s).
For her efforts, Gilson is the Richardson Buick Athlete of the Week.
“It’s really nice to see players come back from adversity,” Poway coach Jen Lalor-Nielsen said. “She has been leading our team in goals and really everything. She has been the go-to player on the team and has been really consistent on the chances she gets on putting them on goal or for goals.”
The Titans (4-4, through Jan. 10) are off to an unusually slow start. But Gilson said the team is trying to replace 12 seniors from last year’s squad and it has just taken time for everyone to build the team chemistry.
“We have had to step back and realize we weren’t playing as a team,” she said. “We have to realize we are not individuals playing the game. We have to be a team playing the game.”
Gilson said she has scholarship offers for track and field and for soccer. She said she has offers to UC Riverside, Cal Lutheran and Cal State Bakersfield for soccer. She has an offer from Sacramento State for track and field. She said she is uncertain which sports she will continue, but for now she will be thankful every time she is able to walk off the soccer field under her own power.
“I think it is going to take a long time to overcome the mental part,” Gilson said. “It might not always be in my head one day, but when I leave a game I will always be thankful that I am walking off the field without an injury.”
Short URL: http://www.pomeradonews.com/?p=20480
Posted by Michael Bower
on Jan 11 2012. Filed under Athletes of the Week, High School, Sports.
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