Tough Break : Parker Has Faith in Cougar Soccer Despite His Knee Injury

MISSION VIEJO — Capistrano Valley goalkeeper Mark Greco has been playing soccer most of his life. So when he saw sweeper Ricky Parker fall down two weeks ago against Huntington Beach, he thought nothing of it.

“I thought he took a dive,” Greco said. “Then all of sudden, he comes off limping. I said, ‘Uh-oh.’ At halftime, I went over to ask him how he was and he said, ‘I’m done.’ ”

Parker didn’t need a doctor’s report to tell him his season and his high school career was over.

“I knew right away,” he said. “It’s an unmistakable feeling. It’s the exact same feeling I had before, with a little less pain but the same loud pop.”

So much for lightning never striking the same place twice.

Fourteen months ago, Parker felt the same unmistakable pop in his left knee when playing a club game with the Mission Viejo Pateadores. After nine months of painful rehabilitation, Parker returned to the form that made him an All-Southern Section player as a sophomore.

The frustration of sitting out his junior year was gone. Eight games into his senior season, Parker was thinking of a section title and a college scholarship. The fourth-ranked Cougars were off to a 6-0-1 start and Parker was moving better than ever.

“I had already scored two goals,” Parker said. “We were really clicking. I thought I was on my way.”

Maybe Parker should have listened to the warning he received two weeks earlier. In a Pateadores game over the Thanksgiving weekend, he sprained his right knee but he essentially ignored the injury.

On Dec. 16, his sprain became a tear.

“I was running with the ball, I went to cut upfield and I got hit from the side,” he said. “When I tried to keep my balance, my knee turned and it popped. I laid on the ground and just looked at my coach.”

Parker actually tried to will himself back in the game.

“I was jumping up and down on the sideline, but my knee gave out and I knew it was over,” he said.

But Parker said his coach, Ron Willms, had a hard time believing what Parker was telling him.

“My coach and I are really close,” Parker said. “He’s like a second father to me. I told him about a week later, ‘Maybe you want to look at restructuring the defense.’ He gave me a blank expression.”

Even Parker said he’s had a difficult time dealing with the reality of his situation.

“I was in denial for a while, too, until I actually read about myself in the paper a couple days ago,” he said.

Is Parker unlucky or just cursed?

“I don’t believe in luck,” he said. “I think everything happens for a reason. The doctor told me that 85 to 90% of the athletes who tear one ligament will tear another one.”

Parker has not had a Magnetic Resonance Imaging test, but his doctor at Mission Viejo Community Orthopedic has told him he needs surgery and that he will not play again this year. Capistrano Valley (9-2-2), which has made the Division I quarterfinals and semifinals the past two years, is 3-2-1 since Parker went down in the first half of the Huntington Beach game.

“We’re juggling everything now,” Greco said. “One of our midfielders [Chris Latini] is dropping back to play sweeper. Ricky helped me a lot. He was there to get most of the balls for me. It’s a big loss for us. We’re going through a transition.”

But Parker is hardly abandoning his team. He has been to every game since his injury, in body and in spirit.

“He’s a great team leader,” Greco said. “Even now, he still treats us like he’s the captain. He wants to get out there on the field so bad.”

Said Parker: “My loss hurts, but these guys have been doing it for two years. They’ll deal with everything thrown at them. I’m very confident they’ll win 95% of their games. I’m definitely still thinking about a CIF championship.”

And he’s definitely not giving up on soccer. Parker doesn’t figure San Diego State, Fresno State and UC Santa Barbara will follow up on their letters, but he would like to play somewhere.

“I don’t expect a four-year school to take a chance on someone with two reconstructed knees without seeing what I have,” Parker said. “But I’ve thought about walking on or playing at a community college.

“If I’m not going to play anymore, I’m going to go out on my own terms. I know what I have and what I can do. I’m tired of living in the past of my sophomore year. That’s one year. I want to show people, ‘Well hey, I can still do it.’ ”