This is the personal story of team member Ivy Kunn as she recovered from two recent injuries. Ivy’s dedicated attention to recovery, along with the injury-preventative fitness all Foothills members receive, kept her injuries from worsening, aided her recovery, and helped protect against longer-lasting damage. Thank you to Ivy and her family for sharing this story!
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Our experience with Foothills started in August 2024. Our previous club was not able to keep a 2008 APDL team going, which forced players to move to new clubs. Our experience at our original club had been positive, but we moved to support our daughter Ivy’s desire to continue playing at the 2008 APDL level.
Ivy joined Foothills not knowing exactly what to expect other than the club has a lot of depth of talent in their teams, and she was a little nervous. She quickly got over that!
Playing on the 08 Girls APDL Team – Ivy Finds Her Groove
Our first experience was with Coaches Andrew and Greg. These guys are simply awesome and went out of their way to make Ivy and our entire family feel welcome and explain where she would fit in the roster. The girls on the team and their parents are amazing as players and as people. They welcomed us in right away.
Ivy found her groove with the team fairly quickly. Her soccer experience at Foothills has been very good, and the team has performed well. Training with Coaches Andrew, Greg, Tucks, and Jordan is great from a soccer perspective, and the fitness training with Coach Chase is going nicely!
How Fitness and Quick Access to Care Helped Ivy Overcome Injury
Unfortunately, Ivy experienced two injuries in a row between December and January. Each of those injuries forced a stop to her soccer action. This is where Chase Wetherell became a bigger part of our day, and he has been very involved, helping her rebound from both situations as quickly as possible.
In both instances, as soon as our coaches made Chase aware of the injury, he immediately contacted us to understand the details. Once he had a better idea of each injury, he booked us with a top-end doctor (Dr. Hafeez Kurji, with Foothills’ new partner, Vivo Cura Health) and had Ivy assessed immediately. In each case, time off soccer and some rehabilitation were required.
After Ivy’s assessments, Chase booked time with her at Macron to go over exercises and provided her with a personalized rehabilitation program that she could do at home or at any gym. Ivy did as many of the workouts as possible at Macron under the guidance of Chase and his team of strength and conditioning coaches so that they could make suggestions, assess progress, and provide encouragement.
“Ivy was fantastic to work with throughout this whole process; she asked good questions, relayed information, and followed instructions without fail. Her dedication made all the difference to her successful recovery. She is a fantastic person and athlete!” – Chase Wetherell
Chase personally kept in touch with the doctors and received updates concerning Ivy’s assessment appointments. This made a huge difference in the time it took for her to get back on the field safely. We consider ourselves very lucky to be a part of Foothills and especially its fitness program which has made an injury situation as good as it can be for recovery and future prevention.
“Foothills takes the privacy of our players very seriously and has put measures in place to keep patient data confidential. Our medical partners at Vivo Cura make sure to attain athlete permission before they share injury history and data with my team.” – Chase Wetherell
Friendships for Life
Throughout both rehabilitations, Chase, Ivy’s coaches, teammates, and parents have all checked in regularly with us to see how she has been progressing, and this sense of family and camaraderie is another great piece of the story.
Lessons Learned: The Importance of Injury Prevention and Mental Fortitude
One thing we learned that has been particularly impactful. Ivy’s doctor mentioned during each assessment that the injury-preventative fitness the Foothills players are introduced to and encouraged to do kept her injuries from becoming worse. Keeping the muscles that assist ligaments and joints strong and active helped protect against longer-lasting damage.
Injury is an unfortunate but real part of sports that all athletes will have to deal with at some point. The physical part is one thing, but the mental part can be equally tough. Having people care and help progress recovery makes a world of difference and motivates a better result. The environment our daughter is in accomplished all of that, and we are happy to express our thanks.
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