A short two hours after tearing her ACL in a match against rival school Carroll, Richard King High School senior Whitley Elizondo pushed through the pain and was crowned homecoming queen.
According to the Caller Times, Elizondo had a suspicion that she’d be named homecoming queen so despite the pain in her knee, she attended the event.
“I wanted to faint, it hurt so bad,” Elizondo said. “My parents told me not to go but I wasn’t going to miss it just because I tore my ACL.”
Elizondo showed up at the dance in her volleyball uniform unable to move her knee.
“I had an outfit planned and everything, but I couldn’t change,” Elizondo explained. “I couldn’t move so I said I was going like this.”
Despite Elizondo’s inability to change, she wasn’t the only one who showed up in her team’s uniform. Lestor Sabsook, a football player for Richard King High School, was named homecoming king and also wore his uniform.
Elizondo’s mother, Valeria Elizondo, told the Caller Times that homecoming was the distraction that Whitley needed after the injury.
“We got there and everything changed,” said Valeria. “She was glowing afterwards, and she kept saying she felt better.”
This is the second time that Whitley has torn her ACL while playing for Richard King. She tore it one before at the end of her sophomore year, forcing her to sit out most of her junior year.
Relating her past injury to the present one Whitley said, “I was in a lot of pain. I also knew exactly what happened [when she tore her ACL in the match against Carroll], and that I’d be sitting out again.”
Richard King volleyball coach Maddia Mojica said that Whitley’s injury will hurt the team’s offense, but that she’ll still be present with the team.
“She’ll still be a big leader for us even off the court,” said Mojica.
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