By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

In her heart, Grace Wheeler had hoped it was a joke.

Admittedly, considering her already extensive injury history, it would have been a bad joke.

But she still would have been able to find the emotion to laugh at it.

In her mind, she may have known what her heart didn’t want to.

For the third time in her life, the doctor walked into her waiting room to deliver the news that she had torn her ACL.

“Really?”

Wheeler asked almost rhetorically, but it was probably more of a plea than a question.

Unfortunately, this has been like a repeat button for Wheeler, who is a junior girls soccer standout for the Southeast Pirates.

In 2022, as a seventh grader, she tore the ACL an meniscus in her left knee playing basketball when she got fouled from behind and tried to maintain her balance.

In 2024, as a freshman, she tore the ACL and meniscus in her right knee playing soccer when she landed awkwardly after being bumped on a shot attempt. It cut short a season that she had scored 31 goals and had six assists.

In 2025, as a sophomore, she again tore the ACL and meniscus in her right knee playing soccer when she went to cut and change direction and her knee gave out on her. It cut short a season that she had scored 15 goals and had three assists.

There was nothing easy about the first two recoveries, but Wheeler had successfully returned from both, had earned All-League and All-District honors and was ready to move on.

Only to be sidelined again by the misfortune no teenage athlete should have to work out of.

“If I am being honest, it was a really tough moment for me,” Wheeler said. “I felt like I had cleared the second one, and I was getting back to everything that I wanted to do.

“So to hear that I had to go through all of it again … it was disheartening. I was in tears. Soccer is my joy and to have it taken from me again was so painful.”

The strange part of Wheeler telling the demoralizing stories of injury, she is smiling.

A big, wide smile.

Even inside the pain of retelling it all, with emotions surfacing again as she remembers the long recovery process each time, Wheeler can’t help but remain positive.

It is a distinctive part of her personality and an unmistakable part of her identity.

And it is genuine.

“I try to take everything and turn it into a positive,” Wheeler said.

And, yes, she has been tested far more than the average person with that

“OK, so, yeah, it really stunk that I tore my ACL. Again. But everything happens for a reason. I was given another challenge, and I knew I could come back again.”

For Wheeler, having soccer was the perfect motivation. It was what she needed.

“Soccer has always been a place where I am at my happiest,” she said. “To get back on the field, to be told the steps needed to get back on the field, that is what I needed. To know there is a finish line waiting for me after my rehab was a healthy thing for me to have.

“If there was not a return plan to soccer, I think that would be the biggest challenge for mentally and physically, and I think I would have struggled to understand that. Soccer is just me.”

She quickly made her presence felt once again.

On the opening night of the 2026 season, the OHSAA’s recognized “Friday Night Futbol” on Aug. 14, Wheeler calmly buried a penalty kick to help the Pirates to a 2-2 tie at home against Ravenna.

It was the 47th goal of her career and it is possible that few had ever felt better.

“It felt good. It felt really good. I felt like I was back,” Wheeler said. “My teammates were excited and everyone was congratulating me. I was happy to celebrate something good on the soccer field again.”

It is a feeling that has repeated multiple times, with Wheeler now up to 24 goals (now up to 70 and counting for her career) on the season.

Everyone sees the goals, and the smiles that follow, but what is hidden is all of the countless hours of solitary work that Wheeler invested to get her body right to return to the field.

The pain, the frustration, the setbacks, the breakdowns.

The broken trust, the loneliness, the anger, the identity loss.

All, among others, were real and all were felt deeply three times over at this point.

Physical therapists became an extension of the Wheeler family and Wheeler became who own biggest influence to get back on the field.

It was all worth it for Wheeler, who was committed and determined to a fault to not only return to the sport she loves so dearly, but to return and play at the high level she is accustomed to.

That is not easy for anyone coming off of one major injury let alone three.

Well, it is not easy for most, but Wheeler is not like most.

“It always has come down to a simple question for me, ‘How bad do you actually want it?’,” Wheeler said. “I have played soccer since I was 4. I don’t think I could live without it. It drives me mentally, because if I want to play in college, and I want to play for as long as I can.

“Most people would feel sad for me, and I had those moments, too, but I always returned to the idea that these injuries were motivation for me. In some ways, they have inspired me, because I think to myself about how I have overcome these three major injuries, so I can get through so many other things.”

Wheeler’s repeated comeback story, including all three chapters, is all the evidence needed to feel how much conviction lives inside her words.

And her actions.