Georgia cheerleader back on sidelines after a year-long recovery from ACL rupture

ATHENS, Ga. - Lindsey Herring has been cheerleading as long as she can remember.

"I love the friendships I've made through cheerleading," Herring says.

For years, the Lake Oconee Academy senior has been honing her skills with competitive travel teams.

"I base, and I fly," she says.  "So, I go in the air, but I also put people in the air, and you're doing a lot of flips and turns."

Last August, Herring was practicing with her high school cheerleading team when something went wrong.

"I was going up into a stunt at school cheer practice, and it didn't feel right, and I fell straight to the ground, trying to catch myself," she remembers.  "And, in my brain I thought it was either catch myself with my legs or fall straight on my face."

She landed hard on her left knee.

"And it kind of twisted in a way," she says.   "I just landed on it wrong, and it ruptured my ACL."

Within a couple of weeks, Herring underwent ACL reconstruction surgery.

The next day after her procedure, she came to see sports medicine physical therapist Zach Gretsch at Piedmont Athens Regional's Oconee Campus.

Gretsch says coming back from an ACL injury can be challenging.

"The first few weeks, it's like, 'What did I sign up for,'" Gretsch says.  "But, once the pain settles down a little bit, it gets a lot  better, and more exciting for them just to see their progress as they move on from week to week."

Gretsch knows all about the road back from an ACL injury; he tore his ACL 3 times as a student athlete.

During the fall, as high school football and cheerleading seasons begin, Gretsch says, they typically see a jump in young athletes sidelined by ACL injuries.

"If there is people going into their senior year, and they might have opportunities to go play at the next level and this happens to them, I mean it can be very devastating," he says. "Same thing applies for anybody of any age: you're taking a year's absence from what you know as your sport, and you're having to re-identify yourself."

Lindsay Herring spent 10 months in physical therapy.

"I went through some rocky parts where I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere," Herring remembers. "But, I pushed through it, and I got through it."

To get back to cheering, she had to pass a series of balance, strength and symmetry tests.

"I do have complete confidence in her ability," Gretsch says.  "Because it helps, knowing what I know, from my 3 ACL tears, to get my patients to be the best trained for their sport."

It's been a long road, but Lindsey Herring is now back with her high school team.

""It is a big deal," she says.  "And, that's what mattered, that I still had my senior year, all my best friends, because all my best friends cheer with me.  So, it's really important that I'm back into it."