Lost season: Durfee three-sport athlete turns to encouragement after season-ending injury
NEW BEDFORD — Isolation, Emily Curran quickly decided, was not the best option. So, the Durfee High senior and star defenseman for the Bishop Stang co-op hockey team, has made herself a fixture at practices and games.
She doesn't bring her sticks or skates. She stands on the bench, encourages teammates — including younger sister Kacey, a junior — and does her best not to dwell on what might have been: a fun and productive season on the ice.
On Oct. 16, during a Durfee field hockey game, Emily Curran, reacting to an opponent's change of direction, started to do the same. Her foot caught in the turf and she heard a pop, and then fell to the ground. She had torn the ACL and meniscus in her left knee.
“It just made a loud pop. It didn't really hurt,” Curran, 18, said on Thursday during a Stang practice at Hetland Arena. “It was more of just like, there goes my season. I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I saw my senior year flash before my eyes. I knew it was probably over.”
She lost the balance of the field hockey regular season and tournament play, softball in the spring, and most painfully, ice hockey in the winter.
There was, for a few days, reason to be optimistic. In between the injury on the Monday and the MRI on Friday morning, Curran said, a doctor who examined her ruled out ACL injury and said Emily might be back in action in a week or two.
The Friday of the MRI (done at 10 a.m.) was also senior night for Durfee field hockey. Curran's parents, former Durfee High athletes Bob and Andrea (Lopes), received the bad-news MRI results at 3 p.m.. They chose to keep them secret from Emily until after the game. Bob inadvertently hinted of the bad news during senior night festivities.
“My dad was crying during the pictures, so I knew something was up,” Emily said. “But I didn't want to think about it too deeply.”
Her worst fears were confirmed, postgame, when her parents shared the sad news. She cried with her family. She went out to her car and cried alone.
“Heartbreaking,” Curran said. “Heartbreaking, to say the least. I literally broke down. You see things happen and think that will never be me. Now I was like crap, that's me now. I was more upset because I had this season. And hockey's my main sport. It was just awful.”
“It's definitely been rough at home,” Kacey Curran said. “She's been very sad about how she has to miss out on sports.”
October of 2023 will go down as the month that life cross-checked Emily Curran into the boards.
Her grandmother, Susan Curran, died on Oct. 5. The wake and funeral were held Friday and Saturday, Oct. 13-14. The knee injury occurred on the following Monday. Four days later, it was the knee diagnosis and the end of her high school athletics career.
“It was a lot in a very short time,” she said.
A two-time Herald News All Scholastic, Curran has been skating since age 3 and playing hockey since age 5, and she plans to continue to play in college, ideally at Salve Regina University. Losing her senior year with Stang and especially with sister Kacey hurt a lot, and still does. Kacey plays forward and would often be on the receiving end of Emily passes. They shared one brain when on the ice.
“My mom was always like, Curran-to-Curran goal. I love that,” Emily said.
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Justifiably down in the dumps immediately after the diagnosis, Curran let her grades slip, for a short time. She said her Durfee teachers were very understanding and she soon regrouped and boosted those grades back up to A's, except a B in math. “I'm not very good at math,” she said with a laugh. “But I try as hard as I can.”
Curran underwent successful knee surgery at Mass Brigham Healthcare Center at Patriot Place in Foxboro. She may be cleared to skate, not compete, for Stang hockey's senior night in late February. She is not expected to be cleared to play any sports until late June.
When hockey preseason practice started, Curran, a team captain, decided she was going to contribute any way she could. She'll miss a game or practice only if it conflicts with one of her bi-weekly physical therapy sessions. She said she knew it would not be easy being a skateless and stickless Spartan. She didn't know how hard.
“The first practice, I walked in, I thought I'd be fine,” she said. “Then I just broke down and I cried so much that day. The first away game was awful. Now away games are fine, but we had our first home game yesterday (Wednesday) and that hit really hard because I love, love home games. I just love playing.”
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Stang head coach Bill Theodore described Curran as a dominant player, strong on her skates with great ice vision, possessor of a powerful, accurate shot. He said she's able to control a game all by herself. He rates Curran as one of the most important players the Spartans have had in years.
“She's still a very big part of the team,” Theodore said. “She's here at every practice. She's a leader. She just brings so much to the table, even if she's not on the ice.”
“I'm basically the mom of the team at this point,” Curran said. “I have these three freshmen. They follow me around. They ask me questions. It's been nice.”
“I'm very proud of her for coming to all the practices and games,” sister Kacey said. “It's very hard for her to see us all doing stuff that she wants to do but she can't right now.”
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Durfee athlete Emily Curran talks about missing her senior year
