Overcoming injury: The incredible journey of Roxie Rodriguez and how she prevailed

Sometimes injuries have a major impact on the life of an athlete.

In certain cases, the athlete may recover. In others, they may be unable to rejoin the sport they love.

For Pueblo Centennial’s Roxie Rodriguez, not only did she suffer a catastrophic injury at a younger age, but she fully recovered to go on to play almost every high school sport there was.

Rodriguez got into sports at a young age when she was introduced to martial arts where she fell in love with the discipline aspect of the sport. Eventually, she moved on to more traditional sports like volleyball and basketball before finding the sport she loved the most — wrestling.

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In eighth grade, Rodriguez took to the mat. At the time, schools didn't have wrestling as an option for girls, so, in junior high, she was forced to wrestle co-ed in club teams.

Eventually, she went up against the same wrestler three times in a row. After beating him the first two times, Rodriguez was lifted in the air during their third match and slammed on the mat, leaving her with a spinal contusion.

She lost feeling in the left side of her body and was forced to go into rehab to recover. Eventually, she regained her body use but was dealing with vision issues too.

This caused her to miss half of her freshman season of softball. Rodriguez had to prove to everyone that not only could she walk, run, hit and field in softball, but that she could also perform at a high level in all sports.

Once she got past the recovery, Rodriguez dove head-first into as many sports as possible.

“I've done softball, wrestling, track and soccer,” Rodriguez said. “Cross country, I tried to did one year and then I was like ‘I'm not built for this,’ so, I said no more.”

Rodriguez said her favorite sports are softball and wrestling. She hopes to continue wrestling and go to school for criminal justice in the fall.

One of her biggest accomplishments so far was making it to state her sophomore year in wrestling.

“Being under the lights in the arena and being like, finally, I actually did that,” Rodriguez said.

Despite all the adversity that Rodriguez has had to overcome, there was a point in time when she felt like dropping some sports, even all of them. But there was one thing her wrestling coach said to her that stood out and has been on her mind ever since.

“It was so hard on my mental, I thought I was not good enough,” Rodriguez said. “I had just lost in a final and I was like, ‘I'm just not good enough. I should have beat her.’ I was beating myself up and I just thought about it for a second. Then my coach, he gets on my nerves, but we're cool, he came up to me and said, ‘No, think about it, this is just high school wrestling. You don't even wrestle this style in college.’"

Rodriguez said her coach told her no matter who you go up against, when you start the match, you are both equal, 0-0. He also told her to stick it out for one more competition, and if she still felt like quitting and giving up, then he would support that.

Well, Rodriguez stuck it out and every time after, if she ever felt like giving up, she would remind herself to just give it one more week or one more day to think it over.

She added that her coaches, whether it be from her soccer coach, her wrestling coach, or even her softball coach, have had a major impact on her life.

“One of my coaches said, ‘How you do anything, is how you do everything.’ I really liked that and I took that," she said. "I write it in my visor and keep it with me close to my heart.”

Outside of sports, Rodriguez is also heavily involved in clubs for her school and her community — too many to list. But one of the clubs she’s involved in, the one she is most proud of, is a club that helps support and deal with mental health.

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“I’m in ‘Sources of Strength.’ It's like a mental health group. I like to be a part of that club. It's cool. You have to be selected for it, so, I'm glad I was selected for it,” Rodriguez said.

Despite all the busy activities, Rodriguez still finds time to help give back to the community as well. She is a youth softball coach and helps out with many other clubs she is a part of at her school.

Currently, Rodriguez is competing in track and field and is involved in the high jump and long jump categories. She hopes to enjoy her final season here at Centennial.

Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com 

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Overcoming Injury: The incredible journey of Roxie Rodriguez