The painful pop in her knee was only the beginning of a long, frustrating year for Dillan Sorino.
It was Oct. 6, 2020 — her birthday — when the Camden Catholic High School athlete suffered the worst injury of her life while playing soccer for the Irish.
Hard contact, a planted leg, and that sound no athlete ever wants to hear.
“It was full contact,” Sorino recalled. “The girl came in from the side, and I was planted. Everything popped, and I fell to the ground. The trainer told me right away I was going to need surgery. I thought I’d be fine because I never get hurt.”
Sorino, however, had torn her anterior cruciate ligament, her medial collateral ligament and her meniscus. It was the unlucky trifecta, or as it’s known in the medical field, “the unhappy triad.”
Such injuries require surgery and a long, 10-month recovery of physical therapy. In Sorino’s case, the first stage of surgery didn’t go as planned. Her leg wouldn’t straighten because of built up scar tissue.
“I was stuck in the first stage of recovery for four months when usually it should be a couple of weeks, or maybe a month at the most,” she said.
The physical pain was one thing. The mental anguish of keeping the active teenager glued to the sofa was excruciating. Sorino plays soccer in the fall and spring and basketball in the winter.
“It’s awful,” she said. “You know you can’t lose hope, but you do. Especially with my setback. I was in the hardest spot of my physical therapy, and I couldn’t straighten my leg. That’s the hardest place to be. I started thinking I was never going to get back on the court. I’m never going to get back on the field. It’s mentally draining.”
Sorino had made waves as a freshman, earning a spot on the basketball team’s starting lineup as a point guard. She was contributing as a top defender in soccer midway through her sophomore season until the injury occurred. Then suddenly, no sports at all. A second surgery would be needed after four months to correct her scar tissue issue, and it was back to square one of a long recovery.
“You feel like you have nobody,” Sorino said. “You’re used to having your teammates around you all the time, but now you don’t. You’re home all day while your friends are at practice having the time of their lives. You want to be doing that, but you’re on the couch because you can’t move.”
Sorino’s friends and teammates would stop by the house to help her pass the days. Movie marathons and snacks helped, and she kept pushing forward with physical therapy knowing her sophomore year of sports was done. The focus then became junior year – and she would need to build her entire body back up, not just her knee.
“I wasn’t eating as much because I wasn’t active,” Sorino said. “I actually lost a lot of weight because I lost so much muscle. I got really skinny.”
The next birthday rolled around and Sorino was finally able to join her teammates at soccer practice, making an appearance in a few games before the end of the season. Attention then shifted to the hardwood in December, where Sorino would have to get over her fears of re-injuring her knee in a sport that is hard on the joints, with lots of jumping, pivoting and hard stops.
“If you go in [the game] thinking something bad is going to happen, something bad will happen,” she said. “You can’t be scared. If you’re not mentally ready, do not go in the game because you’re just going to … hurt yourself again.”
Sorino followed her own advice and made sure she was 100 percent ready to compete. Sorino now can be seen diving for loose balls and racing around the court. She stands out with a big brace on her left knee. Otherwise, she fits right in with a group that has won 16 games through Feb. 12 by out-hustling the opponent.
“Dillon is incredibly fearless,” Camden Catholic basketball coach Christine Matera said. “That’s how she was as a freshman. That’s why she was a huge asset for us during her freshman year. It took her a few games to get back in the rhythm and get reps under her belt, but in terms of sheer toughness and not being afraid, she’s second to none.”
Although Sorino looks back on her recovery time as a dark moment of her life, she carries respect for the medical professionals who helped her back on her feet. She now wants to be a physical therapist and help other athletes.
“You go through the [recovery] process, and you meet all these amazing people who are helping you,” she said. “I always wanted to do something in athletics, and this was like a blessing in disguise. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was older, but this made me figure it out. It helped me find my path. That will be me someday, helping out.”
Sorino would love to continue to play either soccer or basketball at the next academic level while studying physical therapy. She’s just beginning to get looks from colleges because she missed such a large chunk of time during the prime recruiting window.
“She’s been phenomenal for us,” said Matera, a 2007 Camden Catholic grad who went on to play basketball at Harvard University. “She brings in a level of intensity and toughness that changes the game on the court. I’ve had a ton of teammates go through the situation that she’s been through. It takes a lot of toughness and resilience, and I have a huge amount of respect for her.”
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