Melissa Simmons has overcome several obstacles to continue wrestling for Oklahoma City University.
The sophomore from Ridgefield, Wash., has had reconstructive surgery on the left side of her face and on her knee in the last two years and is finally healthy entering the 2009-10 season.
Simmons, this week’s Super Star of the Week, has come back this season with an 11-3 record and four pins this season.
“I feel great now even though I have to wear a face mask and knee brace,” Simmons said about the early part of this season. “I go out there looking like the phantom of the opera, but it feels great knowing that my knee is working and I am not going to have any more surgeries. I have a clean bill of health.”
Simmons suffered damage to her left eye when she was involved in a serious car wreck in October 2007.
“I was driving to my evening class back home in Ridgefield when a Ford F-250 t-boned my mom’s Subaru that I was driving,” Simmons said about the accident. “My face hit the steering wheel and I suffered damage to the left side of my face. It is all reconstructed on that side.”
She was unable to see out of her left eye for five months following the reconstructive surgery. The doctors said it was unlikely that she would continue wrestling.
“After my accident when the doctor told me I would never be able to compete again, I was devastated,” Simmons said. “I went in and I was an assistant coach at my old high school until the doctors finally cleared me to start wrestling again.”
Simmons began training for nationals once she was cleared to wrestle again, but was quickly struck with another serious injury – this time to her knee.
“A month before nationals, one of the high school boys tried to throw me and it was just a freak accident where my ACL snapped,” Simmons said.
Once she arrived at OCU, Simmons wrestled her entire freshman year without an anterior cruciate ligament. She went 14-5 that season and won the national championship at 72 kilograms. A few days after she won the national championship, she was back under the knife to have her knee fixed.
“I definitely don’t take competing for granted as much anymore,” Simmons said. “Wrestling has always been a major part of my life for the past 17 years and it always will be.”
To see an interview with Simmons, click here.
More on Melissa:
Being an OCU Star means: Getting the best education and training opportunity
Dream car: Lemon-lime drop top. You can call it Sprite
What I’d like to transform into: A Tyrannosaurus Rex
My obsession is: Bangin’ kicks, mainly Nike
Twitter is: Not for me