First she tweeked it, then she officially tore it. A standout in four different sports, Alex Cave was unable to finish basketball season and participate in soccer during the spring because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her knee. But here we are at the end of June, just three months since she had surgery and the rising William Monroe senior is spending her summer the same way she has since she was three — swimming for Greene Hills in the Jefferson Swim League.
In years past Cave has approached the JSL as an opportunity to compete with the area’s top swimmers. While she enjoys the festive nature of the league, anyone who knows her knows that when it comes to the actual racing, it’s all about competition and posting a low time.
“The JSL has always really helped me in the winter league and high school level because you’re swimming against a lot of the same people through the year like Natalie Cronk,” Cave said. “It’s helped me developed as a swimmer, getting my technique down.”
That’s her style, but this year it’s a bit different. It’s not physically possible for her to be the type of swimmer she’s used to being.
“I take every race pretty seriously, even the small ones,” Cave said. “I know that I can’t swim as fast as I normally can right now, but I’m trying to get there.”
Swimming isn’t just a summer activity for her, it’s a full part of her rehabilitation. Getting a knee back to full strength after a major injury like a torn ACL is a lengthy and tedious process and swimming offers dual benefits for an athlete like Cave. Not only is it one of the four sports that she excels at — she’s one of the top sprinters at the Group AA level — but it’s also a low impact exercise that allows her to recuperate strength lost from atrophy while putting minimal stress on the injured knee.
“Right now I’m really trying to strengthen my quadriceps because there is just a huge difference between one leg and the other,” Cave said. “Swimming is great for this because it’s helping me get stronger but I’m not slamming my leg into the ground.”
Having been in the JSL since she was three, Cave is now a junior coach. As a decorated high school swimmer, she’s hoping to find a bit of herself in some of the younger swimmers and give back.
“Coaching is still kind of new to me, but I’m getting there,” Cave said. “Really, I just want to help anyone who wants to get where I am now. I want to show them how to work hard, how they can get their technique down.”
Come a month from now Cave will be in the atmosphere she relishes most, competing against the JSL’s best swimmers in the two-day championship. But until then she’s spending her mornings coaching Greene Hills youth and then working on her knee. A stickler for details in all four sports, expect Cave to be one of those athletes that finds a way to get back to full strength before anyone thought they could. In a lot of ways, the lesson she teaches there to any of the Greene Hills swimmers could be the most valuable.
