A loud pop rang out. All around her, things seemed to freeze. Dearing’s opponent let her go. The referee stopped the match. Dearing went down, and she couldn’t get back up. The athletic trainer arrived at the mat to ask her what hurt. Locating the pain, however, was no easy task. 

   “I was telling her underneath my knee, but it was kind of my thigh too, and she just made me so mad, because she said, ‘honey, that’s your thigh,’” said Dearing, now a senior. “I just didn’t have the words to explain it.”

Until then, the State Girls Wrestling Match, taking place on March 1st, 2025, had been going great for then junior Cadence Dearing. The match had started the same as any other. When Dearing tried to escape a pin, instead of allowing her to push off, Dearing’s knee gave out. The pop of her knee rang out loudly, though through the buzz of the State meet, the only people who could hear it were the refs, her opponent, and her.

Despite the pain, Dearing felt that she couldn’t let anyone down. She told the trainer she felt fine to keep going, and the trainer agreed to let her try. 

To win the match, she would have to start from a down position, and she’d have to get up fast. Instead, her knee only gave out again, and she was pinned quickly, unable to really fight back. 

After the match, Dearing was helped off the mat by the trainer and immediately taken to the athletic trainer’s office, where she was checked for injuries by a KU doctor. The doctor knew almost immediately that she had torn her ACL.

The following Monday, the Dearings went to KU med, where they saw the same doctor and got the final diagnosis. Dearing had a grade 3 ACL tear and would require a complete ACL repair surgery. The surgery uses a graft made from healthy ligaments or a donor to help the ligament repair itself properly. Complete recovery often takes 6 to 9 months. That meant she couldn’t play school softball her junior year or club softball that summer. In other words, Dearing had just lost her biggest recruitment year to an injury.

The weeks leading up to her surgery were stressful. She often found herself worried that she wouldn’t fully recover. 

“I was definitely scared before because I had never had any major surgery like that,” Dearing said. 

If she never played again, that would mean she had lost countless years of training, practices, and time. The thought of losing something she had worked for her whole life left her unsure and anxious. Through this, she tried to be as positive as possible. 

“It hurt, but you have to keep going if you want to get better,” Dearing said.

Despite her concern, Dearing’s surgery went flawlessly. The doctors had Dearing walking the next day, and she went to prom only 2 days after her surgery.

On several occasions, Dearing had to learn to put aside her pride and ask for help. Prom was one of them. Initially, Dearing didn’t think she’d need help to get into her prom dress and take pictures. However, her mother had to help her into the dress, and she was unable to go to the dance itself, opting to take pictures and attend after prom with her boyfriend and friends. 

“I thought I could get into my prom dress to take pictures, and I needed so much help,” Dearing said. 

With her right leg almost fully unusable, she couldn’t drive and relied on others for rides. This meant she had to constantly send texts asking if people were still going to drive her. 

“I had to go to CCC, and people would drive me, and I had to text them like ‘hey, are you still coming to pick me up?’” Dearing said. 

Despite the setbacks, she never let it stop her from doing what she could. During softball season, she went to support the Cougar Softball team by running the books and tracking the scores, auditioned for the Marching Cougar Pride, and, once summer softball season started, supported her club team too. 

“You just treat yourself like it’s any other day, and you just have this one thing poking at you, but not stopping you from anything,” Dearing said.

Though she was able to show up and support her team, she was devastated by not being able to play school or summer ball. She was losing her junior year of softball and the summer season to an injury, and might have lost her chance of college ball. 

“It was just hard to be like that for so long,” Dearing said.

Most colleges recruit students for softball towards the end of junior year school ball or during the summer season. With Dearing’s leg nowhere near healed enough to play school or summer softball, she was left with a disadvantage in getting recruited. Despite this, Dearing is headed to Moberly Area Community College to play softball after she graduates. She met the coach during her first game back with her competitive team, when he was there to watch her team. He took an interest in Dearing after watching her persevere through her injuries and keep fighting for every play. 

“He stuck with me the entire process through my recovery,” Dearing said. “Checking up on me, asking how I’m doing. He even supports my wrestling.” 

After Dearing’s first visit, she felt like she instantly fit in; she knew this was where she was headed.

“I just felt like I fit in, and he’s the one that’s been there the entire time,” Dearing said. 

While she may have missed out on playing summer ball due to her injury, Dearing started marching season almost immediately after school ended. The beginning is mostly sectionals, during which the marching band learns their music. They started inside with their music stands in front of them. Dearing was able to participate in a majority of the things they did at practice. Among the few things she struggled with was going outside to march while carrying her drum. 

Luckily for Dearing, the progression of marching band aligned for the most part with the progression of her healing. By the time they needed to be outside, Dearing was healed enough to fully participate in practice. She managed to do this in a way that allowed her to take time and not overexert her leg. 

When marching season started, she was still in her mechanical brace, which sat under her uniform, and it started rubbing against her skin. This, combined with her sensitive skin, caused permanent scarring from constant heat rash on her knee. Even through this, Dearing never complained. She simply kept going through the pain. 

 “She is someone who is here to do the thing, and she wants it for all the right reasons,” marching band Brett Eichman said. “Everything she does, she does because she cares about it. She wants it for the good of the group.” 

After the marching season finished, she moved into wrestling season. From the start, she was only practicing a little. It was scary returning to the very sport that had started this whole process. A few weeks into the season, after the Spring Hill meet, Dearing decided that she was done sitting around. She participated in the next duel, going 3-0. In the beginning, she was scared because she had never wrestled around a brace before. She had no idea how to push off with it and would have to relearn how to use the muscle. 

She was worried that the people around her would treat her like she was fragile. For months, people had been telling her to take it easier. Coaches would tell her she wasn’t one hundred percent better, and her teammates would treat her like glass. Dearing didn’t let this discourage her. She worked hard to get back to normal. 

“I didn’t like how everyone was treating me like glass,” said Dearing. “Wrestling is not made for the gentle.” 

She kept pushing and worked through her fears. She leaned on her teammates to help her get through the fear. After a shift in wrestling partners, Dearing began wrestling with senior Calla Hardison, which helped her to regain mobility and mental awareness that she had lost with the injury. While Dearing was overcoming hurdles from her injury, she was also inspiring those around her. 

“I think not only overcoming the injury, but also overcoming the knee brace involved is really cool,” said Hardison. “And that shows that she’s really tough.” 

With wrestling having come to an end, Dearing is preparing for school softball. The upcoming season will be filled with more perseverance and hardwork, but Dearing is ready and excited to play her senior year.

“I am so excited for softball. It’s my main sport, my everything,” Dearing said. 

Through her injury and the support she was given throughout her recovery, Dearing has learned just how much strength it takes to recover. She has learned that she will always need help, but that above all else, there is nothing that can stop her from doing what she wants if she puts her mind to it.

“There’s no can’t. You just have to have the mental power and the right people around you to do it,” Dearing said.