Major injury forces change for San Mateo girls’ soccer

On the final play of the Oct. 23 season finale, however, Bernard suffered a catastrophic knee injury. San Mateo already had the win in hand, but it was Senior Day at the Bearcats’ home MaryAnn Johnson Memorial Field, so she wanted to be on the field for the final series. With seconds remaining, she ran a QB keeper for the right sideline, but when she got pushed one way and fell another, her knee gave way, causing the senior to fall to the turf in agonizing pain.

“I was finally going to be a tri-sport athlete, and then — yeah,” Bernard said.

San Mateo Head Athletic Trainer Jessica Mayes attended to Bernard immediately. The two know each other well. Bernard, who has ambitions to pursue a career in medicine, is one of a handful of San Mateo students who works a weekly elective session with the ATC and has even worked apprentice shifts on the sideline for San Mateo boys’ football.

So, Bernard knew immediately something was seriously wrong with her knee.

“I was crying for a long time on the floor,” Bernard said, “but it was also mentally, because I knew what had happened.”

“Just by the look on her face … I knew that I tore it, at least,” she said.

The injury was even worse than anticipated. After being taken to the Stanford Medical Center, Bernard was diagnosed with a fully ruptured ACL and a grade 3 bucket handle meniscus tear.

Bernard underwent surgery Dec. 4, a surgery that required a graft of the quadriceps to replace the ACL, and nine sutures to repair the meniscus. She is required to wear a knee brace through Christmas.

The injury also means the end of the senior’s varsity athletics career. With the injury requiring a year or more of rehab, Bernard won’t play soccer or softball for San Mateo again. A collegiate prospect, she has an offer to play NCAA Division III women’s soccer but has yet to make a decision.

“It’s going to come down to how confident I feel in my recovery process,” Bernard said. “And I’m going to attack it head on.”

For Bernard, the shockwaves of missing her senior soccer season resonate with plenty of emotion. In addition to losing her final season playing alongside her two best friends, Szerena Guggenheim-Schoening and Elana Hartley, Bernard gets choked up in describing how this would have been the first time she and her younger sister, Olivia, a freshman on the San Mateo varsity team, would have played together on an organized sports team.

For the Bearcats — who enjoyed a banner season in 2021-22 when Beranrd was a sophomore, posting a 15-3-1 overall record and running the table with an 8-0 record in the PAL Lake Division — it means their anchor in goal, and one of their top players, is lost for the season.

With Bernard’s injury, the team’s defense was sent spiraling into chaos. Head coach Juan Mayora recently decided on junior Alex Allison as the starting goalkeeper. Allison has played in four games, with San Mateo posting a 2-2 record, both wins via shutout. But the four games previous to her taking over, the Bearcats went 1-3, including three losses to start the season. Not counting the pandemic year of 2020-21, it was San Mateo’s worst start since 2014-15.

“I had to get goalies and there was no goalies,” said Mayora, who through the first four games was auditioning a variety of players in 20-minute shifts.

Bernard is still heavily invested in San Mateo soccer. She doesn’t miss a practice unless it’s for a medical appointment, and she has been on the sideline during each of Allison’s starts. The two work together in practice. Bernard said she joked with Mayora that she is going to be like another coach, but this seems less of a joke and far more a practical necessity.

Of course, Bernard can only talk Allison through the rigors of goalkeeping. Her crutches and knee brace prevent her from any sort of demonstrations.

“But I could see she would really absorb [the lessons],” Bernard said.

“Alex was very willing to learn,” she said.

This certainly wasn’t the way Bernard envisioned her senior year going. She has dealt with injury before. Last season, during the opening weeks of soccer season, she suffered a broken jaw. In diving to make a save, she got kicked in the face and blacked out, only to learn upon coming to that she had in fact held onto the ball to make the save.

That injury occurred just prior to winter break in December 2022. Bernard missed only two games before returning in January.

The knee injury was far more serious though, and a disheartening final chapter to an otherwise enjoyable flag football season, one that Bernard found a seemingly perfect niche.

“I was a catcher for softball and a goalie for soccer, so it seems like it’s similar across all lines,” Bernard said. “I thought I might end up being a wide receiver of something, but I did really enjoy being quarterback.”

Now, Bernard is invested in seeing Allison get up to speed and leaving the Bearcats in her replacement’s trusted hands. If there is a silver lining to all this, it’s that the experience will serve Allison and the San Mateo girls’ soccer team well next season.

“I think so, because she’s a junior now,” Bernard said. “We’re going to need somebody now. And if she keeps training this year, it would be hers next year too.”