North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Bouemboue Anxious to Play Again
8/29/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
BY TIM PEELER
That would have been the easy solution during his year-long rehabilitation following two knee surgeries. That would have been the easy thing to do as he struggled to navigate NC State’s brick sidewalks during his month-long bout with crutches. It would have been easy to say, in his best attempt at a
But, Bouemboue thought, that wouldn’t be fair to John Doe.
That’s the name he’s given to the little strip of cartilage, taken from a donor cadaver, surgically inserted into his left knee.
“We’re kind of in this together, Ronnie and John Doe,” Bouemboue said.
Saturday, when the NC State men's team opens it 2008 season against Mercer, Bouemboue will make his first appearance for coach George Tarantini’s program in nearly 18 months. He suffered his first knee injury, a torn meniscus, two summers ago, playing for his Under-19 club team back in
He sat out most of the Wolfpack’s 2006 season, playing in just the final eight games. But in one of those contests, against Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament, Bouemboue notched NC State’s first hat trick since 2002, scoring all three goals in the second half of the 4-3 victory over the Hokies. Playing his natural forward position, Bouemboue finished second on the team in both goals (4) and points (9).
After the season was over, Bouemboue’s knee began to swell again and he thought there might be some lingering problems with the meniscus. But doctors determined he had cartilage floating behind his knee and he needed two separate surgeries, about six weeks apart, to repair the damage.
“Basically, they told me I had played too much soccer as a kid,” said Bouemboue, a native of the
After the surgery, he needed help to get to class. He needed help doing just about everything, and it began to wear on him.
“At one point, I thought I would just give up and stop going to class,” he said. “I felt like I had an excuse. But then I thought more about it: I’m not dead. Being hurt shouldn’t be an excuse, even thought I was kind of devastated and couldn’t play soccer.”
Instead, Bouemboue excelled in the classroom, posting a grade point average above 3.0, and he had all the support he needed to get through the rough times.
“That was the tough part for me, not being able to play,” Bouemboue said. “But I had my teammates, the coaching staff and my parents constantly in my ear, assuring me things would be all right, that I just needed to be patient. And patience is the biggest lesson I learned from this whole experience.”
Still, sitting out all of last season was particularly difficult, as he watched his teammates notch a 6-9-3 record. He thought he might have been able to add a little scoring punch as his team suffered four one-goal losses and three ties.
“Most of our games were close, and most of them were decided in the last few minutes of the game,” Bouemboue said. “The team might have been able to use a little extra push to get us going, and I might have been able to give them that. Every game we would lose, I would walk around with my head down. I would sit on the bench with a towel on my head and pray.
“It was very frustrating.”
Bouemboue might not have been able to play, but he was hardly inactive. He took the opportunity of his time away from soccer to become more involved in athletics, serving as the president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, a collection of elected representatives from each of NC State’s 23 varsity sports that helps set rules and regulations for student-athletes and organize service projects to enhance the image of Pack athletes around campus.
“I really don’t think Ronnie would have made it through last year, if he hadn’t been involved in something like SAAC,” said assistant athletics director for community outreach Tonya Washington, who oversees the SAAC program. “A lot of times, when something like that happens to a student-athlete, they sort of close up into a shell. Ronnie chose to get more involved to take his mind off things, which almost never happens.”
Last year, Bouemboue’s second term as SAAC president, the group held the inaugural Student-Athletes WITH Talent Show, a revue that featured singing, dancing and other performances at
“Since I wasn’t playing soccer, I wanted to be involved in something else,” Bouemboue said. “It was to keep my mind off things. I looked at it as an opportunity to get involved in things. The surgeries were a curse, but it was a blessing also.
“As a student-athlete, most of the time, you are entrapped in your sport. You are playing your sport all the time and you don’t worry about extra-curricular activities or the stuff going on around campus. With the surgery, I had time to get involved in other stuff. I could take a longer view of what a student’s life is like, outside of sports.”
Now, however, he’s anxious to get back on the field again. Actually, he’s beyond anxious, as he and his teammates prepare for their debut on the new NC State Soccer Stadium.
“I am not a very emotional dude, but I can’t wait to get started,” Bouemboue said. “I am afraid that I am too excited that I may hurt myself again.
“You have no idea how excited we all are to be playing on the new field. We walked by it and drove by it every day they were building it. We can’t stop talking about it.”
But soccer won’t be the only thing on Bouemboue’s mind this fall. He was recently elected to his third consecutive term as SAAC president. He’s also involved with the ACC’s SAAC organization. And he's hoping to earn his third consecutive berth on the ACC Academic Honor Roll.
Good thing he has John Doe to help keep him organized.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
