Jensen Beach sophomore Ryan Gallaher began playing lacrosse and football as a fifth grader. His true passion was lacrosse, but one day that dream came to a crashing halt when Gallaher was injured his freshman season.
"I was running down the field and when I shot the ball I got pushed from behind. I felt a loud pop, fell to the ground, and then my knee popped back into place."
His initial thought was that he was fine. That was until he tried to get up and couldn't. A friend noticed his knee moving in different directions than normal. The trainer had told his mom that the injury was serious and that her son needed to go to the hospital. Gallaher had torn the "big three", his ACL, MCL, and meniscus. Nine days after the injury Gallaher had surgery performed by Dr. James Andrews, who has performed surgery on some of the best athletes in professional sports.
"The surgery went good, but it was very painful the next day. It was pretty cool knowing who Dr. Andrews has worked on in the past and to have worked on me too. They said the injury was uncommon for a lacrosse player, but that I'd be out for around six months. I just thought about my sports career and hoped it wouldn't effect it."
As summer began, so did the junior's training and rehabilitation. His plan was to help his knee recover as fast as possible to get back to sports. The Jensen Beach athlete headed to Florida's panhandle for spring break and had an opportunity to train aside some NFL stars.
"I went to Pensacola Beach for nine days to rehab. I did a lot of running and working out like upper body. I saw Terrell Owens, Matt Stafford, and Jake Long. You can't really talk to them, but it was neat seeing them there."
Ryan's mom Lisa suggested that her son run cross country at the beginning of the school year. It's a sport he never envisioned doing. He admits the running required was definitely something new to him.
"It was tough at first, but I'm fine now. It's got my quad and calf muscles bigger. I run five to ten miles every day and then do speed work."
Not only is his injury improving, but so are his times on the cross country course. In his second meet of the year at the Spanish River Invitational, Gallaher finished 23rd out of over 200 runners in the boys JV race. He followed that up with a third place finish at the Fleet Feet Invitational and a time of 19:58, one tenth of a second from a runner-up finish. Even with success, he is still unsure if he will continue running at the end of the season.
"It's not that bad of a sport. I'm not sure if I will continue running or not. I want to because the coaches say I have potential and it will keep getting me better and stronger, but I don't because I have other sports I want to focus on. My goal is to improve, run around 19:10, and hopefully go somewhere with the team."
Regardless of what sports are in Gallaher's future he has running to thank for getting him on the right track.
"I'm grateful because cross country has helped me overcome this injury. It has gotten me more muscle in both of my legs and helped me get into way better shape."
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