As Amber Brewer sat and looked at the bars before she started her first routine this season, all she could think of was the past two years and what she worked for.

When she landed the dismount and had made the routine she felt like she wanted to cry out of happiness. This was the moment she had been waiting for since finding out about her knee injury.

Brewer, a red-shirt sophomore, wanted to be the person to break the odds and come back to gymnastics after having not one, but two ACL surgeries.

And that’s exactly what she did.

“After I tore it for the first time, I was very upset,” Brewer said. “I had been working towards competing on a college gymnastics team ever since I was little. I told myself this was just a bump in the road and in no time I would be back on the competition floor.”

Unfortunately, for Brewer, this process took a bit longer than expected because of the second ACL tear.

“When the doctor told me I had torn it for the second time, I felt like my world was falling apart,” she said. “Gymnastics has been a huge part of my life since I was three and I was unsure if I was going to be able to do it again.”

Brewer was out for two competitive seasons, but returned at the beginning of this season for the team’s first meet against Northern Illinois. Returning to competition, however, was no easy task.

While her teammates were training in practices, Brewer was doing therapy. In the morning, at least three times a week, she went to the Sebo Center to go through extra therapy.

“Therapy from ACL surgery is very tedious and time consuming. Right after surgery, the main focus was getting back full range of motion,” Brewer said.

After that tedious process, she began strengthening the muscles around the knee and relearning how to walk and go up stairs correctly. Once able to do everyday activities without a problem, the trainers started working on agility training.

Finally, after six months of strictly therapy, she was allowed to start the slow return to gymnastics.

“I don’t think that I would be having the success that I am having today if it wasn’t for the hard work of my athletic trainers,” Brewer said.

In this 2009 season, Brewer has competed in all three meets. In the second meet of the season, against Ball State, Brewer recorded her first collegiate win on the bars with a score of 9.750.

With her win, coach Kerrie Beach was very pleased.

“To see her come back and compete on her home turf and do so well is just amazing,” Beach said. “We are so proud of her accomplishments so far.”

This season, Brewer is looking forward to having fun competing again. While she thinks this season is going well so far, she believes she needs to improve her bar routine and she has high expectations for herself.

“I have individual goals on bars to keep improving my score as the season goes on which will hopefully help my team qualify for Regionals,” she said. “Since bars are the only event that I am really training in, I feel like I have plenty of time to perfect it.”

Brewer was not ready to give up on her dream yet, which was to compete in gymnastics at the college level. She said it was such an amazing opportunity when Beach offered her a spot on the team that she had to do everything possible to get back to BG athletics.

Gymnastics are a huge part of Brewer’s life. Everyday going into practice, she likes a new challenge and is eager to see what kind of assignments the coaches are going to throw at her.

“I love being out there in front of the crowd and getting the adrenaline rush,” Brewer said. “I like being part of a team. Here at Bowling Green, we are like a big family.”

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Contact sports reporter Chris Sojka at [email protected].