For at least the third time in his playing career, Loyola Maryland midfielder Jeff Chase has suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament and will miss a season.
The Monrovia resident tore the ligament in his left knee as a sophomore at Boys' Latin and then before his freshman year with the Greyhounds. A couple weeks ago in practice, the junior injured the ACL in his right knee during a noncontact drill, coach Charley Toomey said Wedensday.
"Just an unfortunate situation," Toomey said. "He's just had a tough go. He's on our sideline. He's had his surgery, and he's starting that long rehab process. He's a great kid that is really instrumental now in terms of helping our younger guys and preparation and teaching them from the sideline. It's tough for us as a program to kind of watch him go through that again."
Chase had 10 goals and five assists as part of the team's second midfield last season and was expected to anchor that line this spring. Instead, Loyola is running a second midfield consisting of a sophomore and two freshmen.
"He would have put some veteran leadership into a young group," Toomey said. "Now we have a young group. He would have been a guy who was either running with a sophomore and a freshman or two freshmen. Now I've just got two freshmen and a sophomore that are out there running on that second midfield.
"Those are the growing pains you're going to be dealing with. Where Jeff was in a position of leading that second line, we had fully anticipated him doing that again with even younger guys. It's just not the case. Now we've got some young guys that have to play with energy to help the program."