Life Lessons Put Into Practice for Injury Recovery

Sports have been the glue to connect Gabriel Amundarain Anchietta to his friends and community in Gardner, Kansas. Gabe was born in Peru and lived in Venezuela and Panama before moving to Gardner as an 8th grader. He had studied English for a couple years but said there was still a language barrier initially.

“I couldn't talk to anyone,” Gabe says. “It took me 6 months to figure it out.”

But at the same time he was figuring out the language and a new school, he tried out a new sport – football.

“I was not a very good football player, but I learned a lot from my coaches, and every year feel like I've taken a little step forward and gotten a little better,” Gabe says.

He is now a senior guard and center on the Gardner-Edgerton High School football team, and he has continued to add sports to his repertoire: powerlifting and track and field. In his first year competing as a sophomore, he placed 6th in the state for powerlifting.

“Sports have helped me bond with people so much. It makes my life better,” Gabe says.

But his athletic progress faced a huge challenge last year as a junior, thanks to an injury during a preseason football scrimmage.

“I was blocking the back side, and the guy kind of tossed me aside after the whistle, and I tried to stop myself,” Gabe recalls. “I felt it pop. I went down to the ground. I was like, ‘Well, I'm sure it could just be dislocated,’ so I try to get back up, and then that's when my whole leg collapsed.”

Gabe was taken to the hospital where they identified MCL, ACL and meniscus tears.

Following the injury, Gabe was referred to primary care sports medicine physician Ethan Jaeger, DO, at The University of Kansas Health System. After diagnostics, Gabe worked with orthopedic surgeon Paul Schroeppel, MD, who performed an ACL reconstruction, MCL repair and lateral meniscus repair.

Gabe started working with physical therapist Andy Struble with the expectation that it would be 12 months before he could play football again. Struble said Gabe’s injuries are somewhat common in athletes that play football, basketball and soccer.

ACL injuries are not uncommon among cutting and pivoting athletes,” says Dr. Schroeppel. “However, having a high-grade MCL injury that needed to be repaired, as well as a radial tear of the lateral meniscus that needed repair, makes this a little more complex injury.”

That complexity can extend the recovery timeline for some athletes, but it wasn’t the case here.

“Through some great recovery with Andy, I got it done in 8 months. I couldn't have done anything different. It was just great,” Gabe says. Struble said this was largely possible because Gabe was consistently willing to push himself and do the work in and out of the clinic without overextending himself.

“I would like to say that I was surprised by Gabe’s recovery time, but it didn’t take more than a couple weeks to realize that he is the kind of person willing to put his head down and grind. He’d do anything and everything to ensure he was getting better every session, every day,” Struble says.

Struble also coordinated with Katerina Miller, a certified athletic trainer at Gardner-Edgerton High School. Miller works for The University of Kansas Health System, the sports medicine and athletic training provider of the Gardner-Edgerton School District. Together they made sure Gabe was doing exercises at school that were in alignment with his PT protocols. This partnership made for great continuity of care and was another positive in Gabe’s recovery.

“Recovery from an ACL injury is so much more than the surgery itself, and it’s important to have the right mindset and right team around you to optimize the recovery process,” says Dr. Schroeppel. “Gabe was able to return the way he did because he was diligent and hardworking and followed recommendations very closely. The most impressive part about Gabe’s return was the level at which he returned.”

“I always have that chip on my shoulder, and I just wanted to get back. Even right after surgery, I was saying in December, I'm going to be squatting 400 pounds; I'm going to do it because I believe in myself, you know. I wanted to do it, not just for myself, but for my teammates,” Gabe says.

And Gabe certainly did do it. He returned to the Class 6A state powerlifting meet in Wichita on March 29, 2025.

“I wasn't expecting much, coming back from surgery,” Gabe remembers. “And on that last attempt I was just thinking, man, a long 8 months all for this. Everything I worked for for 8 months was right there in front of me. I won the whole state. It was, I want to say, the best experience of my high school career.”

Gabe benched 300 pounds, squat 495 pounds and deadlifted 510 pounds to take 1st place overall in the heaviest weight class.

That win isn’t enough to satisfy Gabe. He’s looking ahead to this fall’s football season where the Gardner-Edgerton Trailblazers are attempting to win the Class 6A football title for the 3rd year in a row.

His advice for other young athletes working to recover from an injury?

You just have to keep persevering. That's the mindset that my parents have always given me. They've persevered through so many things just to give me and my sister better life,” Gabe says. “You have to look forward. You can't get stuck in the moment. Because, you know, life is going to keep going.”