Years ago, a torn ACL was a near-surefire sports career-ending injury. Today, it is not quite the devastating injury it once was, though an ACL tear will still keep its sufferers out for multiple sports seasons at a time. It is one of the most painful and slowest-healing injuries in sports.
Jaret von Rosenberg was a two-sport star and great all-around athlete growing up in Mission, Texas. In addition to basketball, he would join the varsity football team as a sophomore, which was a huge achievement in his town.
“Without a doubt, he was the star player of the area,” said Sharyland High School football head coach Fred Sanchez.
After being named the newcomer of the year for his stellar performance on the gridiron as a sophomore free safety at Sharyland, he was named the starting quarterback of the varsity team for his junior campaign.
“The only reason [von Rosenberg] wasn’t the quarterback as a sophomore is because his older brother [Jason] was,” Sanchez explained.
However, an unfortunate event would eventually unfold. Sanchez recalls: “We were playing a district football game against my brother’s team. At that time, [Sharyland] did not have turf — we had grass. [The home team] had the old kind of turf, not what they use now.”
“[Von Rosenberg] was like a wild stallion out there as a quarterback,” he said. “He would take the ball and run to make things happen. He just planted on that old carpet turf, his knee gave and that was it.”
This forced von Rosenberg to miss all but 10 games of his junior basketball season, according to HartfordHawks.com. However, Jaret insisted that this did not have a dramatic effect on his basketball recruitment. Von Rosenberg played in numerous summer leagues and AAU tournaments and started to catch the eye of a few college coaches.
Clearly, sports consumed most of this student-athlete’s time. Imagine, then, how devastating it must have been when he went down with his second knee injury a few games into his senior football season, just before his one year anniversary of the first tear.
“Our first year at 5A, undefeated to that point,” Sanchez said. “I told him just to run the offense, don’t run more than you have to. Sometimes he wanted to do more than he should. He was having a phenomenal game. He already scored three or four touchdowns that half of his own. He was faking people out, dodging and moving, and the knee gave out again when he planted.”
Another half of a year of rest and rehab would go by.
However, von Rosenberg’s positive attitude that his coaches raved about came through when he needed it most. Von Rosenberg said that he never was concerned that he would not be able to be the same level of athlete again. He was so nonchalant about the whole situation that he compared the rehab process to “… just working out. You’re just more focused on one particular body part.”
Von Rosenberg made a full recovery from the second ACL tear, though this is not to say that both knee injuries did not have a huge impact on his career as an athlete.
“A lot of the buzz that I was getting [for football] kind of faded when I hurt my knee,” von Rosenberg said.
After essentially defaulting to playing basketball due to a lack of interest and exposure for football, von Rosenberg ended up at Collins County Community College in Plano, Texas. His experience at Collins County would prove to be somewhat of a turning point in his basketball career.
When Collins County head coach Jim Sigona was scouting von Rosenberg at an A.A.U. game, he saw a hard-nosed kid who looked like he had no regard for his body on the court.
“He played kind of reckless at first, especially with a knee injury,” Sigona said.
Von Rosenberg was able to hone his skills as a point guard at Collins County.
“I was a little out of control, especially in my decision-making,” said von Rosenberg. “That year at community college really helped me and settled me down. The coaching staff gave me the tools and helped me get the right mindset to be a point guard and help my team be successful.”
The hard-nosed attitude that accompanied von Rosenberg’s somewhat reckless style of play in high school is what defines him as a player.
The Hartford coaching staff also liked what they saw from von Rosenberg off the court.
“To get a guy with good grades [from a two-year school] and keep him for three years is a very attractive thing for four-year schools,” Sigona said.
Von Rosenberg would go on to make a huge impact at Hartford. Senior Hawks teammate Michael Turner says that von Rosenberg has the “complete package” and that “when Jaret wants to go off and score, he can. He can rebound and pass the ball off for assists too.”
He led last year’s team to the conference finals, where he was named to the all-tournament team, which von Rosenberg said was the highlight of his basketball career at Hartford. As far as off-court accomplishments go, he was named to the America East All-Academic Team during his junior season, and is doing well this season as well.
Unfortunately in the 2008-09 season, the team finished the regular season on a 13-game losing streak and in last place in the conference. However, the experience undoubtedly contributed to the growth of von Rosenberg as a person.
“I learned to put things in perspective a lot more [at Hartford],” he said. “Success is not something you stumble upon. You really need to put yourself in a position to be successful.”
Von Rosenberg is on track to graduate at the end of this semester and has his eye on the NBA. Not as a player, but as a front office executive, whether it be as a scout, coach, general manager or another position.
Law school may also be in his plans. According to his mother, Pam, law school has been something that von Rosenberg has been thinking about since he was young. He would use a degree in law to be a sports agent.
Perhaps Sanchez sums up the sentiments of everyone who has had the pleasure of getting to know von Rosenberg best. Based solely off his time with von Rosenberg on the football field and what he knew about his work ethic off the field, Sanchez had this to say when he found out that von Rosenberg was considering going to law school:
“I’d let [von Rosenberg] represent me any day, no doubt.”