Sarah Thompson remembers it well, though perhaps she wishes she couldn't.
She knows exactly where she was last fall when a knee injury ended her soccer season. And she knows how hard it was to come back from that injury.
And now that she's back on the field for Danville once again, she knows the long road to recovery was worth it.
The senior defender said getting back to this point wasn't easy, but she said she could be an even stronger player than before.
"I think I can be," Thompson said. "After playing for a while, I'll probably be a better player than I was."
That would be quite an achievement for a girl who considered giving up the game she has played since age 5 following her injury and the ensuing surgery.
"There were points when I didn't even know if I wanted to come back and play soccer," she said. "Before the accident, I was on my way to doing good things for the team."
Thompson is back on that track now, and back in the starting lineup on defense for Danville.
"I'm dealing with it better every day," she said.
Pain in the knee
Day one of her saga is a day Thompson will never forget. It was Oct. 3, 2006, in a game at Somerset, and it all began when she felt the pain in her right knee right after getting hit. She still recalls every detail about the collision and what followed.
"Everything. I even remember where I was on the field," she said. "I remember that night, I just remember anything that happened. And I won't forget it when we play Somerset."
Thompson stopped short of saying she thought she was the victim of a cheap shot, but she said motivation won't be a problem when the two teams meet on Sept. 5.
She had surgery 3 1/2 weeks after being injured, and like most athletes trying to come back from that injury, she had her ups and downs in the rehab process.
There were setbacks along the way, though she credits the work of her surgeon, Dr. Jeremy Tarter, and the physical therapists who worked with her for helping her heal and recover as quickly as she did.
Soccer, ballet, horses
But she said the toughest part of the process was the long period of inactivity.
"I'm very active," she said.
Aside from soccer, that includes a background in ballet - though she isn't dancing right now - and the time she likes to spend riding horses, something she still does regularly with goalkeeper Taylor Brown, one of her best friends on the team.
"I still ride horses a lot," she said. "We talk about life and about soccer."
Thompson said she hopes to keep playing soccer next year, perhaps at Rhodes College, where she said the school and the coach appeal to her.
Everything has been moving forward for her since she was cleared to resume activity in March, and she played with her teammates during the summer, though she wasn't yet at full strength.
But it wasn't until a recent scrimmage at Bourbon County that she finally played without fear.
"I was playing scared, I think, until the Bourbon County game when I got hit hard for the first time," she said. "Some girl knocked me pretty hard. She took me down, but it was one of those good hits."
