‘It genuinely has changed my life’: Notre Dame’s Berkley Mensik returns after double knee surgery

For much of this summer, Berkley Mensik left her comfort zone in search of the best version of herself in the northeast Ohio city of Macedonia. Mensik traveled to the city of 12,168 situated between Cleveland and Akron to train against some of the top collegiate women’s soccer players in the nation.

There she learned a completely new system with the Women’s Premier Soccer League’s Cleveland Ambassadors. She switched positions. She didn’t know anyone else other than a few Notre Dame teammates.

But for Mensik, battling some more obstacles didn’t faze her. She’d do anything to regain what she lost almost a year and a half ago after undergoing double knee surgery.

“I already feel like my level is going significantly up,” said Mensik, a 2022 Dundee-Crown alumna and the 2022 Northwest Herald Girls Soccer Player of the Year. “So I’m so happy with the decision to come here.”

Macedonia was the penultimate stop in Mensik’s long journey back to the pitch. Mensik is back in South Bend, Indiana, getting ready to make her return for the Fighting Irish this fall.

The journey back wasn’t easy. Mensik experienced some of the worst physical and mental pain in her life during the process. But she also discovered traits about herself that will affect her going forward.

“It genuinely has changed my life,” Mensik said. “[It’s] made me so strong in so many different ways.”

‘Worst thing ever’

Mensik instantly knew something was wrong when she felt a familiar pain in her left knee.

She went for a standard volley during the final five minutes of Notre Dame’s first spring practice in January 2023. But her left leg instantly felt strange when Mensik planted it to take the shot.

Mensik bent her knee to test it and jogged off the field. When she reached Fighting Irish head coach Nate Norman and the team’s trainer, Mensik had tears in her eyes.

“She looked at me and said, ‘I think I just tore my ACL,’” Norman said. “Typically when an ACL tear happens, like the kid falls to the ground and potentially in a lot of pain and everything stops. And I was like, ‘Wait, are you sure? You just kind of jogged over to me.’ And she goes, ‘Well, I’ve done it before. So I know what it feels like.’”

Mensik had torn her left ACL as a freshman at D-C. She went to the bathroom after talking with Norman and repeated a prayer to avoid another tear as she knelt on the floor. A couple of days later, an MRI confirmed Mensik had torn her ACL again.

Mensik was disappointed but didn’t think the diagnosis was the end of the world. In her mind, everything happens for a reason.

“This is meant to happen,” Mensik said. “This is my path, this is going to change my life in a positive way. It’s really going to show my growth and my love for the sport because it’s like, I can go through just not ACL but double knee surgery, like I can go through anything.”

Notre Dame orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brian Ratigan decided that double knee surgery was the best way to keep Mensik’s professional soccer dreams alive. Ratigan removed some of Mensik’s right patellar tendon to repair the tear since her left patellar tendon had been used to repair Mensik’s first tear.

Despite a month and a half of pre-rehabilitation, Mensik was bedridden for two weeks after her surgery in March. She couldn’t bend either of her knees. Mensik finally walked fully by herself without a walker after 3½ weeks.

But the true frustration and pain didn’t start until four months after surgery. While her left leg felt the best it ever had, Mensik’s right leg struggled to recover. Mensik felt like Frankenstein’s monster, jogging with two different legs.

She spent months using kick and resistance machines to match the strength of each leg. Sometimes they used electrical units to activate different muscles.

“It was honestly the worst pain I’ve ever had,” Mensik said. “Like it was the worst thing ever.”

Mensik continued to overcome each obstacle she faced. She topped set running times and rejoined the team for spring practices in January. Mensik scored a goal in the team’s final spring game.

Norman wasn’t surprised to see how Mensik handled her rehab. When Norman first saw her compete during a recruiting combine, her speed got his attention. But he could tell right away that she was a tireless worker who would outcompete anyone on and off the field.

“It’s just been a pleasure to watch,” Norman said. “I mean, she’s admired by every single player on the team, even the staff, as well, just by how she kind of meets every bit of adversity head on. I think she rose from it.”

‘How you view the situation’

Mensik cried as she sat in Notre Dame athletics’ weight room four or five months after her surgery.

She had just tried to do a basic human function: sit on a bench. But both of Mensik’s knees gave out, and she felt pure shock in her knees.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, like I hate this so much,’” Mensik recalled. “‘I feel like I don’t have control of my body, like I feel like I’m a grandma.’”

Mensik quickly discovered how much harder to manage the mental part of her rehab would be compared with the physical. That weight room became a site of mental frustration and strain for Mensik. It served as a constant reminder of how tough it would be to regain the ability to do basic tasks.

“It genuinely has changed my life. [It’s] made me so strong in so many different ways.”

—  Berkley Mensik, Dundee-Crown alumna women's soccer player

As Mensik sat there crying, questioning everything, assistant strength and conditioning coach Valerie Smith-Hale provided counsel. She repeated a theme that helped Mensik handle the mental hurdles of recovering from double knee surgery.

Everything happens for a reason.

“I feel like that moment was like the biggest shot, a very meaningful moment for me,” Mensik said. “Because it’s like, OK, wait, yes, like, I’m going to have these setbacks, but it really shows how strong I am and what I’m actually capable of.”

Mensik found different ways to incorporate that phrase into her rehab in order to handle mental obstacles. But none felt as helpful as the one Mensik started the day she suffered her injury.

That night, Mensik went to Notre Dame’s Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, the school’s famous artificial rock cave where visitors gather to pray and meditate. Mensik originally prayed that she didn’t suffer a serious knee injury. Although those prayers weren’t answered, Mensik discovered a ritual that helped her handle the mental aspect of her rehab.

Mensik returned every day to pray and write in her journal, no matter the time of day. Teammate Laney Matriano recalled how she’d be getting ready to go to bed around midnight when Mensik would leave for the grotto.

The timing felt weird, but Matriano realized how important those trips were for Mensik.

“I think it was just a time for her to really sit with her thoughts and feelings,” Matriano said. “Just be able to talk to God and just be grateful for everything she’s going through.”

Matriano drew inspiration from Mensik’s positive mentality as she herself recovered from a high-ankle sprain. Mensik hardly showed negativity during her own rehab process and made sure to be there for Matriano during hers.

Mensik sometimes shared what she wrote in her journal with Matriano. Regardless of what she wrote, Mensik shared a common theme.

How lucky are we to be in this position?

“It’s all about how you view the situation,” Mensik said. “I’ve realized that through the whole process, you just really have to look at everything you do with a positive mindset, even if it’s double knee surgery, right?”

Finding a reason

Nearly a year and a half after she underwent double knee surgery, Mensik isn’t sure why she had to tear her ACL a second time.

But she’s fine with not knowing.

“I just know that if I follow everything for a reason, regardless, if I don’t know what that reason is yet, it is my motivation and my drive for not only my passion, but my happiness and my mentality,” Mensik said. “So I think it’s kind of fun not knowing what that reason is, you know, because it’s going to make me keep pushing yourself every single day to find a reason.”

What Mensik does know is that she gets butterflies thinking about putting on her jersey and standing on the pitch for the first time this fall. The only people who might be more excited than her are her teammates, who Matriano and Norman both agreed are inspired by what Mensik has overcome.

Regardless of the meaning, Mensik is ready to take the pitch for Notre Dame whenever her number is called. She’ll be the best version of herself.

“It really truly has shown me what I’m capable of, coming back to and still being a Division-I soccer player,” Mensik said. “How many limits am I able to push myself to become the best version of myself?”