St. John's University Athletics
Groenwald Playing in Fast Forward
2/26/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
September 26, 2003
Jamaica, N.Y. - By Megan Guerriero
Play.
Stop.
Rewind.
Play.
Stop.
Rewind some more.
A pillow rested behind him on the wall, but he was hardly relaxing.
With his hand tightly gripping the controller and eyes glued to the television screen, St. John's University men's soccer forward Matt Groenwald could not have been more immersed in watching a tape of his team's first Big East soccer game of the 2003 season.
It was not the first time he had seen the footage, or even the second. And its an easy bet it wouldn't be the last.
But each time Groenwald watches it, he takes away something different from the game. He is modest when asking constructive criticism of friends, but his athletic ability is anything but shy and preserved.
It was at Notre Dame's Alumni Soccer Field on Saturday, September 7 where Groenwald proved that he is no longer one of the team's best kept secrets.
Few people expected the junior to come into the 2003 season with the force and driving power he has shown early this season. It was, after all, less than one year ago he had his last of three surgeries since he began playing at St. John's.
"For all his year and a half of frustration, he's just letting his anger out on the world right now," junior teammate, and close friend, Andre Schmid says. "As far as how awesome he's playing, he's just letting everyone have it.
"As one of the top players on the team right now, I feel completely confident having him out there with the ball. He's incredibly quick and fast, and has a great work rate."
This domination did not come along easily. It's been an uphill battle to have Groenwald get to this point, a battle that been going on since he began as a freshmen two years ago.
Entering St. John's, Groenwald had a decent preseason and felt he would start the 2001 season in very good shape. He saw a great deal of playing time, starting eight games in a row until midseason, when his left groin began bothering him.
Believing that it was just a bad muscle pull, Groenwald took extra care of his body for the remainder of the season, seeing only a few minutes of playing time in each of the final Big East games. The Red Storm won the BIG EAST Tournament Championship that year, and advanced to the program's second-ever Final Four appearance. He started the Final Four game against Indiana in a great deal of pain, but played through it.
St. John's lost in the national semifinals, and Groenwald headed home for Christmas to take care of his body. He saw an orthopedic surgeon in Philadelphia when he returned to school the following February, and required immediate surgery on his left groin and lower abdomen the very next morning.
It wasn't easy, but Groenwald followed a rehab protocol for the next few months and gradually became healthy again.
It wasn't until the middle of the summer of 2002 that he started to feel an increasing pain while playing for an amateur team back home in Chicago.
That led to another surgery, this time on his right side, with a different doctor and procedure.
Once again, Groenwald rehabilitated himself. Believing the worst was behind him, he came back sophomore year fully intent on playing, but instead his pain got progressively worse. Told that the muscles in his groin were "torn to shreds," Groenwald had to once again return to Philly and have both operations completely redone.
Groenwald now needed to rehabilitate himself very slowly and carefully over the course of the next year. He was cautious about how he handled everything, remembering painfully that the first two surgeries resulted in more problems.
After several failed attempts at physical therapy and pain management, Groenwald decided to stay in New York this past summer and see a bodybuilder. A completely different and new approach was one of the only resources that he had left.
The idea behind this was to work on his overall body strength, as opposed to strictly limiting rehab to the problem area.
"I concentrated on getting my leg strength up and my other muscles so powerful that my adductors wouldn't take on the responsibility of the weakness in my other muscles," he explained. "I also did track workouts that the coaches gave us once a week, and just really focused on being healthy so that when I came back, I could concentrate on playing."
"He has a great ability to stay connected and focused, and I admire him for that," explains another teammate and close friend, Chris Corcoran.
His instructor for the summer, John Boos, a former two-time 'Mr. World' and 'Mr. New York State,' was a key factor in the recovery process.
"He was kind of depressed (about the rehab process)," Boos said, "and I didn't realize it until I spoke to his parents (at a game during the 2003 season).
"I didn't realize there was that much frustration."
Boos, a veteran of the body building scene, felt that a big part of Groenwald's rehabilitation process involved the intimidation factor, so he wanted to help him build upper body strength. Boos wanted him to be respected on the field in a way he hadn't been before. And by working with Groenwald to improve his overall physical health and stamina, he helped him to boost his overall mentality. The goal was to give the Red Storm's forward a more healthy perspective on the sport, but not just in the physical sense. Reason and understanding would be key factors as well.
"He would play a clean game and that's even more of a positive thing," Boos said. "A solid, clean player, playing strictly from his capacity and his ability, and that's important."
Groenwald describes his sessions with Boos as just what he needed to get back in the game and admits, "I wouldn't even be playing soccer right now if I hadn't worked out with John all summer. He and his rehab gave my body the edge it lost from surgery and inadequate rehab."
Boos was not the only support Matt had to help him get through the past two years. The clinical term, sports hernia, hardly gave his diagnosis any justice, as his surgery was as mentally grueling as it was physically.
"I definitely went through some really rough stages where I didn't want to be in school, when I didn't want to be around the guys," Groenwald said of the rehabilitation process. "Being around something you love is an awesome thing, but when you're around something that you love, and you need your body to do it, and your body's not allowing you to do it consistently, that's very hard."
He went through some very rough times, often blaming himself for such a slow recovery. At times, he felt irresponsible and consistently depressed, but a small network of people helped him to see the sunshine at the end of the storm. A close family friend of the Groenwald's is a paraplegic and is barely able to use his fingers or even speak. Groenwald looks to circumstances like this to find a perfect reason to want to wake up each morning in spite of hardship.
"They were dealt a very bad hand, but they're the last people to complain," Groenwald said. "They're the first people to show love, and care, and compassion to someone who needs it. And they were there when my mom needed a shoulder to cry on, because I was so angry about everything. So I would say if I had a role model, it would definitely be the Valentino Family from Mount Prospect, Chicago."
You might say that his open mind and gracious qualities have a lot to do with his parents, who have undoubtedly helped him to stay grounded through the years. They taught him to make goals for himself at a young age and never failed to educate him on every path, even those less traveled.
Their efforts paid off. Thinking the worst at one point, Groenwald began to take his interest in the medical field more seriously. This, of course, came at a time when he thought soccer might be out of the picture for good. Over the summer he volunteered at a local Queens Hospital in hopes of helping others and educating himself in preparation for the future.
Groenwald is constantly trying to learn new things and enlighten himself on the world around him. "Right now I am just concentrating on getting grades, and at the same time, educating myself on medical schools and what it takes to get in them," Groenwald said. "While at the same time, trying to do as well as I can on the soccer team and represent St. John's very well."
A biology major with a minor on physics, Groenwald is thankful he doesn't have to explore those other possibilities quite yet. He is back, healthy, and ready to play to soccer. And although he doesn't really know what the future holds for certain, Medical School is a priority on his list.
Always making others a priority, constantly putting others before himself, Groenwald is humble in the most wonderful way, both on and off the field.
When asked what it means to have young kids ask for his autograph after games, he almost becomes bashful. "I don't necessarily think I deserve it, but I think it's awesome for the program," he said. "I think so many people put so much time and effort into the program, like our coaches, managers and administration.
"They're not the ones who ever see any of the credit, so I think it's a real credit to them that we had all of those fans at the game in the first place."
It is reasons like this, both Schmid and Corocoran agree, that Groenwald is without a doubt, one of the most respected players on the team.
While he has been one of the keys to the Red Storm's 5-2-0 start, including a 4-0-0 mark in the BIG EAST, Groenwald deflects much of the attention to his teammates, saying they deserve the spotlight more.
Modest or not, it would be hard for Matt to deny that he has been among the constant buzz and chatter in the stands recently. The fans in the soccer community all want to know, "who is this guy?"
Scoring goals from every direction and even earning two National Team of the Week honors by Soccer America and CollegeSoccerNews.com. Groenwald is making the most of his freshly tuned skills.
"Being outside last year and not being on the field, I think he really grew from that experience and appreciates the game a lot more," St. John's Head Coach Dave Masur said. "And he values and knows what it is to be on the other side, wanting to be on the field.
"So every chance he gets, he wants to make the most of it. I think when something gets taken away from those people, there sometimes can be a little more value to it. And I think that's what happened to Matty a little bit."
If Groenwald has learned one thing since he began college, it is that nothing in life is for certain. We are sometimes prone to injury at the most unexpected times. Reasonable solutions may not always be the most logical. A redshirt and an extra year of college can come with the snap of a finger. Life is fragile and is an endless learning experience, but we are constantly reflecting and growing as a result.
Groenwald now has a new outlook on life. Reminding himself that anything can happen, Matt wouldnt trade the past two years of his life for anything in the world.
"I kind of have to take every day in stride and not take it for granted," he explained. "So I think right now, thats my motivation, is to not take things for granted."
There may be a lot of stopping and rewinding in front of Groenwald's television screen, but the only direction hes going in on the field is fast forward.
Megan Guerriero is a student assistant in the St. John's Athletic Communications Office.
