CBA senior lacrosse attackman Joey Dalfo will probably never live by the idiom “once bitten, twice shy.” Essentially the saying means when something or someone has hurt you once, you tend to avoid that thing or person.
NOT in Dalfo’s world. He made the varsity football team his freshman year. Playing running back, on the very first play of his career, he tore his ACL. That sidelined him for the rest of the season.
According to the aforementioned phrase, Dalfo might have quit football, but he went through rehab, did the weight training and went back for his sophomore season.
The same fate found Dalfo, again. Another ACL tear sidelined him.
Dalfo went back to rehab and got back to the field. In order to focus on his main sport of lacrosse, Dalfo stepped away from the gridiron.
So you’re probably thinking, there it is. Truth in the expression. However, it didn’t keep him out of athletics all together. He just switched his efforts to lacrosse.
And wouldn’t you know, another knee injury keep Dalfo on the bench until the very end of his junior season in lacrosse.
Three knee injuries. Three knee surgeries. Three stints in rehab.
As if that wasn’t enough, just seven months before his senior lacrosse season knee injury number four came along. All together Dalfo suffered 3 ACL tears and one meniscus tear. He persevered through each one, especially the fourth. Dalfo was determined to suit up for the Brothers as a senior and he is currently doing just that.
After being bitten by the surgery bug four times, if you watch Dalfo play, he doesn’t look shy at all.
A.O.W. Extra is a blog about the Nice and East Grocery Shoppe/NewsChannel 9 Athlete of the Week. Due to time restrictions on the 6 p.m. news there is always something cut from each story. Come here each after each Wednesday feature for one final fact, or thought about our honoree.
