Kaylee Lovendahl, senior, is a social, athletic, and driven student. She plays as number nine on defense of the RHS girls soccer team.
She says she has played soccer for thirteen years and loves it. To prepare her for a game, she concentrates and says over and over again in her head, “I’m getting ready to play a game!”
“After playing a long, hard game the best reward other than winning is taking off my cleats and shin guards it like a long hard drink after a day in the desert,”said Lovendahl.
Her most memorable game was playing against Bingham and winning for the first time.
Midyear of her junior year, Lovendahl was in the middle of a game and was badly injured. A player from the other team slid into her from behind and knocked her to the ground.
She heard a loud pop and a sudden surge of pain coursed through her left leg.
She was carried off the field and rushed to the Cedar City Hospital. Two doctors saw Lovendahl. The first doctor said her ACL was not torn.
Her mother did not feel good about the results so she took Lovendahl to their family doctor and his results showed her ACL and Meniscus were torn.
She had a total of two surgeries to repair her knee. She was sad when she got the news she couldn’t play for eleven months. Lovendahl did physical therapy ,and trained her knee to make a full recovery and to get her strenght and speed back.
Jade Colebrook, a senior and one of Lovendahl’s teammates, said, “ Kaylee is a great player and a hard worker. She is good at getting to the ball first and never stopping. I would say that the only weakness on the field I notice is she still doesn’t have her speed back to the full extent. Yet!”
Coach Moizer said, “ Kaylee is a level headed player and won’t ever let you down. Since her injury she has grown not only as a player but also as a person, she’shas become smarter in many ways.”
Lovendahl’s teammates say she is a very hard worker and is down to earth.
“People seem to think that I am a mean person and have a rough exterier but im not at all. I love to laugh and have fun,” said Lovendahl.
Out of the four members of her family she says her mom is her hero. Her favorite food is her mother’s homemade spaghetti.
“It’s the best and it’s a comfort food to me,” said Lovendahl.
When asked, she said her favorite thing about RHS is the people and the how close the school is.
“The students here are so close and everyone is friends with everyone, said Lovendahl.
Her favorite class is peer tutoring. After taking that class, she has her sights and future set on being a special educations teacher.
“The kids are so sweet and caring. They are also very smart and funny. They always make me laugh. I can be having a bad day and go to that class and it cheers me right up,” said Lovendahl.