Sophomore Cami Gonzalez has been a Knightline dancer for two years. Cami was not a dancer before Knightline, but when she heard about tryouts her eigth grade year, she figured she would give it a shot. Cami is on the JV team and she loves it. She loves being able to spend time with her friends while still doing what she loves.

“I love the friendships I’ve formed and always being with my friends that I’ve made from being apart of the team,” Cami said.

About halfway through the season this year, Cami started to notice a really sharp pain in her hips. She continued to keep dancing, hoping that it was just a pulled muscle or bruise. As days, weeks and practices went by, Cami began to realize that this pain was serious and it was going to be a problem. She had mentioned the pain to her mom, so her mom decided to take her to the doctor. The doctor told Cami that it was “Snapping Hip Syndrome” and that she should go to physical therapy.

“It was starting to become a concern to Alicia and I when Cami and her mom told us that she was not able to dance full out until the week before we competed at the Chicagoland regional competition in early January,” Assistant Coach Sam Immekus said. “When we realized how much pain she was in after she danced at Chicago, we decided that a conversation needed to be had regarding her injury as we did not want her to injure herself further.”

When Cami and her mom had a meeting with the head JV coach, Alicia Pavia and assistant coach Sam Immekus, the coaches had told Cami that because they want her to protect her body as much as possible, she could stop dancing for the rest of the season. They left the decision completely up to her, supporting her in whatever decision she made. After many conversations with her mom, coaches and doctors, it was determined that the best and smartest decision would be to take off the rest of the season. This was not an easy decision for Cami to make and she needed all the support she could get.

“I told her that I support her decision no matter what she decides to do and that there is always next year,” Cami’s mom, Jaime Gonzalez said.

Even though Cami was not dancing for the rest of the season, she was still a big part of the team. Cami was at every practice, every game and every competition. She was a big team player while still protecting her body. Cami continued to go to the doctor to try and figure out a cure for her hips. She finally found out that she has a non-displaced labral tear in both of her hips which is an injury where the labrum, the cap on the hip bone, is torn away from the bone. Cami will continue to go to the doctor to get treated and possibly get surgery and plans on trying out for the 18-19 season.

“Alicia and I supported Cami in every way that we could think of,” Immekus said. “We wanted to make sure that she still felt as though she was a part of the team as much as possible, so we made sure to have her huddle with the girls before they performed, we had her dress out in her costume and have full hair and makeup on and we really relied on her to keep the girls pumped and excited throughout the entire process, which she completely excelled at. We also had her keep us up to speed on the progress of her healing and we made sure that she was taking good care of her body and letting her heal herself properly.”