Eastern soccer star has come all the way back from injury

Those not aware of her story ask similar questions:

"How does it feel to be back?"

Madison Tyree gives a similar answer each time, and it's easy to pick up on the sense of pride in her voice: "Actually, I've been back for a while."

One of the big storylines surrounding the Eastern girls' soccer team this year is Tyree's return from an anterior cruciate ligament tear she suffered in a summer league game last year. The injury forced her to miss her entire junior season.

For the Vikings, it meant a season without one of their top defenders and most promising athletes.

But these injuries, crushing as they are, are fairly common in girls' soccer.

They require surgery and physical therapy and a recovery that generally takes about nine months.

"I came back in five months," said Tyree, less than two weeks before the start of her senior season with the Vikings. "It just came down to me physically and mentally building myself back. … Physical therapy three days a week. And spending hours in the gym training when I wasn't in physical therapy."

Even as her knee recovered — stronger than normal in each phase of the process — some doctors told her she might be wise to hold off on playing so soon.

But, as far as Tyree was concerned, there really wasn't much of a choice.

She had goals, and she wasn't prepared to let a knee injury stop her from reaching them.

"I wanted to commit [to a college] this year," she said. "So I knew I was going to push myself as hard as I could. I had confidence in myself. I knew that I could play, and I knew what my body could take. So I just worked as hard as I could to reach my goal."

The hard work paid off for Tyree. She made it back in time to practice with her PDA club team at the start of winter season in December. She was back in game action by February. And she recently committed to committed to play college soccer at Wagner.

"It's definitely something I'm proud of," said Tyree, who says her knee feels strong and talks about her injury as if it's ancient history.

Her attitude is one Eastern is hoping to adopt this season as it embarks on a new era following the graduation of Amirah Ali, one of the best goal-scorers in South Jersey history, now playing at Rutgers.

"Not having Amirah is a huge difference in a lot of ways, but we just need players to step up," said Eastern coach Jamie McGroarty, whose team is perennially among the elite in South Jersey. "Having Madison back, she's definitely one of our senior leaders right now. And she looks like she's 100 percent, which is great for her and great for our team."

McGroarty said Tyree is so athletic that he's not even totally sure where she's going to play on the field this season.

She's a natural defender, sure. And she's poised to be among the top defenders in the state.

But if Eastern needs a spark on offense.

"We might just play her at forward," McGroarty said.

Tyree said she's willing to do whatever it takes to win.

And when asked what her expectations were for this season, you can excuse her for being a bit lofty — it's worked for her in the past.

"My expectations are to go completely undefeated, win states and get our rings," she said. "We want to win everything."