Roach overcomes car crash, spinal injury to play at IU

Freshman forward Michael Roach of the IU men’s soccer team doesn’t have to worry about curfew these days. But when he was in high school, it was a major issue. \nDuring his junior year, Roach was late for curfew and was in a rush to get home. He sped over a one-lane bridge in the rain and overcorrected while crossing, flipping the car over and landing in a ditch. \nDespite the injuries Roach endured as a result of the wreck, IU coach Mike Freitag and the Hoosiers never gave up on the standout forward. Their loyalty is paying off. \nAmazingly, Roach was able to walk away from the accident despite extensive damage to his car. But after Roach walked out of the totaled car and sat down at the scene of the accident, he couldn’t move his upper body. \nA neighbor heard the crash and called the paramedics, and Roach was rushed from hospital to hospital for a battery of tests. He received multiple examinations, and it was determined that he had broken his second vertebra. \nThe doctor gave Roach two options. The first was to have a screw placed directly into his spine, a process that would immediately end Roach’s chances of ever playing soccer again. The other option was to wear an iron halo, which would fuse the bone back together by preventing movement while it healed.\nBut the halo didn’t guarantee safety either. If Roach made any sudden movements or accidentally fell, it could have been extremely detrimental to his health because of the nature of the halo. \nThese circumstances were a blessing in disguise, because Roach was two millimeters from being paralyzed or dead. Roach said his father Mike explained to him that two millimeters was the width of a toothpick.\nWhen Roach returned from his injury, he said he wasn’t sure if he would still possess the soccer skills he once had. \n“When I was in the hospital, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a scholarship,” Roach said. “I even had doubts about playing soccer again.” \nRoach’s play the previous year caught the eye of many colleges, but Mike Freitag said he had faith that Roach was going to be the player the Hoosiers initially recruited, and he stuck around when other schools left.\n“I was actually going to head over to his next game before the accident occurred,” Freitag said. “A lot of people were turned off, but I had faith in him.” \nFreitag’s faith was proved right, and Roach returned better than ever. He tallied 17 goals and 19 assists as a senior, while also garnering multiple awards en route to a 31-2 record and a Missouri state championship at Chaminade College Prep, the No. 4 nationally ranked team that he captained. \nOnly a year removed from a near-death accident, Roach was named a 2006 National Soccer Coaches Association of America High School All-American, the 2006 NSCAA Missouri Player of the Year, the 2006 Missouri Soccer Coaches Association Player of the Year and the (Missouri) Gatorade Player of the Year after his senior campaign.\nThough Roach received multiple awards and a state championship, he said he didn’t accomplish it by himself.\n“Winning the state championship was a great success for me and my team,” Roach said. “My teammates were a tremendous help. They came over and saw me at some of the worst times in my life, but they always stayed positive and told me that I was going to be back on the field with them.”\nFreitag said the perseverance Roach showed in his senior year was one of the reasons the Hoosiers recruited him.\n“That’s one of the things we admired about him,” Freitag said. “He’s a tough kid and a fighter, and he’s such a hard worker and an extremely positive young man.”\nRoach continues to overcome obstacles even after entering college, and he recorded his first career goal for the Hoosiers in IU’s 3-1 win Sept. 9 over Rhode Island.\n“When I scored, I was in shock,” Roach said. “I turned, and all my teammates were congratulating me, and for a second, I just stopped and thought about how far I’d come in the past two years.”\nRoach said he thought it was a great compliment that IU recruited him after the accident and that he will continue to take steps forward.\n“IU still had faith in me,” Roach said. “It was great to know I had support after so many people doubted me, and I felt like the (IU) scholarship was a second chance to prove everyone wrong.”