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“I Had To Fully Restart” — How Elise Vogel Came Back Stronger After Losing Nearly Her Entire Sophomore Season
Before she became one of the leaders on Coopersville’s Varsity soccer team again, before the confidence returned, and before college offers – Elise Vogel found herself facing something many athletes fear most.
Starting over.
The Coopersville High School Junior had already established herself early in her prep career. Elise started training at PowerStrength the Summer before her Freshman year and quickly earned a Varsity role as a Freshman.
Her development was already noticeable.
“I saw the most results in my speed, especially in my acceleration,” Vogel said. “Learning how to properly decel, especially with girls who are so easy to tear everything in your knees, really helped me a lot.”
As a center back, those details mattered.
“I was able to apply everything I learned here into the game,” Vogel said.
EVERYTHING CHANGED
Then everything changed during a preseason scrimmage in March of 2025.
“I was defending a girl, and she stepped hard forward, and I tried following,” Vogel said. “Her ACL brace ended up pushing my knee out of socket.”
The injury was eventually diagnosed as a knee subluxation, but the process of figuring out exactly what happened took time. Initially, doctors believed it was only a bone bruise.
Weeks turned into months.
And mentally, the challenge became even bigger than the physical pain.
“It was definitely more mentally hard than it was physically on my body,” Vogel explained. “Committing and realizing how much you lose and then having to go back is very hard.”
For an athlete who had already become a Varsity contributor as a Freshman, watching from the sidelines was difficult. Vogel missed almost the entire 2025 high school season while going through months of physical therapy.
Still, she was motivated to get back to playing.
By the time the state tournament arrived in late May, Vogel attempted to return in a limited role for Coopersville.
“I would play for like five minutes, and it would hurt, so I’d go out,” she said. “But the five minutes meant something to me because I was able to help.”
Even then, she knew the recovery process was far from over.
“I couldn’t start where I left off,” Vogel said. “I had to fully restart.”
STARTING OVER AT POWERSTRENGTH
That restart happened at PowerStrength.
After months of physical therapy, Vogel returned to training to rebuild both physically and mentally.
The transition was not easy.
“I could barely squat the bar without feeling a difference,” she said. “Especially with learning things your body would naturally know, like not shifting your body weight to your good leg.”
For many athletes returning from injury, one of the biggest battles is no longer strength itself.
It is trust.
Trusting your body again.
Trusting movement again.
Trusting yourself again.
That is where Vogel believes PowerStrength became a major turning point in her recovery.
“I absolutely think I sped it up,” Vogel said. “It’s one thing if you do something, but you don’t know what you’re actually doing it for. When you know what you’re doing and how it’s affecting you, I feel like it definitely speeds up the process.”
Instead of simply “working out,” Vogel says she learned how to train as an athlete again.
MORE THAN PHYSICAL TRAINING
But after the injury, training became about much more than athletic performance.
It became about rebuilding confidence.
“Mentally, there’s always that part that keeps you from wanting to go sometimes,” Vogel said. “But when you get here, there’s loud music. People are pushing you. They want you to be better, and they’re your friends. They’re not your coaches.”
That environment became critical during the toughest stretch of her recovery.
At PowerStrength, Vogel trained alongside other driven athletes while working closely with coaches who understood the mental side of injury recovery just as much as the physical side.
“Especially with Gavin, he would tell me, ‘Stop thinking. Be an athlete,’” Vogel said. “That hit me more once I got injured and understood what he meant behind that.”
By the Fall, Vogel says she finally began feeling physically healthy again.
Mentally, the process took even longer.
“I think physically I was good around October,” she said. “But mentally it was probably more towards December.”
That patience and persistence eventually paid off.
STRONGER THAN BEFORE
Today, Vogel says she feels stronger than she did before the injury.
“I feel like I’m past where I was my Freshman year,” she said. “Muscle-wise, I think I’m way ahead of what I was Freshman year. But mentally, I’m double what I was before.”
Now back competing during her Junior season with the state tournament approaching, Vogel is once again playing with confidence while pursuing her goal of competing at the collegiate level. She has already received a college offer from Heidelberg University and has interest in several other programs as well.
Looking back, Vogel believes the experience changed her as both an athlete and a person.
And she strongly believes PowerStrength played a major role in helping her get there.
THE POWERSTRENGTH DIFFERENCE
“PowerStrength is one of the best things I think an athlete can do for themselves,” Vogel said. “You learn so much while you’re here. It’s one thing going to the weight room by yourself. But when you come to PowerStrength, you learn how to train as an actual athlete.”
For athletes working through injuries, setbacks, or uncertainty, Vogel says the impact goes far beyond physical training.
“You gain so much physically,” she said. “But mentally, you learn so much about yourself as a person.”
That growth is what ultimately carried her through the hardest season of her athletic career.
And now, after months of rebuilding from the ground up, Elise Vogel is back on the field — stronger, more confident, and continuing to move forward.
GET STARTED AT POWERSTRENGTH
3rd–12th grade athletes of all sports and abilities can sign up at PowerStrength at any time while spots remain. Choose the PowerStrength location most convenient for you – Alpine, Kentwood, Jenison, Plainfield, Holland, or Byron Center.
Visit powerstrengthpro.com/athlete/contact to learn more or click below to schedule your assessment and get started.