Aidan Burns tore his ACL in 2016, costing him football, lacrosse and track seasons
From the sideline to the podium, Clearview Regional High School junior Aidan Burns is a state champion.
During the 2016 football season, Burns, then a sophomore, was playing his usual position of fullback. It was a normal game, rough, tough and under the lights — then something went wrong. During a scrum, Burns felt the burn in his knee that is so commonly associated with a tear — it was his ACL.
Recovery time for a torn ACL generally takes six months.
Burns is a three-sport athlete. He enjoys football but loves lacrosse and track; this injury rendered his sophomore athletic calendar blank. However, Dan Matozzo, Clearview winter track head coach, said that while Burns was out of sorts momentarily, the young athlete never gave up hope of succeeding in the multiple green and yellow Pioneer jerseys he sports each year.
“He works so hard. Some kids say they want to be good, but they don’t train like it,” Matozzo said.
After spending months resting his knee, Burns had a chat with his coach and they planned out his junior year track season.
The intention of the 2017 winter track season was to be for rehab, to get Burns back up to speed and ready to go his senior year.
A few winces crossed his face and many ice bags calmed his swollen knee in the beginning of the season.
“I was nervous at first because of the pain and the swelling. I had never experienced that before,” Burns said.
Encouraged by doctors and coaches that this is normal, Burns kept training with a focus on the 55-meter dash.
“His first meet, fresh off the injury, he didn’t win anything,” Matozzo said, adding he didn’t look bad, just not himself. However, while the speed was not there, he felt the young athlete’s vigor was present just as it was the season previous.
His times improved meet after meet, taking multiple sixth-place finishes and whittling down to fourth, third, and seemingly becoming untouchable.
“I didn’t expect to increase as much as I did. I increased a lot,” Burns said.
At a tri-county meet in January, Burns placed third in one of the most competitive races of the year.
“I saw it in his face,” said Matozzo.
Like a video fast forwarded, Burns’ times decreased and eventually he qualified and found himself in the NJSIAA Group 3 Championships for the 55- meter dash.
Leading up to the event, shock and surprise from the school and community transformed into support.
“Everybody was supporting him,” Matozzo recounted.
In a preliminary race, Burns bested the rest with a time of 6.61. For the final race, that time would only have gotten the junior fourth place. However, forgetting his injury and relying on his training, Burns torched his previous time and crossed the finish line first with a time of 6.53, a personal record.
“I was really excited about it. I got to be one of those kids, the ones I looked up to who won a state championship,” he said.
Reflecting on the season, Matozzo said Burns is one of those few athletes who truly trains to win.
As for next year, Burns plans to “go all the way.”
