Injuries are an athlete’s biggest rival. They can knock athletes down, ruin careers, painfully wreck dreams and alter mindsets. But for Brynne Konkel, injuries have just been a learning experience on situations she can’t control.

A small-town girl from Elk Grove, Calif., Konkel found a love for soccer that would lead her to play college soccer. From a young age, Konkel was always able to focus on the fun of soccer rather than be overwhelmed by the competitive nature of the sport.

“You guys just don’t get it,” her father, Brian, remembered Brynne saying at 12 years-old, “I am not here to win games, I’m just here to have fun with my friends.”

The competitive aspect of playing at Oregon wouldn’t cause her to forget why she played soccer: to have fun.

In just her first two-a-day practice of her Oregon career she rolled her ankle and was sidelined for two months. Her ankle would never fully recover, reshaping what was sure to be an outstanding career at Oregon. In just her first collegiate game, Konkel scored a goal and had two game-winning goals her freshman season. But things would not play out the way Brynne intended. Her ligaments were completely stretched out in her sophomore year and the bones were hitting together. Doctors told her surgery was required.

“That was a very big disappointment in my life,” she said about learning she needed surgery.

She would touch the field in just 27 matches in her first two years, and was a starter in 13 of those games. As half of Konkel’s career was already over, frustration and dissatisfaction would haunt any athlete at this point.

But not for Brynne. Her forward-looking attitude would not let these uncontrollable things get to her.

In her junior season she rolled her ankle again, putting her back in a cast. When she was scheduled to go back on the field, she would be accompanied by a pain that she never felt before. She remembers playing in practice and she felt her bones hitting together every time she cut on the field.

“It was terrible. Even when I walked I could feel it,” Konkel said. In time, Konkel was recommended not to play soccer again. ”That was the most difficult time in my life.”

Brynne would miss her senior season, the season that every player looks forward to the most. “That was very hard for me. Because senior year everybody says is the best year, because you’re more relaxed. You’re having fun,” she said.

When she had to approach her teammates whom she no longer would be playing with, it all sank in. In tears, she broke the news.

“It was probably the most embarrassing moment of my life,” Konkel said.

Through this unfamiliar transition where soccer would no longer be the center of her life, Konkel went to her parents for advice as she always did.

“They (her parents) sat me down and told me that there are more things to life than soccer. It was a learning experience, and I learned a lot from soccer. You got to move on,” Konkel said.

For Brynne, moving on didn’t mean separating herself from her teammates, her closest friends.

“I wanted to stay with the team because, of course, I love the team. And it was my senior year and I wanted to stick around,” she said.

Brynne became the video coordinator, which not only allowed her to stay around the familiar grounds; it also allowed her to slowly transition from a student-athlete.

“That was very weird for me. I was always stressed over soccer, I was surrounded by soccer, that was my life. And the fact that I didn’t have to do it was a weird thing. It does put a lot of pressure off, which I like. But now that I am just a student and not an athlete anymore, it’s a whole different type of stress,” Konkel said.

Brynne started writing to take up the time she spent playing soccer. After just a couple of years, Brynne has written a science fiction novel that her dad looks forward to reading.

“She amazes me because no matter what she puts her passion in, she is really good at it,” he said.

As her parents raised her, Konkel always maintained a positive attitude that has gotten her through the toughest times of her life.

“Of course I would take it back in a heartbeat if I didn’t roll my ankle. But you can’t be negative about things you don’t have any control over. That’s what I learned through my parents and learned to be positive anyway I can,” she said with a smile.

Follow Andrew Bantly on Twitter @abant3