E

mma Ward heard her toe pop during the team’s first practice in January, 2022.

She called her parents to break the news and her mother, Jacqui, was relieved. After watching her daughter suffer ACL tears in consecutive years starting when she was just 15 years old, at least this time it wasn’t her knee. “It’ll be fine,” Jacqui told her.

But when Ward sent over pictures, it was clear her toe wasn’t fine. 

Doctors diagnosed Ward with Grade 3 turf toe and a complete rupture of the plantar plate in her right foot — a structure connecting her big toe to the rest of her foot – and a 4-6 month recovery window. 

“I thought she broke her toe,” said Ward’s father, Maurice. “I’m like alright so you broke your toe. You’ll be out for maybe a couple weeks, you’ll be back for the season and everything.” 

The three of them attended a Zoom call together and were told that Ward suffered a freak injury that would end her sophomore season. For the following two months, she couldn’t put any pressure on her foot. 

An Atlantic Coast Conference All-Freshman team selection, Ward played in all 21 games in 2021. She had filled the role of SU’s all-time leading scorer Emily Hawryschuk, who tore her ACL two games in, and contributed heavily to the team’s NCAA Championship run that ended with a loss to Boston College. 

On Jan. 17, Ward played in her first team training session since the injury. She’s currently listed as healthy for the team’s season opener against Northwestern on Feb. 11. 

“She’s worked really hard,” Syracuse head coach Kayla Treanor said. “I know she’s so excited for this chance to be back out there and I just can’t wait to watch her play and perform on the field.” 

Ward had always been an athlete throughout her childhood. At 6 years old, she started playing travel football, loving the rough-and-tumble nature of the sport. Then, Ward thought she’d be a soccer star. Maurice said basketball was her ‘fun’ sport. 

In second grade, she approached Jacqui with a permission slip to start playing lacrosse for a local league team coached by a friend’s mother. Jacqui had watched Ward develop basic stick skills playing catch with her older brother in the backyard and she bought the equipment for Ward to participate.

“When she was throwing the ball around, I’m watching through the back door to see what’s going on,” Maurice said. “She’s catching the ball, lefty, switching hands, throwing it back-and-forth. I look at my wife and I’m like ‘she’s pretty good.’”

Before her season started, Ward never really watched lacrosse. One day, the family found a women’s game on TV, but it didn’t take long for Ward to voice her displeasure. 

“They don’t hit each other,” Ward remembered saying. “There are no pads. I’m not playing, I’m not doing this.” 

But, her parents had already paid and she was going to play. After that first season at 7 years old, Ward fell in love. 

As a fourth grader, Ward joined the Long Island Top Guns travel program, located in nearby West Babylon, New York. Founded by Bill Smith, father of former Tewaaraton winner Shannon Smith, Top Guns maintained a reputation as producers of highly-touted, Division-I caliber players. Ward started there by playing attack a year up with fifth graders. 

Andrew Smith, the co-owner and director of Top Guns, coached Ward’s first team. Despite being younger, Ward competed amidst talented competition and is one of five players that are now listed on USA Lacrosse Magazine’s 2023 Division-I Women’s Preseason All-Americans, Smith said. 

The coaching staff at Top Guns promoted a sense of accountability to Ward and her teammates. But Ward’s father had instilled that mentality in her already.

“From an early age it was always her desire to do things the best, whether that was brushing her teeth or putting on her shoes,” Jacqui said. “There were many times my husband would say to her ‘do you want to be good or do you want to be great? You have to make that choice and we can’t make that for you.’”

Because of training, Ward missed birthday parties and hangouts. In the summer, she’d be traveling with the team for weeks at a time. Sometimes, her absence forced her out of the loop with friends and that’s when her parents offered her the option to quit. Ward’s dedication never wavered. 

It was this desire to be great that propelled her to push past her first ACL tear in the eighth grade, just shortly after she played her first varsity season at Babylon as a middle schooler. 

Ward said she didn’t really feel the injury happening. Moving around, her knee felt good. It wasn’t until the day after that she felt its full extent. To get better, she had to go to physical therapy three times a week, then go to the gym an additional two to three times a week for further rehab. Yet, even with the threat of a career-ending injury looming, she wanted to play. 

“Maybe four months after surgery she was asking to join sessions,” Smith said. “She was chomping at the bit to try to get back into playing lacrosse and being around it.” 

Smith said he held Ward and her dad off from a premature return. As eager as she was, he remembered saying that they should ease back into training upon doctors’ recommendations. 

“I think that’s just a testament to her father and her and how they think about when it’s time to go to work,” Smith said. 

A year later, Ward tore her ACL and her meniscus as a freshman in high school. Although the injury was similar and the rehabilitation exercises were familiar, nursing her leg back to health took longer and the brace stayed on for an extended time. Ward said the ACL recovery process was “nagging” and “emotionally draining,” but was “so rewarding in the end.” Jacqui remembered that the second tear was more difficult. 

“I just felt like I was behind and wasn’t going to be able to catch up,” Ward said.

Recruiting had begun while Ward was sidelined. With both of Ward’s ACL tears coming near summertime, she couldn’t continue with Top Guns and barely any programs were reaching out. But then-SU head coach Gary Gait and then-associate head coach Reggie Thorpe took a chance. 

Introduced through former SU lacrosse player Nicole Levy’s father, Steve, who coached Ward at Top Guns for a while, Ward was able to build a relationship with Gait and the program through a mutual trust that they could help each other. 

“There’s nowhere else I would be,” Ward said. “I have a lot of love for him just because of the belief he had in me even from the beginning when I was hurt.” 

Gait realized quickly there was no one that could match her stick skills or technique — attributes that Thorpe highlighted frequently when discussing Ward, Smith said. 

With two more years left before college, Ward dominated in both the midfield and attacking positions. However, during her senior year at Babylon she was named to the All-American third team — an underwhelming and undeserving end to a high-school career where she registered more than 200 points, said then-coach Olivia Calcado. 

“Babylon is not known for their lacrosse community,” Calcado said. “It isn’t Bayport Blue Point, Mt. Sinai or Northport. (Emma) has always had to face that underdog mentality.”

Ward visited several other campuses, but nothing compared to Syracuse, Jacqui said. And after arriving at SU, Ward showed she didn’t need the help of a high-school lacrosse powerhouse to prepare her for the next level. She was ready. 

After the Orange defeated Loyola in the 2021 season opener, Ward’s parents sat down to watch Syracuse play Stony Brook. COVID-19 restrictions had barred them from attending the Dome in-person. Then, an announcement revealed that Hawryschuk would miss the matchup with a lower-leg injury. Ward had been named a starter. As a true freshman, she had been moved from an offensive midfielder to the starting attack. 

Ward finished that game with only three assists. Throughout her freshman year, Ward produced multiple goals against Duke and Notre Dame. She also notched the winning goal against BC in the ACC Tournament semifinals. But her first start against the Seawolves was Maurice’s favorite. 

“She showed that she belonged,” Maurice said. “She showed that she could play at that level against that type of competition.” 

In the NCAA tournament, Syracuse coasted past Loyola for the second time before defeating Florida to set up a semifinal showdown with then-No.2 seed, Northwestern. The Orange dominated from the jump and never trailed. 

Megan Carney raced forward and waited patiently for two Northwestern players to converge on her. She had Ward to her left. At the last second, Carney dumped the ball to Ward who scored in the top-right corner. Syracuse’s lead increased to 9-2 and Ward would go on to score twice more. 

“We knew what we had to do,” Ward said, thinking back to the contest. “We had one of our best games all year.” 

Ward’s severe turf toe left her unable to build upon her freshman season. It was also an injury that she, nor her family, had any history in treating. It was “unheard of,” Ward said. 

Her long-time physician even told Ward that she was the first lacrosse player he’d seen with this type of injury. It was far more commonly found in NFL linebackers planting their feet incorrectly. Ward’s team consulted a Green Bay Packers doctor who reviewed her status before confirming which stitches and incisions should be made in surgery. 

Ward opted to have the surgery and physical therapy done in Syracuse, away from her parents in Babylon, where she recovered from her two ACL tears. The team had already started traveling. 

Slowly, Ward’s foot got better and she was cleared to operate with more motion right before Syracuse let out for winter break in December. Returning home, she attended the same advanced physical therapy clinic she went to for her prior ACL tears, designed to put the finishing touches on strengthening her ruptured ligament and get her into playing shape.  

Now fully recovered, Ward will be ready to take the field for the first time with Treanor as her head coach. Treanor describes her as the “quintessential Syracuse attacker,” who plays creative, confident and fearless. 

Like her coach, Ward has championship expectations for herself. 

“We finish the job this year,” Ward said. “We win that natty.”

Photograph is courtesy of SU Athletics

Published on February 2, 2023 at 12:05 am

Contact Tyler: trschiff@syr.edu | @theTylerSchiff