By SAM SVOBODA

As anyone who has ever played competitive team sports can tell you, there is almost nothing worse than missing a game due to injury. The feelings of helplessness and uselessness as you watch your team fight without you. The sadness of not being able to play the game you love and that you’ve worked so hard at. And, of course, the eagerness to rejoin the team and start playing again as soon as possible.

But what if that last feeling wasn’t even an option — what if you found that an injury had actually ended your career? Would that feeling of helplessness be permanent?

Luckily, no. At least, not for Megan Nesland.

Nesland, a senior, is volunteering as an assistant coach with the women’s water polo team this season, two years after her Cardinal playing career ended due to joint problems.

“I have very loose joints that pop in and out of place,” said Nesland. “When I move, the tendons near those joints shred and eventually tear.”

This resulted in a torn rotator cuff in high school, but Nesland still continued to play with the injury through her sophomore season on the Farm. And not just play, but play well.

“She’s had chronic injuries since high school, but when she was able to play here she was one of our best defenders, especially in five-on-six,” said Stanford head coach John Tanner. “I think that’s a big part of our being among the best five-on-six teams in the country.”

However, Nesland felt that it was too painful to continue playing with the torn rotator cuff. After trying physical therapy, prescription pain medications and cortisone shots, she decided to have surgery after her sophomore year. The surgery would not only fix her rotator cuff, but also shorten the other tendons in her shoulder, making the joint tighter. She then tore her ACL about a month before the shoulder surgery, so she ended up having knee surgery that summer as well. Unfortunately, the year-long recovery was not successful.

“In the course of physical therapy I shredded more ligaments and tendons in my shoulder and the joint was just as loose before the surgery,” said Nesland. “Then, at the end of the year, I re-tore my ACL as well.”

While further surgery was an option, Nesland believed that the results would be the same, so she opted against it. However, that also meant that she was ending her water polo career.

“Now, when I play water polo . . . I am in a lot of pain [and] I lose circulation in my hands because of how my joints move,” said Nesland. “It isn’t as bad when I swim, but when I make any explosive movements, like throwing a ball or lunging out of the water, my joints slip.”

She tried to play through the pain with her club team this past summer, but realized that it just wasn’t worth it. She could not walk away from the Stanford team though.

“I knew I wanted to still be around the team, but I didn’t know what type of role I could play without being able to be in the game,” she said. “So I called JT [coach Tanner] and told him about what I was thinking. It was [his] idea that I volunteer as a coach and I loved it.”

Now, Nesland is with the team for all practices, meetings, and games. During practices, she does all the little things: running shot clocks, videotape, and helping with drills. During games, her role is primarily motivation. As she puts it, “basically I can yell very loudly and am not shy about doing it.”

She is also doing all of the conditioning with the team — including weights and swim sets — and does her own conditioning when the team isn’t doing any. She credits assistant coach Susan Ortwein with developing a great training routine for her — one that is easier on the joints, but still difficult.

“She puts 110 percent into everything she does and water polo is no exception,” said fellow senior Jackie Gauthier. “Not only does she workout everyday and stay engaged with our team, but she is a true motivation. We see how hard she works and what she puts in, despite not being able to play.

“She is very much a part of the core of our team and we try to never lose sight of how lucky we are to have her,” she continued. “I love Nesland!”

As for coach Tanner, he could not be happier about the newest addition to his staff.

“A big part of our success this year and the past three is about Megan Nesland,” he said. “I feel like we’re playing this season in a way that reflects her passion for the sport and team. It’s hard to feel sorry for yourself when you see Megan smiling as she watches everyone else doing what she’d love to be doing herself.”

Nesland has also gained a lot from the experience, including a whole new perspective on the game.

“It looks completely different from the deck — I can see things happening that I wouldn’t have recognized from the water,” she said. “I often wish that I could play again, if only for the fact that I think my time on the deck would really have improved my vision in the pool. I also know much more about the clock and how it plays into the game now that I run the clocks.”

While she’s not sure if she would like to be a coach in the future, Nesland — who will be working on her master’s in education next year — is open to the possibility.

“Maybe I will get a teaching job at a school that wants a water polo coach,” she said. “I would definitely be very excited to pursue something like that and this [year’s] experience would be hugely helpful if I do.”

Coach Tanner believes that she certainly has the dedication to do so. “It’s really uncommon to find someone who is so genuinely committed to working completely behind the scenes helping a team achieve greatness,” he said.

Nesland says the main reason for her commitment is the team’s “incredible group of people.”

“We are a close group and I value my relationships with these girls and our coaches as critical pieces of my Stanford experience,” she said. “While remaining on the team and volunteering is a sacrifice of my time, not being a part of the team would be sacrificing something much larger and I wasn’t willing to give that up just because I can’t play water polo anymore.”

“[We have] a very talented group of girls and I am excited to see where this season takes us. I just hope that I can give back to the team as much as they give to me.”

Contact Sam Svoboda at ssvoboda@stanford.edu.