Go ahead, crack a joke. Sixth year defender and co-captain Amber Dragomir has heard them all before.

Call her the old lady of the team or joke about how she’s the team mom. She’ll take it with a smile, perhaps even a chuckle.

“I swear she’s older than me,” joked 26-year-old head coach Katie Poynter. Off the field 22-year-old Amber Dragomir is a quiet yet warm person, and on the Sacramento State women’s soccer team she is in many ways the team mom. She is a calming influence when teammates fight in practice or get riled up at an opponent in a game much like a mother would be if her children fought.

Dragomir, recently granted a sixth year of eligibility, has had two major knee injuries that derailed two seasons in her Sac State soccer career.

Recalling her first injury, Dragomir said, “During a (soccer) game my sophomore year I hyperextended my right knee but I didn’t think much of it.” She remembers the date precisely, Sept. 23, 2001, because it happened on her 19th birthday. Her knee felt good enough for her to play through the remainder of the soccer season as well as the softball season later that year.

Oh, that’s right, Dragomir is a two-sport athlete. Not only did she hobble through the back end of a soccer season, but also played a year of softball as an outfielder as well. This does not surprise co-captain and fellow senior defender Mandi Siller.

“Everybody looks up to Amber and they respect her because of how hard she worked to get back from her injuries,” Siller said.

Said Poynter: “Amber never uses her injuries as an excuse. She always works hard.”

Dragomir had surgery on her knee when it was found that she had torn her right medial meniscus.

Less than a year later came more bad news.

Dragomir tore her left medial meniscus sliding into second base during a softball game. Again she played through pain and finished out the year. After the season she had surgery again, this time on her left knee. “The second injury was worse than the first,” Dragomir said, “The rehab after the first surgery was only a month. The rehab following the second was five or six months.”

Two years of soccer vanished before her eyes. Dragomir’s playing career in the sport that she admits was her first love when it came to sports was now in doubt. Well, maybe for a softer individual. “I never considered the injuries to be career ending,” Dragomir said.

Siller said that Dragomir once played in a practice game against the Mexican National team and scored Sac State’s only goal after missing two years. “She wasn’t even supposed to be playing yet,” Siller said.

It is this kind of toughness that prompts Dragomir’s teammates to look up to her and respect her. Dragomir admits that her teammate Kelly Novak, identified by Siller, Dragomir and coach Poynter is the team jokester, and insists on calling Dragomir “mom.” Siller said, “The whole team respects Amber unquestionably.”

Siller also said that even with all the bickering that goes on between the girls, Dragomir’s name never pops up. “No one ever has a bad word to say about Amber,” Siller said, “She is our leader,” Poynter said. “Amber takes on a lot of responsibility to be a leader and she does it without question.”

With a group of talented freshman coming in with a team hungry to improve on a 3-15 record a year ago, Dragomir explained, “I just want the program to be stronger when I leave than it was when I arrived.” If the comments made by teammates and the coach are any indication, Dragomir has certainly achieved that.

So go ahead, crack a joke. She’s dealt with far worse and come back kicking.

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Benn Hodapp can be reached at [email protected]