The only evidence remaining of a torn ACL and meniscus is a bulky brace on his right knee. Otherwise, Charlie Howenstine is the player he was before the injury that cost him all but five minutes last season.

A senior attacker for the Olentangy Liberty boys lacrosse team, Howenstine has spent the early part of this season trying to get over the mental hurdles that come with injury.

“I’m getting more comfortable with everything,” he said. “In the beginning of the season, my mental state was a little questionable. I only had five days of contact before the first game. I was a little iffy on planting all of my weight on my right leg. But now, I’m pretty comfortable doing about anything.”

Howenstine said he got over the mental block in Liberty’s first game – a 12-8 loss to Cleveland St. Ignatius on March 19. He had two goals and an assist.

“The turning point was seeing that I can do it,” he said. “Seeing myself have success and that I was able to do it. (Playing with the knee brace) is not too bad. It didn’t take me long to get used to it. It really does help mentally – just for stability.”

Howenstine had 15 goals, 22 assists and 14 ground balls through 10 games. Liberty lost to Upper Arlington 17-11 on April 20, its third consecutive setback to fall to 5-5 overall and 1-2 in the OCC-Central Division. 

“He gets a little tired, but that’s about it,” coach Jason Godwin said. “Because of the knee injury and (the cancellation of the 2020 season because of) COVID, he hasn’t played much for us.

“He understands the game of lacrosse. To me, (that) is a great thing to have. He’s always had a high IQ of the game, being able to read defenders. He’s spent a lot of time getting better.”

Howenstine suffered the injury March 23, 2021, five minutes into the season opener against Olentangy Berlin.

“I was doing (well). I had two shots in the first three minutes,” he said. “I took the ball (behind the goal) and took a dodge to the left. I literally just took a step to step out and pass it and I just felt my knee shift out of place. It was the weirdest pain I’ve felt in my life. I went down and I (knew) something was wrong.

“Alex Theuerkauf (a 2021 graduate) came over to me and said, ‘You’re fine. You’re fine.’ I was like, ‘What the heck just happened to my leg?’ I walked off the field and the trainer just lifted up my leg to do an ACL test and put it down. He didn’t even need to do the test. (He said), ‘Yeah, you tore your ACL.’ They wrapped it up and put it in the brace (and) the journey started there.”

Serious leg injuries are commonplace for the Howenstine family. Charlie’s older brother, James, who is now a junior defender at Capital, missed his senior season at Liberty because of a torn Achilles. Their father, John, a 1989 graduate of Wintersville and an assistant coach with Liberty, didn’t get to play his senior football season because of a knee injury.

Howenstine leaned on them for support. But he also turned to junior Caden Minniti, who was going through rehab as well. Minniti had serious injuries to both knees over the last couple of years.

“I was going to (physical therapy) with him and that really helped,” Howenstine said. “Having my dad go through the surgery, too, and my brother went to the same physical therapist as me. They were (telling me) that’s it’s a really long recovery, but (I’m) going to be normal again.”

Minneti, an Ohio State commit, could be back in early May.

Liberty’s five losses have come against teams ranked in the state as of April 21: No. 1 UA, No. 3 St. Ignatius, No. 6 Cincinnati St. Xavier (12-5 on April 3), No. 7 Hilliard Davidson (11-9 on April 11) and No. 2 Hudson Western Reserve (12-2 on April 15). Liberty was ranked eighth.

Junior midfielder Braydon Spencer (24 goals, 4 assists, 29 ground balls), junior attacker Owen McGee (15 goals, 7 assists), senior midfielder Freddy Noday (42 ground balls, 67% face-offs) and senior goalie Max Ruppe (53 saves) have helped lead the Patriots.

“We have such a hard schedule this year,” Howenstine said. “We just have to keep our heads up. We’re there, too. We just need to keep practicing, keep our heads up and don’t give up. That’s the main thing.”