SLIPPERY ROCK — There are times when Bre Northcott still feels the ache in both of her surgically repaired knees.

The scars that run across them signify the pain she has been through in her young life and of a promising volleyball career cut short.

They also remind the Slippery Rock High graduate and sophomore thrower on the Slippery Rock University track and field team of all that she has overcome.

“Well, it wasn’t really good what happened,” Northcott said of reconstructive surgery of both knees as well as a meniscus repair in her right knee two years ago, “but it gave me a great appreciation for what I am doing now.”

What Northcott is doing now is becoming a standout for The Rock in three events: the discus, shot put and hammer throw.

At SRU’s first outdoor meet of the season in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Northcott qualified for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships in all three events.

That was an achievement that took her the entire season to reach as a freshman coming back from a third knee surgery.

Northcott is thinking big.

“I would like to place in all three at the PSAC meet,” she said.

John Papa, who has been the track and field coach at The Rock for 27 years, said Northcott is on the verge of accomplishing some great things.

“She’s definitely picked up where she left off last season,” Papa said. “She is becoming one of the best overall throwers in the conference and has become an asset to the program, without a doubt.”

Northcott wasn’t going to go to SRU.

She had her mind set on attending Edinboro University and walking on to the volleyball program there.

Since the junior high, Northcott has loved volleyball and was one of the best young players in District 10 during her sophomore season at Slippery Rock High.

“I had no idea that my last volleyball game would happen at the end of my sophomore year,” Northcott said. “It was what I loved to do. Volleyball was something I always wanted to do in college, then I blew out both of my knees.”

Northcott suffered her first catastrophic knee injury before her junior year when an opponent fell on her left leg during a summer league basketball game. Her knee buckled and her ACL and MCL were shredded.

A year later, she tore the ACL in her right knee during another summer basketball league game.

She tore her meniscus while throwing the javelin during her senior year for the Rockets.

Northcott was still determined to play volleyball at the next level until she got a phone call from Papa.

“I never thought I would end up at SRU, ever,” Northcott said. “I’ve always been independent and I wanted to go somewhere a little farther away from home and I really had my mind made up and my heart set on trying to play volleyball.

“Then I talked to John Papa,” Northcott added. “I walked upstairs and told my parents, ‘I’m going to SRU now.’”

Papa remembers the conversation, but not what was said.

“Oh, heck, I have no idea,” Papa said. “I’m just glad she came.”

Northcott still isn’t entirely sure why she changed course.

“I knew I wanted to do a sport when I went to college,” she said. “It worked out for me.”