Back from the Break

Curt Toppel Overcame A Career-Threatening Ankle Injury to Play Volleyball in Puerto Rico

Just over a year ago Curt Toppel was on top of the volleyball world. He was one of the top college players in the country and had been selected to join the United States National Team to fulfill his dream of playing in the Olympics. That all changed one fateful day last May. The native Palisadian was playing a pick-up basketball game in the Stanford University gym during graduation week when he leaped in the air to dunk the ball, got undercut and came crashing down sideways. The damage to ligaments, soft tissue and bones resembled a list of the body’s anatomical parts more than an accident report. In fact, he was in danger of losing his foot. Fortunately, one of Stanford’s top surgeons witnessed the incident and attended to him until the ambulance arrived. At As a consequence of the dislocation, the major nerve and blood circulation to the foot was cut off. Suddenly, the future for one of the Palisades’ most accomplished young athletes was in limbo. With his requirement towards his major finished and nothing else to do, Curt stayed at Stanford for summer school and took a few ‘fun’ classes’among them acting, public speaking and piano. Fit with a cast, though severely handicapped on crutches, Toppel remained at Stanford after graduation and took summer school classes. When it came time to start rehabilitation, he approached his exercises with the same zeal he had always displayed on the court. For a month he worked through pain and agony with the unwavering goal to revitalize his volleyball career and return to the National Team. In October, National Team coach Doug Beal invited Toppel to continue his rehab at the OTC’s world class facility in Colorado Springs and subsequently train with the team. Toppel’s persistence finally paid off when he traveled with the team to Japan for a one-week tournament. Having lost out on the opportunity to play in Europe and Japan in the fall and winter seasons, Toppel continued to regain strength and was invited to play in a professional league in Puerto Rico’an invitation he accepted. Less than a year after suffering a career-threatening injury, by far the biggest obstacle of his young life, Toppel was back on the court playing the sport he loves’and playing it at a high level. Toppel played in Puerto Rico’s Superior League, the country’s volleyball equivalent to the NBA. He played in the league’s annual All-Star game and was named most valuable player after leading his team of ‘foreigners’ to a four-game victory over the ‘locals.’ Toppel honed his game in the Pacific Palisades Volleyball Club and later on the Los Angeles Athletic Club team, was an All-CIF middle blocker at Loyola High and was voted Freshman of the Year in the Mountain-Pacific Sports Federation in 2000 on his way to becoming a three-time All-American. With a degree in Human Biology from Stanford in hand, Toppel is well on his way to his ultimate goal of becoming an orthopedic surgeon, focusing on sports medicine. For now, though, Toppel will continue to pursue his first love’volleyball’by playing in America and overseas. Healthy again, he returns to Colorado this week eager to reach the pinnacle of his sport once more.