Lacrosse, Field Hockey
Favorite athlete: Saquon Barkley
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Scoring my first goal back from my ACL tear.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Running in the opposite direction of the field play when I was little.
Music on playlist: All the Stars - by Kendrick Lamar and SZA
Future plans: Attend Penn State University and study International Politics
Words to live by: “No challenge…No change.”
One goal before turning 30: Live in France
One thing people don’t know about you: In addition to being an athlete, I am an artist and singer.
By Mary Jane Souder
Mia Rosala is living, breathing proof that you really can do it all.
The Lower Moreland senior’s resume is a lengthy one. She is a two-year captain of her lacrosse team and also a key member of the field hockey team. An excellent student with a course load of AP classes, Rosala is a member of the National Honor Society. She is vice president of Lower Moreland’s student council, she was a captain of MiniTHON and is president of Students Against Destructive Behavior.
For good measure, Rosala also finds times to devote to another of her passions – art, and she and twin sister Roya can lay claim to being featured soloists on Spotify as members of a select middle school group - LionVoice.
Last March, the then LM junior added something unforeseen to her resume that forced her to draw on every ounce of resilience and grit she had, and according to coach Deb Lawlor, Rosala – 10 months removed from surgery to repair a torn ACL and meniscus - has plenty of both.
“The infamous words that everybody says, and I think they’re used too loosely, but this really holds true for her is the resiliency and grit to say ‘get out of my way, I’m getting it done. Yes, I need people to support me, I need to lean on people, but I’m not stopping till I get to where I want to be,’” said Lawlor, who coached Rosala in both field hockey and lacrosse.
Where Rosala wanted to be was back on the field for her final high school lacrosse season, and she is back.
“It was definitely a mix of emotions going in – I was excited but hesitant,” she said. “Definitely fearful but more grateful that all of the hard work finally paid off.
“Obviously, wearing the brace, it’s like you are playing a whole other sport because you can’t fully bend your leg, you can’t fully sprint, but then you have to think about it like – I would much rather be in this position than sitting on the sidelines cheering on my teammates, so it’s really an adjustment, but it’s a worth-it adjustment.”
Rosala recalls what it felt like when – in the fifth game of the season last year against Cheltenham – she went down with a knee injury.
“I’m sure every athlete goes through the thought process of every possibility, hoping it would be anything other than a torn ACL, right?” she said. “Initially, I thought I had just hyper-flexed my knee or had dislodged it.
“When it first happened, I heard it click three times, and I was hoping it had just been something where I could get up and kind of walk it off, and then I realized I was on the ground and could not move. It felt like my kneecap had fully done a 360 around my leg. I thought I had dislocated my kneecap actually. I didn’t even think about a ligament being torn until afterward when I tried walking off the field and every step I took, it fell out of place. Then I realized it was something serious.”
The diagnosis confirmed Rosala’s worst fears.
“From that point on, I was in complete rehab mode,” she said. “I knew the number one goal was returning this season, and that’s what really kept me going.
“So immediately from my injury until after the MRI, which confirmed it was a torn ACL and meniscus, I was in prehab and then rehab. And then as soon as I made it after surgery, I was immediately back to work focusing on building up my quad strength and getting back into sports.”
“Lacrosse had been part of my twin (Roya) and my identities. I felt like a part of me had been stripped away from me. I felt like I lost something that was so special that I had made a part of myself for so many years.
“Knowing that I would lose all of my strength that I had been building my entire life in the span of a millisecond – it was one of the hardest pieces of information that I have had to take in.”
Fast forward 10 months, and Rosala is…well, she’s grateful.
“Actually, looking back on it now, going into my 10th month post op, it was one of the best things that’s ever happened to me,” she said. “Just given that I learned so much about my body and nutrition and taking care of myself as an athlete and prioritizing alone time and growth. Looking back, I really did benefit from it, but wow – when I heard that information, that was earthshattering in that moment.
Back to the beginning
Mia and her identical twin Roya grew up playing sports. Together. They swam, were involved in gymnastics, played tennis, lacrosse, soccer, basketball, softball, flag football. You name it – they were involved in it. Their activities, however, didn’t begin and end with sports.
“My parents put my twin and I into every activity possible, so ever since I was young, I was in theater, I was in choir,” Rosala said. “I grew up around music. I played the piano, the violin, the ukelele.
“My sisters and I – every so often, we’ll sit by the piano, and we’ll write songs together. My twin just wrote a song on the guitar, so music has been a huge part of our lives. It’s shaped our identities outside of sports.”
Rosala’s interest in art has been nurtured since she was a youngster.“Right before COVID, I was painting all the time, drawing all the time,” she said. “Now I’m in AP Art class at my school. I love to use it as an escape from reality and just to have time by myself outside of sports.”
When it came to sports, lacrosse stuck for both twins, and both began playing field hockey in seventh grade. Both were key contributors to Lower Moreland’s field hockey and lacrosse team. When Mia’s lacrosse season ended on March 28 of last year, the then junior captain slid into a new role - Coach Rosala.
“Both of them have such a knack for the game, and just the chemistry Mia and Roya had on the field was just so amazing,” LM lacrosse coach Steve Wittmer said. “Mia is a natural lefty, Roya is a righty. Any time you have a natural lefty on the field, it just adds so many options. They are our rock star club players.
“Mia’s vision – she has ability to kind of take herself out of the equation and see what’s working, what isn’t working. They’re both awesome, and it’s been amazing to coach them these past four years. They just bring so much experience to the team, and Mia’s injury – it (stunk).”
Still, there was no mistaking Mia’s contributions from the sidelines.
“She became Coach Rosala, helping Coach Lawlor and me,” Wittmer said. “Mia one hundred percent was very, very, very much still part of the team in any and every way she could, always bringing her leadership and insights as a player.
“Having such a gifted lacrosse player with such a high lacrosse IQ analyzing the play from that side and being able to contribute in terms of when I am trying to scheme something out or seeing what’s working – she’s tremendous.”
“She did not miss a beat,” Lawlor said. “She was on that sideline, and she really took that role on to be an assistant coach. She has enough maturity, game sense, conceptual thinking as a coach – I don’t know what we would have done without her. It was almost like having another adult on the sideline.”
Last fall, Mia took that coaching role to the sidelines for her field hockey team as well.
“Mia’s a leader in every sense of the word,” Lawlor said. “She truly embodies the belief that energy brings energy. She’s the first to show the energy.
“Whether she’s on the field or on the sidelines, she sets the tone. It’s relentless, it’s positive, and she is committed. Her contributions go far beyond that. She is the cornerstone too when she’s on the field. She is our team’s culture.
“I’ve been pretty blessed between Gwynedd Mercy Academy and Lower Moreland, but it’s not too often that a coach can say I’ve been deeply impacted, but Mia, her twin sister Roya and quite a few others serve as inspiration to me. And it’s just a reminder of the power of athletics and the charge of what women will become.”
Last week, the unimaginable happened when Roya went down with a torn ACL – almost one year to the day that Mia was injured. This year, it will be Roya taking on the role of Coach Rosala.
A bright future
Mia plans to keep sports as part of her life next year at Penn State where she plans to play club lacrosse and major in international political science with her sights set on becoming a lawyer. She is considering a minor in art history or French.
“If it’s available, I’d still like to have art as part of my life,” Rosala said. “I’m fluent in French, so I’d like to continue with that language.”
In her final weeks and months at Lower Moreland, Rosala is also doing her best to ensure that the lacrosse program – with dwindling numbers – remains alive and well.
“We have to work to keep the program alive for these very girls that have given everything,” Lawlor said. “There is no way we are leaving them without their opportunity to play their senior year, so we have some work to do. Mia’s fired up about it. She’s going to do everything she can as an individual and team player.
“Wherever she goes professionally, she’s going to make change. We’re super excited that she is on our team and is a student-athlete at Lower Moreland.”
Rosala hopes to ensure that future Lower Moreland athletes will have the same opportunities she had.
“Sports has taught me so, so much,” the LM senior said. “I’ve learned endurance, gratitude.
“One of the quotes I picked up during my recovery was ‘No challenge, no change.’ I am implementing that this season especially with my team as a captain.
“It’s taught me you can’t grow as a person until you’ve faced true challenges, and I think that sports gives you that, and especially with the community. You build a whole community, you get to lead a whole community, you build a family, and it’s a chance to escape all of the rest of your environment and just be in the moment.”
