Palmdale’s Dibbini Putting On a Clinic : Prolific Scorer Has Goals in the Fields of Medicine and Soccer

Casts itch. Just ask Palmdale High soccer player Mike Dibbini, a patient who was running out of patience.

In August, 1992, just before his junior year, Dibbini suffered a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his left knee during a soccer match. He underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair the cartilage damage and was placed in a cast that stretched from his toes to his hip.

The prognosis: At best, he would be out of action for at least six to eight weeks. The itch to play soccer, to at least move around, was understandably overpowering.

“Six weeks looks like six years when you’re young and athletic,” said Dibbini’s doctor, John Kayvanfar.

Said Palmdale Coach Mike Shepard: “I asked him, ‘How would you feel if you can’t play anymore?’ He said, ‘Soccer is my life, and I’m going to play.’ ”

Dibbini meant it. He never once used his crutches. His was not a walking cast, but he walked on it anyway. The cast broke three times. On the final occasion, two months after the injury, Dibbini simply left it off rather than get a new one.

Two days later, he ran five miles with the Falcons’ cross-country team. Less than a month later, he dragged Shepard to the doctor’s office to get permission to play in Palmdale’s first match, which he did.

“I didn’t play him very long at all in that match,” Shepard said. “But he played every minute of every game after that.”

Who could have kept him off the field? Dibbini scored 44 goals in 25 matches, best in the Southern Section last season and tied for eighth best in section history.

The player whose soccer future was in question only months before used his strength and poise around the goal to suddenly become the dominant scorer in the region.

“He’s such a talented player,” Quartz Hill Coach Mike Kuper said. “If he gets the ball anywhere near the goal, you’ve got problems.”

Dibbini has had little problem with his knee, enduring only some pain and swelling soon after he resumed playing. The senior striker still wears a brace but is not hampered by it, and he has continued his statistical onslaught this season, scoring 37 goals in 22 matches.

Medically speaking, all’s well that ends well. But Dibbini did not say goodby to hospitals after the surgery.

Owner of both a 3.5 grade-point average and a desire to be a physician, Dibbini is one of about 80 students in his school’s medical magnet program. The program includes classes in such subjects as anatomy, physiology and microbiology and exposes students to medicine as a potential career.

The students work at one of four hospitals in the Antelope Valley in six-week rotations, twice a week for two hours. Dibbini currently is “job shadowing” in the surgery unit, watching surgeons at work.

“I enjoy watching,” he said. “I’ve seen a Caesarian section, a man with a stab wound, all kinds of things.”

As a first-year student in the program, Dibbini can read vital signs, perform patient charting and is certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“I think Mike has got a great future ahead of him in sports and in fulfilling his dreams of working in medicine,” said Mike Hanlon, the program’s coordinator. “He’s a very sharp kid.

“I can turn him loose in any clinical setting and not have to worry about his professional attitude.”

It was Dibbini’s unyielding attitude that helped him recover so quickly from the injury and from losing 20 pounds while wearing a cast.

Because he was still growing, his torn anterior cruciate ligament was left unrepaired. When he stops growing and his body’s natural healing rate has slowed, Kayvanfar said, Dibbini will need to have the ligament surgically repaired. But at the time, Kayvanfar instructed Dibbini in leg exercises that would strengthen certain muscles to compensate for the injury.

“In my seven years of practice, he was the one that really followed the directions superbly,” Kayvanfar said. “If all my patients were like him, I wouldn’t have a problem.”

Palmdale opponents quickly found out they had a problem when Dibbini embarked on a scoring binge that caught everyone by surprise, including himself.

“I wasn’t planning to keep track of my goals,” he said. Why should he have? He hardly played as a sophomore, paying his dues behind many Falcon upperclassmen.

But he scored four goals in his first match and, suddenly, a scoring race between him and Quartz Hill’s Dale Billodeaux was on. Billodeaux was the established soccer star in the region, and Dibbini was looking to make a name for himself. Both players were scoring machines, but Dibbini, who estimates that half of his goals came on head balls, edged Billodeaux, 44-42.

“I came out and stunned him,” he said with a smile.

Quiet and shy, Dibbini nevertheless proudly shows off his wall of soccer trophies and a scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings, pointing out any article in which his picture is shown or his name appears in a headline.

Though conscious of statistics, Dibbini is no ball hog. He recorded 20 assists last season and has 19 this year. He makes it a point to mention teammate Craig Peck, who assisted on many of Dibbini’s goals.

“They call us the P-D (Peck-Dibbini) Combination,” he says. “He’s a real awesome player.”

That is the consensus regarding Dibbini, as well, and he hopes to get the word out to college coaches. But living in the northern reaches of Los Angeles County--his family moved to Palmdale from Granada Hills in 1988--makes that difficult.

“Nobody comes up here to see kids play, though we’ve got talent,” Quartz Hill’s Kuper said. “I’m actually hoping for an away playoff game so we can get these kids some exposure. Hopefully, Mike will also get seen during the playoffs.”

The Golden League champion Falcons (19-1-2, 12-0-2 in league play) already have clinched a playoff berth, promising increased exposure. But Dibbini is not waiting for coaches to come to him.

“When you live up here, you have to make a soccer resume and send it out,” he said. “I feel good, and I want colleges to find out about me.”

He can take heart. He recently made contact with coaches from UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge. Besides, mere distance probably won’t stop someone who already has come so far.