Anita Molina keeps statistics during one of Pima College's soccer matches after suffering a season-ending ankle injury. She had come back to play eight games after brain surgery.

Dean Knuth / Arizona Daily Star

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When she tried to form sentences, "Dah, dah, dah, dah" came out instead. Words like "mall" stuck in her head and she was mute.

Her brain was not functioning normally, but Anita Molina, then 18, continued to push herself in school and on the soccer field for Mountain View High School.

By the end of 2004 when she was a freshman at Pima College, Tylenol could not soothe her pounding headaches. Her hair fell out in clumps when she brushed and washed it. She tripped and bumped into walls. The right side of her face sometimes grew numb.

"I knew something was wrong," said Anita, a Tucson native. "I was just scared to say anything. I thought people wouldn't believe me. I just had that fear of something really being wrong."

It was.

An MRI revealed a golf ball-sized tumor and a 2-inch cyst growing on the left side of her brain. The moments she said she "zoned out" and could not hear others speak or she had trouble talking were actually seizures that lasted less than a minute. The tumor hampered the right side of her body.

Anita turned to her faith and remained positive while at the same time craving a normal life after surgery. For her, that meant scoring goals with her head.

"I believe things happen for a reason," she said.

From MRI to ATV

Anita's aching right knee prompted her to tell her pediatrician everything in January 2005. She worried a torn ligament was jeopardizing her soccer career at Pima College. Her mother, Silvia, urged Anita to tell the doctor.

An MRI revealed the tumor, and surgery was scheduled for nine days later.

"It was a potentially life-threatening situation," neurosurgeon Eric Sipos said.

The tumor stunned Anita — or "Neetz" as she is known — and her family and friends. Her mother said she thought the symptoms, which increased from once a month to twice a day in two years, were the result of her being active in sports and school.

"I thought this is no different from what my two other sons complain about, 'My stomach hurts, my head hurts,'" Silvia said. "A tumor was the last thing I thought it could be."

Hours after the diagnosis, the Molina family and friends met at her grandmother's house. It was unknown if the tumor was cancerous. Anita comforted those who cried.

"So far Dr. Sipos hasn't given me a reason to be concerned, and I'm not going to be until someone tells me it's bad," Anita told her mother.

Anita insisted her dad, Nacho, keep his vacation plans. The whole family headed to the Imperial Sand Dunes near Yuma.

Ever the competitor, Anita was intent on racing her all-terrain vehicle to the top of Competition Hill, a steep climb. It took her five tries.

Anita had to conquer the hill because she "didn't know what was going to happen," her mom said.

Upon returning, Anita withdrew from school and prayed.

During a service at Calvary Chapel, pastor Robert Furrow asked the congregation to pray for the Molinas. Anita felt a warm sensation during the prayer.

"That's good," Silvia told her. "That's kind of like the spirit telling us everything will be fine."

Six-month recovery

When she awoke from the four-hour surgery on Feb. 4, 2005, Anita cried because she thought all of her long, brown hair was shaved off. Sipos instead shaved a small area to make a 3-inch incision above her left ear.

The benign tumor was called a hemangioblastoma. It typically forms a cyst and grows in the central nervous system, sometimes on the spinal cord, brain stem or cerebellum. Less often, it occurs on the parietal lobe, where it slowly grew in Anita's brain. The tumor cells secreted water, forming the cyst.

Sipos drained the cyst and removed the entire tumor. He inserted a metal plate to hold together the bone. Anita swears she can feel a bump but a scar is not visible.

The cause of the noncancerous tumor remains a mystery. Tests ruled out genetics.

"There was an advantage taking it out because it was close to the surface," Sipos said. "That meant removing it didn't require me to disrupt things to get into deeper structures of the brain. That made it easier to recover from."

When Pima soccer coach Kendra Veliz visited her at Tucson Medical Center, Anita was walking around and brushing her teeth.

One of the first things Anita said was, "The doctor says I can maybe play in so many months," Veliz recalled.

"You need to concentrate on getting better," Veliz told her. "You need to concentrate on brushing your teeth right now."

Anita began a six-month recovery at home, sometimes sleeping 18 hours a day. Within two months, she was bouncing a soccer ball on her toes and knees. Nearly five months after surgery, she worked with a personal trainer. She had lost nearly 20 pounds and significant muscle mass.

Cleared to play soccer in August 2005, Anita began practice at Pima.

"I knew that I could overcome something as big as this," Anita said. "I'm not going to let this stop me. It's not going to end my life."

Using her head

Anita was not ready to let go of the sport she had loved since age 7. Her aggressiveness and speed prompted Veliz to recruit her. The forward/midfielder scored 12 goals as a freshman.

"She had one of the strongest shots," Veliz said.

But Anita was not able to display that shot during the 2005 season. She grew winded and developed headaches during practice. Shortly before the first game, Anita told Veliz she would sit out as a redshirt.

"I knew physically I wasn't fit enough," Anita said. "I took that year to recuperate."

She continued to practice, took statistics and cheered at games.

Wearing a red, thick headband to protect her head, she returned to the field this season. Sipos told her to avoid headers — but that did not stop her from scoring two goals off her forehead in a Sept. 23 game. Veliz covered her eyes when she scored the first off a cross; her head was nearest to the ball. It was a reflex.

The goals earned her the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference Player of the Week honor.

Yet, four days later, Anita's season ended. She badly sprained her left ankle trying to block a ball in a game.

Her foot in a red cast, her season was over after eight games. She only smiles when asked about the abrupt end to her Pima career. Named a second-team all-league player, Anita ended this year like the last — on the bench taking stats. The Aztecs' season ended late last week with a loss in a regional semifinal.

Cannot be ignored

Three six-month checkups have shown the tumor has not returned, although there is a small chance it might.

"She's done great," Sipos said. "She's very strong, and being fit and active helps."

Anita takes medicine to prevent seizures — her last one was nine months ago — and she studies longer because she has trouble retaining information. In case of a seizure, Silvia has told her daughter's friends to rub the scar to calm her.

"We have to be smart enough to know it's something we can't ignore," Silvia said.

Anita recently moved out of her parents' house in Marana into a central Tucson apartment with three roommates. She will turn 21 on Tuesday.

She is studying pharmacy at Pima and is considering transferring to the University of Arizona next fall. She hopes to walk on to the UA soccer team.

"As long as you have faith in yourself and especially God, you can basically get through anything you want to," she said. "You should appreciate what you have, the friends you have, the family you have, whoever's there for you.

"God doesn't give you situations that you can't handle."