‘I Owe This Program Everything’: Gracie Bindbeutel Celebrates Return from Injury Ahead of Bedlam Showdown

STILLWATER — Last year, forward Gracie Bindbeutel suffered a season-ending ACL injury five matches into the season.

It was a bit of a here-I-go-again moment considering she also missed out on what would have been her entire sophomore season in 2023 due to injury. That was a significant setback for her and the Cowgirls considering she was an All-Big 12 Freshman who started 17 games in 2022.

“It’s inspirational for not just her teammates, just for all of our staff and everybody around the program,” OSU coach Colin Carmichael said of how she handled the return from injury this time. “She’s just such a positive influence in the group. You know, beyond being a very, very good soccer player, she just brightens your day. She comes in and she’ll smile a lot, she laughs a lot, she kind of brings the place up, livens the place up.”

With most things in life experience seems to help, but Bindbeutel said suffering her second season-ending injury in three years was tougher than the first one.

“It happens again, and it’s kind of a double-edged sword because you know what to expect, but then you also know what to expect, and you know it’s a long recovery and a long journey,” she said. “And then there’s even more doubt of, oh, will I still be the same person, same player that I was before this? So I think it was a little bit harder this time.”

Carmichael and the OSU coaches have slow-played her return a bit, limiting her to 92 total minutes in the first two matches of the season. For context, seven of the other nine two-game starters on the Cowgirls (1-0-1) have played somewhere between 120-180 minutes already.

The goal is to work her up to no restrictions by the Big 12 opener at home against TCU on Sept. 17. However her coaches expect her to take the next step in her comeback season and play increased minutes on Thursday, at 7 p.m. when the Sooners visit for the annual Bedlam showdown.

The timing couldn’t be better for the Cowgirl senior.

“It’s gotten more important to me every single year,” Bindbeutel said of Bedlam. “The coaches tell you how important it is, but I don’t think it’s (realized) until you step out on the field and you are surrounded by a full crowd. … You’re playing for people that went to OSU 20 years ago, people that will go to OSU in 20 years. So it’s a really big deal.”

Oklahoma State dropped the match down in Norman last season 4-1, but that’s somewhat unusual in the series as the Cowgirls are 12-3-2 dating back to 2017. That’s also the year Oklahoma State kicked off its current home-winning streak which stands at seven heading into Thursday night’s match.

Although it doesn’t sound like Carmichael plans on sharing the home winning streak numbers with his team, the head coach emphasized that this is an unusually important game of the season given what Bedlam means to both fanbases and the players such as Bindbeutel who have experience with it.

“I’m very proud of our record in this rivalry,” he said. “I know it’s important to our fans and our university. So I’m very proud of that. I know it’s been pretty lopsided in Stillwater.”

Carmichael also stressed that the Sooners (2-0) have a dangerous team this season. Oklahoma beat Northwestern State 9-0 in its opener before handling East Texas A&M 2-0 on Sunday.

“I mean it’s so early on,” Carmichael said. “I think everybody’s trying to figure out who they are, and so for OU to get nine in that first game, regardless of opposition, was pretty impressive. … It’s hard to prepare for that until you see it.”

Bindbeutel, who has one of the team’s four goals this season, said she’s excited to see what should be a good test of OSU’s defense. The Cowgirls have only given up one goal this season after two matches.

The Sooners were one of the only opponents the senior forward faced last season prior to her injury.

“It feels awesome (being back), and I’ll tell everybody until I am blue in the face that I’m so glad I chose this school,” Bindbeutel said. “Because I don’t think, had I gone through these two injuries somewhere else, I don’t think I would be receiving the same support and encouragement from my teammates and my coaches as I do here. So the fact that they still believe in me enough to start me and play me, however many minutes I can play, is, it means a lot, and it’s just really exciting to be back out there, and I missed it a lot.”

There was never a question that Bindbeutel would suit up again for the Cowgirls. She made sure of that herself in a moment that became very memorable for her head coach.

“At one point during the year, after you know Gracie had been injured and the season started kind of sliding, I’m having a conversation with Gracie and she goes, ‘You know what? I’m definitely coming back,’” Carmichael said. “And I was like, gave her a big hug. I’m like, ‘So happy you’re one of my girls, you’re awesome.’

“And she goes, ‘Coach, we ain’t going out like that,’ you know the way the season went, I was like, I just really respected that, you know, not just her going out like that. It was very much we, the program, you and me. This isn’t how the story ends. So that was a really cool moment.”

That conversation took place in the middle of what became a nine-game losing streak which resulted in the program’s first losing season since 2001.

Although her teammates and coaches still had plenty of battles left, Bindbeutel said that decision and that conversation with her head coach gave her a “light at the end of the tunnel.”

“I owe this program and this university everything,” she said. “I absolutely love it here. So I just wanted him to know that regardless of how we did last year and our record, that wasn’t going to change how I felt about the program and how I wanted us to succeed. … I just wanted to clear up any confusion if there was any, and just let him know that, like I said, we couldn’t go out like that.”