Kansan.com reports:
A month ago, Angel Goodrich and Carolyn Davis were sharing the
spotlight that’s shining brightly on Kansas women’s basketball right
now.
Davis was a bona fide All-American candidate, dominating the low post in the Big 12.
Goodrich was the same. Despite two knee injuries since arriving at
Kansas she is leading the country in assists. She is a star in the early
rounds of this year’s NCAA tournament.
For Goodrich, nothing else matters. The team still comes first.
The crowd of media at Thursday’s send off in Lawrence asked her about
her last three games, in each of which she collected 20 plus points.
Like always she directed the question back to her team.
“I just like to be aggressive,” Goodrich said. “If 20 points comes with that than so be it, but I’m going to be aggressive."
Goodrich doesn’t care if the 20 points are hers or someone else’s as long as Jayhawks keep winning.
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Finding the positive in an injury
The Washington Post reports:
If anyone ever found a positive from getting hurt, it’s Tennessee’s Vicki Baugh.
Baugh, a 6-foot-4 senior, tore the ACL in her left knee in February of 2009 and had surgery three weeks later. Less than a year later, she had another operation on the knee and sat out the entire 2009-10 season.
“After I injured myself the second time, I didn’t know if there was any more basketball for Vicki Baugh,” said Baugh, whose second-seeded team plays No. 11 seed Kansas in the Des Moines Regional on Saturday.
Enter Jenny Moshak, Tennessee’s veteran trainer.
“Jenny Moshak is the greatest in the country,” Baugh said. “She told me if you want to continue to play, you can. You can be better than what you were before and I didn’t believe it. But now I do.”
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If anyone ever found a positive from getting hurt, it’s Tennessee’s Vicki Baugh.
Baugh, a 6-foot-4 senior, tore the ACL in her left knee in February of 2009 and had surgery three weeks later. Less than a year later, she had another operation on the knee and sat out the entire 2009-10 season.
“After I injured myself the second time, I didn’t know if there was any more basketball for Vicki Baugh,” said Baugh, whose second-seeded team plays No. 11 seed Kansas in the Des Moines Regional on Saturday.
Enter Jenny Moshak, Tennessee’s veteran trainer.
“Jenny Moshak is the greatest in the country,” Baugh said. “She told me if you want to continue to play, you can. You can be better than what you were before and I didn’t believe it. But now I do.”
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Innovative Technique for ACL Reconstruction Speeds Recovery
Triblocal.com reports:
The benefits of staying active are undeniable, however as more children, teens and adults take part in sports like soccer, basketball, skiing and other athletic endeavors there has also been an associated rise in sports-related injuries.
Injuries to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in the knee have resulted in more than 200,000 ACL surgeries being performed in the United States each year. The ACL is a major ligament in the knee connecting the femur and tibia bones, and helps to control rotational stability of the knee.
While surgical treatments to repair torn ACLs have improved over the last 25 years, a new innovative technique called CoLS, now gives patients an enhanced option with less trauma to the body and stronger reconstructive results.
NorthShore University HealthSystem (NorthShore) orthopaedic surgeon Mark Bowen, MD, is one of the original and now growing number of surgeons in the US performing this technique, which was invented in Belgium and developed in France.
Click here to continue reading.
The benefits of staying active are undeniable, however as more children, teens and adults take part in sports like soccer, basketball, skiing and other athletic endeavors there has also been an associated rise in sports-related injuries.
Injuries to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in the knee have resulted in more than 200,000 ACL surgeries being performed in the United States each year. The ACL is a major ligament in the knee connecting the femur and tibia bones, and helps to control rotational stability of the knee.
While surgical treatments to repair torn ACLs have improved over the last 25 years, a new innovative technique called CoLS, now gives patients an enhanced option with less trauma to the body and stronger reconstructive results.
NorthShore University HealthSystem (NorthShore) orthopaedic surgeon Mark Bowen, MD, is one of the original and now growing number of surgeons in the US performing this technique, which was invented in Belgium and developed in France.
Click here to continue reading.
Alyssa Gratien adjusts to new role
Postbulletin.com reports:
Alyssa Gratien has had to adjust to a new role recently.
It's a good thing the 5-foot-4 point guard from Onondaga Community College (Syracuse, N.Y.) is as tough as they come. After fellow guard Dionna Grant went down with a torn ACL in the NJCAA Region III tournament, Gratien was left as her team's most reliable ball-handler.
"The perfect way to describe Alyssa is, she's one of the fiercest competitors I've ever coached," Onondaga head women's basketball coach Mike Wheeler said. "She sees the floor well in transition, gets the ball inside and makes plays when we need them.
"She just doesn't want to lose and we saw that tonight."
Gratien overcame a slow start Thursday to lead the No. 2-ranked Lazers to a 57-56 victory against Northland Community and Technical College in an NJCAA Division III women's basketball national quarterfinal game at University Center Rochester Regional Sports Center.
Click here to continue reading.
Alyssa Gratien has had to adjust to a new role recently.
It's a good thing the 5-foot-4 point guard from Onondaga Community College (Syracuse, N.Y.) is as tough as they come. After fellow guard Dionna Grant went down with a torn ACL in the NJCAA Region III tournament, Gratien was left as her team's most reliable ball-handler.
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"The perfect way to describe Alyssa is, she's one of the fiercest competitors I've ever coached," Onondaga head women's basketball coach Mike Wheeler said. "She sees the floor well in transition, gets the ball inside and makes plays when we need them.
"She just doesn't want to lose and we saw that tonight."
Gratien overcame a slow start Thursday to lead the No. 2-ranked Lazers to a 57-56 victory against Northland Community and Technical College in an NJCAA Division III women's basketball national quarterfinal game at University Center Rochester Regional Sports Center.
Click here to continue reading.
Coming back from injury: Nerve-racking, but exciting
Argus-Press.com reports:
The story of the 2010-11 girls basketball season may have been the knee injuries that plagued the area.
The 2011 Argus-Press Player of the Year, Durand’s Kristen Long, fell victim to a torn ACL in last season’s district finals. In that way it’s somewhat fitting that the 2012 winner — Corunna’s Payton Birchmeier — came back from the very same injury to put herself at the top.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting to be selected,” Birchmeier said. “It kind of came to me as a shock.”
Birchmeier tore her ACL in the first game last year as a freshman against Mason. She didn’t even play a full half before her season was already over.
“Coming back from an injury is kind of nerve-racking but it’s exciting at the same time because you’re excited to get back on the court,” Birchmeier said. “You just want to show everyone what you can do.”
What she did in 2011-12 was finish third in the Shiawassee area in points per game at 13.2 and scored the most points as the only player to eclipse 300 points on the season. The 6 foot 1 forward also showcased a knack from the perimeter, hitting 22 3-pointers this season.
Click here to continue reading.
The story of the 2010-11 girls basketball season may have been the knee injuries that plagued the area.
The 2011 Argus-Press Player of the Year, Durand’s Kristen Long, fell victim to a torn ACL in last season’s district finals. In that way it’s somewhat fitting that the 2012 winner — Corunna’s Payton Birchmeier — came back from the very same injury to put herself at the top.
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“I definitely wasn’t expecting to be selected,” Birchmeier said. “It kind of came to me as a shock.”
Birchmeier tore her ACL in the first game last year as a freshman against Mason. She didn’t even play a full half before her season was already over.
“Coming back from an injury is kind of nerve-racking but it’s exciting at the same time because you’re excited to get back on the court,” Birchmeier said. “You just want to show everyone what you can do.”
What she did in 2011-12 was finish third in the Shiawassee area in points per game at 13.2 and scored the most points as the only player to eclipse 300 points on the season. The 6 foot 1 forward also showcased a knack from the perimeter, hitting 22 3-pointers this season.
Click here to continue reading.
Haley Steed didn't let ACL injuries hold her back
The Salt Lake Tribune reports:
Haley Steed was done, finished with a college career that had not really begun.
In 2009, for the third consecutive season,
the distraught member of the BYU women’s basketball team was down, pain
ripping through her from yet another torn ACL, a vital ligament in the
knee.
To come back from one such injury is hard
enough. To do it three times, well, "Initially, I thought I was done,"
said the 5-foot-4 guard. "For a month or so, I thought I was not going
to play again.
"I never thought I’d have three healthy years."
Not only has Steed, a senior who technically
has one year of eligibility remaining, come all the way back, she has
been a key component in the Cougars’ (26-6) drive to their first NCAA
Tournament since 2007, a 10th seed playing DePaul on Saturday in
Chicago.
Steed was a freshman when BYU was knocked out
of its last tournament, by Louisville at USC. She was also nursing the
first ACL tear and not available to play.
"I haven’t met a kid in all my coaching and
playing days who has the heart and determination Haley has," BYU coach
Jeff Judkins said. "To go through one ACL is hard, and she went through
three.
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Conventional thought on ACL injury mechanism challenged
Ortho Super Site reports:
Evidence presented at the Orthopaedic Research Society 2012 Annual Meeting has demonstrated the mechanism that causes ACL injury may involve a combination of factors, rather than a single factor.
“Is it just anterior translation that strains and tears the ACL? Is it just knee abduction or that inward motion that tears the ACL? Is it just internal rotation that tears the ACL? Our study demonstrates that each one of these factors can strain the ACL,” study author Timothy E. Hewett, PhD, FACSM, stated in an Orthopaedic Research Society news release.
“But it is the combination of anterior translation, abduction and internal rotation that likely ruptures the ACL,” he added.
Click here to continue reading.
Evidence presented at the Orthopaedic Research Society 2012 Annual Meeting has demonstrated the mechanism that causes ACL injury may involve a combination of factors, rather than a single factor.
“Is it just anterior translation that strains and tears the ACL? Is it just knee abduction or that inward motion that tears the ACL? Is it just internal rotation that tears the ACL? Our study demonstrates that each one of these factors can strain the ACL,” study author Timothy E. Hewett, PhD, FACSM, stated in an Orthopaedic Research Society news release.
“But it is the combination of anterior translation, abduction and internal rotation that likely ruptures the ACL,” he added.
Click here to continue reading.
Second ACL Tear for Megan Buckland
News-Record.com reports:
For Megan Buckland, it’s a dream come true. The 19-year-old High Point native, once one of those screaming kids in the stands, arrived at the ACC women’s basketball tournament on Wednesday as a player for the UNC women’s basketball team.
But it isn’t exactly the way she pictured it.
Buckland, whose team was eliminated Friday, had to sit on the sidelines for her first ACC basketball tournament after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, for the second time in December.
“It’s definitely heartbreaking for me, having to just watch,” she said at a practice. “I haven’t played a full season since my sophomore year in high school. That’s the thing that really gets to me.”
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For Megan Buckland, it’s a dream come true. The 19-year-old High Point native, once one of those screaming kids in the stands, arrived at the ACC women’s basketball tournament on Wednesday as a player for the UNC women’s basketball team.
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But it isn’t exactly the way she pictured it.
Buckland, whose team was eliminated Friday, had to sit on the sidelines for her first ACC basketball tournament after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, for the second time in December.
“It’s definitely heartbreaking for me, having to just watch,” she said at a practice. “I haven’t played a full season since my sophomore year in high school. That’s the thing that really gets to me.”
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Jess Knapp bounced back after ACL injury
CBS Philly reports:
The Penn Quakers women’s basketball team will visit Brown tonight as they come down the homestretch of the 2011-12 campaign. There are just three games left in the season — and in the career of forward Jess Knapp, whose uplifting senior year has made a permanent impression on the Quaker program.
The 5’11″ Knapp missed her entire freshman season after tearing the ACL in her right knee. She was able to bounce back, however, to become a key contributor as a sophomore and a junior.
Then she got her senior season off to a really good start and was playing well early in a game in California against San Diego State on December 30th. That’s when things went off script.
“There was no contact. I caught the ball sort of near the block. Broke through, took a dribble, went to jump stop and on the jump stop – it wasn’t really landing on the jump stop, it was sort of like the power up off of it – and something just went wrong.”
Click here to continue reading.
The Penn Quakers women’s basketball team will visit Brown tonight as they come down the homestretch of the 2011-12 campaign. There are just three games left in the season — and in the career of forward Jess Knapp, whose uplifting senior year has made a permanent impression on the Quaker program.
The 5’11″ Knapp missed her entire freshman season after tearing the ACL in her right knee. She was able to bounce back, however, to become a key contributor as a sophomore and a junior.
Then she got her senior season off to a really good start and was playing well early in a game in California against San Diego State on December 30th. That’s when things went off script.
“There was no contact. I caught the ball sort of near the block. Broke through, took a dribble, went to jump stop and on the jump stop – it wasn’t really landing on the jump stop, it was sort of like the power up off of it – and something just went wrong.”
Click here to continue reading.
Kennedy healing after ACL injury
NorthJersey.com reports:
Erika Brown’s comeback is an incredible testament to her will and desire to get back on the court just five months after ACL surgery.
And Kylla Champagne was playing at a Player of the Year-type level before she went down with an ACL injury last month.
But the one constant for Kennedy in the midst of the debilitating injuries has been the four key players that have been there all season through the highs and lows.
And the Lady Knights are on a high right now.
Fifth-seeded Kennedy defeated No. 9 Ridgewood, 54-40, in the North 1, Group 4 semifinals Saturday at Kennedy.
“It’s been crazy with our two stars injured,” Kennedy senior guard Ahnyyah Jackson said. “But we’ve fought through the adversity, and grew closer together.”
Jackson, guards Morgan Taylor and Koryn Lawrence-Barrett and sophomore forward Diamond Singletary each have picked up their games this season to help the Lady Knights make a run to their second consecutive sectional final.
Click here to continue reading.
Erika Brown’s comeback is an incredible testament to her will and desire to get back on the court just five months after ACL surgery.
And Kylla Champagne was playing at a Player of the Year-type level before she went down with an ACL injury last month.
But the one constant for Kennedy in the midst of the debilitating injuries has been the four key players that have been there all season through the highs and lows.
And the Lady Knights are on a high right now.
Fifth-seeded Kennedy defeated No. 9 Ridgewood, 54-40, in the North 1, Group 4 semifinals Saturday at Kennedy.
“It’s been crazy with our two stars injured,” Kennedy senior guard Ahnyyah Jackson said. “But we’ve fought through the adversity, and grew closer together.”
Jackson, guards Morgan Taylor and Koryn Lawrence-Barrett and sophomore forward Diamond Singletary each have picked up their games this season to help the Lady Knights make a run to their second consecutive sectional final.
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Building the Modern Athlete
ESPN reports:
"Performance Analytics," an MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference panel of John Brenkus, Mike McCann, Kevin Pritchard, Angela Ruggiero, Mark Verstegen, and moderator Peter Keating, says that while our understanding of the athletic body is fast-progressing, there are, and will continue to be, hurdles.
The issues, surprisingly, are more scientific than moral.
The central conflict comes between a player’s right to privacy and the team’s imperative to get as much actionable information about them as possible. Genetic testing that identifies predispositions to, say, ACL tears or inflammatory conditions, could help the team better identify risks and help the player avoid them. But it would also leave players at a disadvantage in contract negotiations and draft positioning.
Genetic testing also can create some red herrings. Brenkus pointed out that predisposition to a condition and actually having a condition are two different categories: Someone with a predisposition to ACL issues might have trained and strengthened their ligament to the point that the predisposition was mitigated or completely wiped out. In this case a monomaniacal focus on genetic markers can lead a team astray.
Click here to continue reading.
"Performance Analytics," an MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference panel of John Brenkus, Mike McCann, Kevin Pritchard, Angela Ruggiero, Mark Verstegen, and moderator Peter Keating, says that while our understanding of the athletic body is fast-progressing, there are, and will continue to be, hurdles.
The issues, surprisingly, are more scientific than moral.
The central conflict comes between a player’s right to privacy and the team’s imperative to get as much actionable information about them as possible. Genetic testing that identifies predispositions to, say, ACL tears or inflammatory conditions, could help the team better identify risks and help the player avoid them. But it would also leave players at a disadvantage in contract negotiations and draft positioning.
Genetic testing also can create some red herrings. Brenkus pointed out that predisposition to a condition and actually having a condition are two different categories: Someone with a predisposition to ACL issues might have trained and strengthened their ligament to the point that the predisposition was mitigated or completely wiped out. In this case a monomaniacal focus on genetic markers can lead a team astray.
Click here to continue reading.
Natasha Kelley inspiring her team from the sidelines
The Oklahoma Daily reports:
College has been a roller coaster for Natasha Kelley.
She spent most of her OU career fighting back from serious injuries and even competed an entire season without an ACL.
After suffering another season-ending injury in November, Kelley reluctantly retired from gymnastics.
But her impact still can be felt every day on the OU women’s gymnastics team.
Following her announcement, the team decided to dedicate this season to her, something senior Megan Ferguson said has been a huge help.
“All year, it’s been, ‘Do it for Tash,’” Ferguson said. “I think that’s kind of been driving us toward our goals and helping us.”
Junior Brie Olson said she hopes the decision is helping Kelley deal with the premature end to her career by taking some strength in what her teammates are accomplishing because of her impact.
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An injury won't stop Jess Knapp
Philly.com reports:
HOBBLING OFF the floor on Dec. 30 against San Diego State, Penn senior captain Jess Knapp didn't need a doctor to know that she had torn her left ACL.
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A defensive stalwart at power forward for the Quakers, Knapp had already lost her freshman season to an ACL injury to her right knee. She was intent on not letting it happen again.
"It was only nine games into my last season and my freshman year was taken from me," Knapp said. "When this happened, I was finally hitting my stride, so I said there is no way - I can't go out on this note."
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Learning to love the game again after injury
NewsOK Reports:
For as long as she can remember, softball has been a part of Megan Blevens' life.
Blevens started playing at age 3. By 9, she was on a competitive team.
“We were traveling from state to state to state to state,” the Little Axe senior said. “Pretty much all of my time was spent playing.”
By the time her sophomore fastpitch season rolled around, Blevens could see a possible quick end in sight.
She wasn't having fun on the field, wasn't enjoying all the time she could be dedicating to other — new — things, spent on those weekend trips to play a sport she was growing tired of.
But in a basketball game in January 2010, things changed.
She was playing defense and came down funny.
“My body went one way and my leg went the other,” Blevens said.
Her anterior cruciate ligament was torn.
Her slowpitch softball season was lost.
Click here to continue reading.
For as long as she can remember, softball has been a part of Megan Blevens' life.
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Blevens started playing at age 3. By 9, she was on a competitive team.
“We were traveling from state to state to state to state,” the Little Axe senior said. “Pretty much all of my time was spent playing.”
By the time her sophomore fastpitch season rolled around, Blevens could see a possible quick end in sight.
She wasn't having fun on the field, wasn't enjoying all the time she could be dedicating to other — new — things, spent on those weekend trips to play a sport she was growing tired of.
But in a basketball game in January 2010, things changed.
She was playing defense and came down funny.
“My body went one way and my leg went the other,” Blevens said.
Her anterior cruciate ligament was torn.
Her slowpitch softball season was lost.
Click here to continue reading.
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