WOLFVILLE: <\/strong>In November of last year, I suffered my first real injury while playing basketball for the Axewomen.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt was a routine practice, and I cut to the hoop from the short corner and rolled my ankle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve always had bad ankles, so I didn\u2019t think much of it at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After practice, my ankle was still sore, so I went to get an x-ray, and it turned out that I had a small avulsion fracture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was forced to sit out for two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I returned to practice after Christmas and started to get sharp pains in my Achilles tendon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was thought to be Achilles tendinitis, which kept me out of basketball for another month and a half, coming back just in time for the AUS championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a fourth-year forward for Acadia University\u2019s women\u2019s basketball program, I\u2019ve had a lot of ups and downs during my time here in Wolfville, but last year was one of the most difficult seasons I\u2019ve ever experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, thanks to a lot of hard work and help from the people around me, I\u2019ve come back stronger, and I\u2019m looking forward to what we can accomplish on the court this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Positive moments before being sidelined<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nI have so many memorable moments since beginning here at Acadia, but my favourite one has to be winning the AUS championship in my first year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was such an exciting game overall against Cape Breton, we came back from being down, and it was just so thrilling and fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another favourite memory of mine was when we went to nationals in my second year and finished fifth. Although we lost our first game, we bounced back and won the next two, both being such fun and exciting games to play in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I always knew I wanted to go to a small school with a close-knit community that wasn\u2019t too far away from home and had an amazing basketball and academic program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acadia fit this perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I started talking to Coach Len (Harvey), I knew it was where I was meant to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has been the best decision I have made, and I am so grateful for all the people I\u2019ve met here and the experiences I\u2019ve had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The frustration of injuries <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBeing injured last year was incredibly frustrating for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had to sit out a total of 18 games, and it was tough to watch my teammates compete when I couldn\u2019t be out there with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My motivation was pretty simple \u2013 get back to playing as soon as I could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although at times it seemed like the day would never come when I would get cleared, I found a way to enjoy the process and grind out the rehab because eventually, I would be back to playing, and I wanted to be as ready as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s been a few moments since I\u2019ve returned to playing where I\u2019ve felt proud, but my first game back at AUS last year is what first comes to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although that game didn\u2019t go the way we wanted to, with it being my first game back, I felt so relieved and happy to be playing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Back on the court<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe main person who helped me get through these injuries was our team\u2019s athletic therapist, Whitney (Gallant).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was the person I saw the most through my recovery, and she did everything in her power to help me get back to basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was an overall amazing person in my support system during this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The key contributing factor in helping me get through injury rehab was the drive to get back and play as much of the season as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hated missing one game, let alone 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it gave me motivation to work hard in my rehab so I could get back as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s hard to describe how happy I was to be back on the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just felt a huge sense of relief that I was finally healthy again and able to play the sport I love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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A greater perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nMy experience last year changed my perspective in basketball and in life. It reminded me to enjoy every little part of the journey, the good parts and the hard parts, as you never know when something could be taken from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I used to hate certain aspects of the grind, such as conditioning days, but even though they still aren\u2019t my favourite, I\u2019ve come to appreciate them because I get to get better, and who knows when the last time I get that opportunity will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d tell someone who\u2019s going through the same thing I went through to keep pushing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is hard, but it is so rewarding and worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I would also tell them to find a person who they can lean on when they need it because some days are harder than others, and you just need someone to give you that extra push and remind you it\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My biggest takeaway from overcoming the injury was to never take the time to play for granted because, like I said, you never know when the last time you play may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[adrotate banner=”111″] [adrotate banner=”78″] “Being injured last year was incredibly frustrating for me. I had to sit out a total of 18 games, and it was tough to watch my teammates compete when I couldn\u2019t be out there with them. My motivation was pretty simple \u2013 get back to playing as soon as I could.” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[965,21],"tags":[1665,2781,69,986,1667],"class_list":["post-51434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-hants","category-sports","tag-acadia-axewomen","tag-aus","tag-basketball","tag-elmsdale","tag-sarah-delorey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}