Kansas City,
02
March
2021
|
11:38 AM
America/Chicago

The Junction City Union: JCHS senior won’t let injuries keep her off the court

By Lydia Kautz 

Senior Andrea Davis’ basketball dreams were temporarily sidelined her freshman year at Junction City High School when she learned she would need to have back surgery to correct scoliosis.

Davis learned she would need the operation after a physical.

The doctor ordered an x-ray. Davis and her parents were referred to Children’s Mercy of Kansas City where doctors determined she needed surgery to correct the curve of her spine.

“I was nervous because I had never really had a surgery before,” Davis said. “I was kind of scared. It was like a lot of emotions hit me at once, because I wanted to play. That was the only thing that I was thinking about was basketball. I wasn’t thinking about the school I was missing — I didn’t care about that part. I just wanted to play. And after he told me that I was going to need surgery and he walked out, I started crying. Because it’s like — basketball is like — it’s everything to me and him telling me that I wouldn’t be able to play broke my heart.”

All this did not keep her away from the hoop.

“Not too long after surgery — a couple months — I started playing basketball outside of the house,” Davis said. 

It took her a full year after surgery to bounce back 100 percent from her operation.

Coming back to her team, Davis said she worried she wouldn’t be court-ready. This mental challenge was her biggest barrier in returning to basketball.

She returned to the court this season and everything was going right — until Jan. 22.

The game was off to a good start, Davis said. She took a shot — a layup — which she made. Davis went to steal the ball from an opposing player, but as she came down her knee buckled outward and then came back in, she said.

She had hoped the injury would be a quick fix — a month’s recovery at most — but after an x-ray and an MRI Davis learned she had fractured her tibia, torn her ACL and sprained her meniscus.

Davis has no desire to undergo another surgery, but she will endure it if she must.

Just because she’s off the court doesn’t mean she won’t be on the sidelines with her teammates every step of the way, doing her best to lead by example even if she can’t help lead her team to victory.

 

Read the full story via The Junction City Union

Learn more about the Sports Medicine Center at Children's Mercy