Playing on a torn ACL and meniscus in her left leg, Rutherford’s Kristen Wernicki has averaged eight points in the four games since she returned to the court. (Photo: Michael Karas/NorthJersey.com)
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Wernicki’s steady leadership on the court is just what a young Rutherford team needed.
“That’s what I think made the biggest difference,” coach Ed Guy said. “Not the points and rebounds and stuff. Just her being there and talking to them.”
Few people thought this would be possible.
Wernicki said she knew she tore her ACL as soon as it happened. She jumped to make a hit and stepped on another player’s foot when she landed.
Her knee twisted. She heard the pop.
“You could tell,” Wernicki said. “I couldn’t walk.”
After an MRI confirmed Wernicki’s assumption, surgery initially was scheduled for Dec. 19.
But Wernicki has never planned to play sports in college, and this is her senior year.
Surgery could wait.
“I’m not going to sit out for my senior year,” Wernicki said.
Her doctor tested her range of motion. He determined that if she wanted to, she could play after two weeks of physical therapy.
“What I mostly did was try to get my quad stronger to compensate for my ACL not being there,” Wernicki said.
Wernicki refused to take it lightly or favor her leg. She pushed herself to the limit, and implored her therapists to do the same.
“I told them we need to make it more intense because if I’m going to be playing basketball, how much more intense can that get?” Wernicki said. “I was trying to prepare myself to play.”
The competitive fire that makes Wernicki a stellar athlete, the same determination and dedication she shows in games, precluded her from taking anything easy.
When she wasn’t in therapy, Wernicki focused on walking without limping. She even stopped using the elevator at school.
“If I keep babying it and not walking on it, it’s just going to get stiff,” Wernicki said. “You need to stretch it. You need to keep walking.”
Until she could return to the court, she took on an active role as essentially an assistant coach on the bench.
But that was only a temporary position.
Now that Wernicki is playing again, she’s had to adjust her playing style somewhat. Always a quick and scrappy player, that hasn’t been easy for her to do.
“I used to play on top on the press, which is running back and forth, sprinting, and jumping,” Wernicki said. “Now I’m on the second line. You have to read where the people are. You don’t really have to sprint that much.”
The pain hasn’t gone away completely, and her knee still gives out at times. She ices it after each practice and game.
At this point, though, nothing will stop her.
“I have to contain myself,” Wernicki said. “It’s hard to do that, because that’s not really who I am.”
Email: iseman@northjersey.com
