By Dustin Evans
The Shorter Lady Hawks basketball team lost freshmanAbby Stell this past season before a single game was ever played.
Stell was injured during the team’s third practice back and has been sidelined from the action since the injury. Her injured right knee was examined, and the doctor discovered that she had torn her ACL. This news affected Stell and the Lady Hawks as she would be out the entire 2012-2013 season.
However, she stayed positive about the injury. She began looking for ways to get back on the court.
“I knew that even though I tore my ACL, I could still play again eventually. I just needed to take care of myself and do the proper physical therapy to get back,” said Stell.
When the injury happened, the Shorter training staff was right there to examine her knee. The first to get to Abby Stell was trainer Josh Tucker. He knew the injury was severe.
“When I examined Abby’s knee, I knew she had damaged her right knee pretty severely. I stayed calm though and told her we would get a better look at her knee before anything was diagnosed,” said Tucker.
Despite the fact that Stell has injured her knee, she is taking strides to get back on the court and is preparing to return to action next season. She has had surgery on her torn ACL and is now doing physical therapy to help get the injured knee back to full strength.
Her older brother, Ben Stell, also a student-athlete here at Shorter, is very proud of his sister’s determination and fight to get back on the court.
“My sister is working hard to get back on the court and watching her work so hard just shows me how much she loves the game of basketball,” said Ben Stell.
Abby Stell has high expectations of returning to action next season and is hoping to be cleared to play sometime this summer. She still has several weeks of physical therapy left, as well as getting back into the physical shape to be on the court for next season.
“I know I have a lot of catching up to do since I’ve been on the sideline for so long, but I feel pretty confident about being able to play at my full potential again. I just can’t wait to be cleared to play and be back on the court with my teammates,” added Stell.
