Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Lindsay Wahl Back with a vengeance
 UW-L junior Lindsay Wahl has worked diligently to recover from tearing an anterior cruciate ligament in 2005. Not only is Wahl playing again; she is averaging 12.4 points and a team-high 4.9 rebounds a game for the Eagles. Erik Daily photo |
It had happened to too many of Lindsay Wahl’s teammates. And when it happened to her, it was every bit as bad as she imagined it would be.
Wahl never will forget the agonies that come with tearing an anterior cruciate ligament. The ‘pop’ she says everyone hears when it happens. The doctor telling her she faced surgery and lengthy rehabilitation on her damaged right knee. The long 2005-06 season of discontent sitting on the UW-La Crosse women’s basketball team’s bench as her teammates moved on without her.
“It was pretty traumatic,” Wahl said. “You don’t think you’re ever going to go through something like that. But I went through it.”
Wahl is reliving a trying time in her basketball career as she sits in Mitchell Hall before a recent practice. At the same time, the 6-foot-1 redshirt junior forward/center also thinks about friends who also tore their ACLs. Some, like former UW-L teammate Nicole Palmer, came back from the injury just fine. But Shawna Koss, another former UW-L teammate, never did.
Of course Wahl had moments of self-doubt, as did all her friends when they were struggling with what was a devastating injury. But the best lesson she learned, and still lives by today, is to just play and not wonder if, or when, it might happen again.
“Getting through an injury like that takes a lot of mental toughness. You’re not going to see a lot of progress right away. You have to hope you’re doing the right things,” UW-L coach Lois Heeren said.
“For Lindsay to stick with her rehab and keep working hard speaks well of her as an individual. ... She’s a very competitive individual. It’s hard to stop her.”
Long road back
One of Wahl’s signature moves in the post is the power dribble. She says the move, one in which she slams the ball on the court with both hands before turning and driving to the basket, is to prevent an opponent from forcing a turnover.
Wahl shows no trepidation under the basket. That’s why she’s averaging 12.4 points and a team-high 4.9 rebounds a game as the Eagles (10-10, 5-6) head into Wednesday’s WIAC contest at UW-Platteville. It’s why she’s averaging 15.7 ppg since Dec. 29, a stretch in which UW-L has gone 7-4.
“I know she wants the ball, and I know she wants to put it in for me,” UW-L senior point guard Ashley Wagner said. “We have a(n unspoken) thing together: ‘I’ll get you the ball and you’re going to put it in.’ ”
Any hope Wahl had to forge a good relationship with her teammates during the 2005-06 season ended on July 11, 2005. That was the day she tore her ACL, and also sprained her medial collateral, lateral collateral and posterial ligaments while cutting to the basket in a Twin Cities summer league.
Wahl’s surgery on Aug. 5, 2005, repaired her damaged knee, but it couldn’t fix the ache in her stomach that never left her during the season. The Eagles started 13-0, and finished 19-8 and reached the WIAC Tournament semifinals.
“I really wanted to play,” Wahl said. “I was happy for my teammates, but it was so hard to watch them. I wish I had been a part of what happened that year.”
Instead, Wahl’s life consisted of five days a week of rehabilitation that lasted well into 2006. It consisted of enduring an up-and-down sophomore season in which she averaged 4.7 points and never found her rhythm. And it consisted of wondering if she ever would return to form, something Wagner believed was inevitable.
“(Wahl) was really upset about the whole situation. But she loves basketball,” Wagner said. “I knew she would come back and be fine.”
Tribute to her friends
Wahl knows so many people who have experienced her pain. Colleen Boell, one of Wahl’s teammates at Burnsville (Minn.) High School, was being recruited by the University of Minnesota before she tore her ACL. Boell ended up playing at Bemidji State for two seasons.
Wahl wishes neither she nor any of her friends ever had to go through what they did. But she realized if they could make it, then she could, too.
“I watched all my teammates that have torn their ACLs get back in the game again and progressively keep on working harder and harder. Even though things didn’t always go their way, they kept being persistent,” Wahl said.
“I knew it would be hard and long process (for me). But I knew eventually I’d get there again.”
Kirk Bey can be reached at (608) 791-8414, or at kbey@lacrossetribune.com.
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