This is not exactly what Ashlee Smith had in mind for her junior season.
All she can do now is make the best of it.
Smith, a 6-foot-1 forward, played every game of her first two seasons at Saint Mary’s College, starting 16 as a freshman and all 31 last year.
The Skyview High School graduate averaged 10.8 points and 6.6 rebounds a game for the Gaels. She is on track for the best shooting percentage in program history, hitting 59 percent of her shots.
She never even missed a practice. And then this.
Landing on a teammate’s ankle during a preseason scrimmage, Smith suffered a bone bruise and partially torn ligaments in her right ankle.
“I partially tore a few ligaments on the outside of my ankle, which wasn’t really the concern,” Smith said. “The concern was the inside ankle where I had a bone bruise.”
Smith is wearing a walking boot for the third time since her injury — this time for a month and a half. She initially hoped to return to play during the season, before the severity of her injury was known.
Now it is.
“Due to an injury to her ankle, Ashlee will not be able to compete and will take a medical redshirt this year,” SMC coach Paul Thomas said.
Training staff “knew it was somewhat bad because it swelled so much so quickly, but I iced it, wrapped it and went to weights,” Smith said. “Then the next morning, they thought that it might have been broken, but the X-ray didn’t show anything.
“I did rehab and tried practicing a little and warming up for a game and it kept swelling so a few weeks later I got an MRI which showed a bone bruise. After that I was in a boot for 10 days, then got a cortisone shot and was in a boot for another seven days. Now I am in the boot for about 4-5 more weeks.”
It was initially hoped that Smith would be able to be on the court for the West Coast Conference schedule, which begins today as the Gaels (8-7) host Loyola Marymount.
She was using a stationary bike, working with resistance bands and doing squats and ladders. She was also running “a little,” she said, but without planting or sudden stops.
“I was getting back into the swing of things pretty good, but I still wasn’t supposed to be planting,” she said. “I was doing a shooting workout with a teammate and just slightly planted and slipped a screen, and just tweaked it again — but it was enough to lose some of the strength I had gained back. It was pretty frustrating because I thought I could do more than my ankle actually allowed me to do, and that is kind of when it set in that I probably wouldn’t be ready to go by the beginning of conference play.”
Once the decision was made to redshirt, she said, the coaches and training staff are taking the time to make sure she is completely healed to return for the 2011-12 season.
“They have put me back in the boot for six weeks, and I have already been in it for about a week or so,” she said. “I should be doing rehab again by the beginning of February.”
In the meantime, Smith works toward rejoining the Gaels on the court.
“It is pretty disappointing to miss the season because up to this point I have not missed a practice or a game,” she said. “But with the team chemistry we have, it isn’t hard to continue to feel a part of the team. After talking with the coaches, trainer and doctor, redshirting was the best idea.”
UW’s Richards Scholar All-America
University of Washington men’s soccer junior forward Brent Richards is one of 12 NCAA Division I student-athletes to be named a First Team Scholar All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
It was the second academic All-America honor for the Camas High School graduate, who was earlier named a Third-Team ESPN Academic All-American. He also earned First-Team Pacific-10 Conference All-Academic honors this year and was named to the NSCAA Scholar All-West Region team.
Richards was a co-captain of the Huskies and led the team for the third-straight season in goals. He earned First-Team All-Pac-10 Honors this year.
Richards will spend the winter quarter studying abroad in Ecuador through a program offered by the Spanish department at UW, with a goal of becoming a fluent speaker of the language. He is blogging about his experience at http://brecuador2011.blogspot.com/.
Academic honor for MSU-B’s Valentine
Montana State-Billings women’s soccer senior midfielder Carly Valentine was named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Scholar All-West Region team.
The Skyview High School graduate was honored for the second consecutive year and is one of only three Great Northwest Athletic Conference players to be so honored.
All three were Yellowjackets players, helping the team earn an NSCAA Academic Team award for having a team grade point average over 3.0.
Valentine was an Honorable Mention winner as a junior. She holds a 3.71 GPA, studying human services.
The Jackets are coming off their best finish in program history this season, going 13-6-1 and winning a first round match in the NCAA Division II Tournament.
CCC honors Troyer
Josh Troyer of The Evergreen State College was named the Cascade Collegiate Conference’s Red Lion Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for Dec. 19-25, the conference announced.
It was the second weekly honor this season for Evergreen High School graduate Troyer, a 6-foot-3 senior guard for the Geoducks.
In the Geoducks’ lone game of the honor period, an 89-82 victory over NCAA Division III foe Pacific (Ore.) University, Troyer had 21 points and six rebounds. He hit 8 of 13 attempts from the field, including 4 of 7 from beyond the 3-point line. He also recorded four steals.
Troyer is now averaging 12.9 points and 4.3 rebounds a game. He is shooting 52.2 percent (71 of 136) from the floor, 47.7 percent (31 of 65) from 3-point range and 77.8 percent (21 of 27) from the free throw line. He has a team-leading 25 steals for the Geoducks (5-10, 2-3 in CCC play).
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