One of the scariest acronyms in all of sports is ACL, which stands for anterior cruciate ligament — the most important ligament in the human knee. Every athlete and fan knows a torn ACL is one of the worst possible injuries, as it takes nine to 12 months to recover from.
Utah women’s basketball star forward Taryn Wicijowski knows all too well about ACL tears as she’s torn the ligament in each knee while playing for the Utes.
Coming out of Leboldus High School, Wicijowski was a prized recruit for the Utes. She had led her high school to back-to-back championships in the SHSAA Provincia Hoopla Finals. In addition, she captained the Canada Junior National Team at the FIBA World U19 Championship in 2009. She also played hockey in high school and never sustained a major injury while playing those two physical sports.
In her first year at Utah, Wicijowski made an immediate impact, winning the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year. Heading into her second season, hopes were high for what she, and the Utes, could possibly accomplish.
In the third game of that season, Utah was attempting to upset then-No. 3 Stanford when Wicijowski went for a layup. She planted her right foot first and then when she went to switch her weight over to her left leg to convert the layup, her right knee dove in and she tore her right ACL.
With the tear occurring in November, she was confident she could be ready for the start of the 2011-12 season.
“I didn’t want to believe something so major happened, but I knew it,” Wicijowski. “It felt like my whole knee came off of my body and then went back — it felt like it snapped.”
Two months passed after her ACL surgery and Wicijowski was back under the surgical knife. This time around, it was for a preexisting left shoulder injury.
“Knowing that I was gonna be out for the season, I had surgery on a torn labrum. My shoulder was sliding out every once in a while,” Wicijowski said. “It was something that I could live with, but if I had the chance to fix it, I was gonna take care of it. I got those fixed two for the price of one season.”
Wicijowski didn’t lose the year of eligibility, as she redshirted.
After a tough nine months of rehab, Wicijowski bounced back and took the Pac-12 by storm. She was named to the first team All-Pac-12 team and the media’s version of the All-Pac-12 team. Wicijowski was 10th in the Pac-12 in scoring and fifth in rebounding with 13.2 points per game and 8.7 rebounds per game respectively.
She was feeling no ill effects of the ACL or the labrum.
The following year, Wicijowski was putting up similar numbers, when Stanford rolled into town on Jan. 25, 2013. In the game against the Cardinal, to the dismay of Wicijowski, she tore her meniscus in the same knee that she tore her ACL against the same opponent two years earlier.
“I had surgery like right away, and it actually only took me 10 days after surgery to be back to playing,” Wicijowski said. “They just basically like clipped [the two torn parts together], and it was just about getting the swelling out and then I was good to go.”
Wicijowski only missed three games while recovering from the meniscus surgery. Once she came back, it looked as if she didn’t miss a beat as she scored 13, 19 and 14 points in three of her first four games back.
Five months had passed since her meniscus surgery when Wicijowski would go through her next injury as she tore her left ACL and left meniscus. This time, it wasn’t against Stanford. It wasn’t even a competitive game — it was mid-July, and the Utes were in open gym.
“What’s actually really weird is that I tore both my ACLs doing the same exact movement, just on opposite sides of the basket,” Wicijowski said. “It was a power layup where you just go one, two. It was that first step where my knee dove in.”
Rehabbing an ACL tear once before, Wicijowski was aware of how grueling the rehab process was going to be. But it wasn’t the same — the left knee gave her many more fits than the right one.
“My first ACL wasn’t easy at the time, but looking back, it was pretty easy, like everything went really smooth then. I got back my range of motion and my strength really quickly,” Wicijowski said. “This last ACL really gave me some trouble.”
While Wicijowski was still under the anesthetic, the doctors took x-rays to see how the surgery went. Upon the results, the doctors found that one of the pins they inserted had come out of position. Doctors had to go back in and reset the pin, which gave Wicijowski a big scar that most ACL surgeries don’t come with.
“For whatever reason, my leg didn’t want to straighten. It took me three months to be able to fully straighten my leg,” Wicijowski said. “I had to sit with weights on my leg pushing it into hyperextension. It was really painful.”
But with the injury happening in July of last year, it gave Wicijowski 16 months to rehab for this season.
“Now I feel fine,” Wicijowski said.
Because of her amazing ability to come back from two torn ACLs, two torn meniscus’ and a torn shoulder labrum, Wicijowski was on the court last week against Alaska-Anchorage.
But the game didn’t end without another ACL scare for Wicijowski. Midway through the first half, a player from the Seawolves landed on the outside of Wicijowski’s knee. She went down and couldn’t get up.
“My knee dove in again, and I freaked out,” Wicijowski said.
With tears coming down her face and the whole arena silent, everybody thought Wicijowski had torn her ACL again.
“It hurt at the beginning, but by the time I got to the trainer’s room the pain had wore off,” Wicijowski said. “I knew it wasn’t an ACL tear.”
Despite the game only being an exhibition, Wicijowski wanted back on the court, and she got her wish. The Utah forward hopes she can continue her play the remainder of the season injury-free. Despite what her past may suggest, Wicijowski says she doesn’t think about her injuries while playing and that she’s not injury prone.
“Some things you just can’t control,” Wicijowski said.
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@BenJasarevic