Adversity strikes again

Kaitlyn McCollum glanced at her crutches and smiled when asked about the exotic pink and black zebra duct tape covering them.

“They used to be hot pink,” she said.

Might as well have a little fun and dress them up as much mileage as she gets out of those otherwise dull gray aluminum supports.

McCollum suffered her fourth anterior cruciate ligament tear in as many years Dec. 21, 2011, during Statesville Christian School’s holiday tournament game in Huntersville against host SouthLake Christian.

Coincidently, Huntersville is also home to her orthopedic specialist’s practice.

“We should have our own wing in OrthoCarolina,” Pam McCollum, Kaitlyn’s mother, said half jokingly.

Statesville Christian trailed by as many as 20 points versus SouthLake but rallied to within striking distance on the strength of back-to-back 3-pointers from McCollum, a shooting guard. Near the 3-minute mark, while backpedalling, she attempted to stop and dive on the floor for a loose ball.

She planted her right foot, “but the left kept going,” McCollum recalled.

The awkward leg shift reduced the remainder of her senior season to a supporting role – cheering on the Lions (9-5) from the sideline. She wears a black brace around her surgically-repaired left knee.

McCollum played in the Lions’ first 12 games. She was among the top three on the team in essentially every statistical category and averaged around 15 points per game while shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc.

“I lost an all-around player,” Lions coach Derone McNeill said.

The previous three ACL tears were in her right knee.

Her series of misfortunes began as an eighth-grader after helping Brawley Middle capture the 2008 Iredell-Statesville Schools middle school championship. McCollum hurt her knee during a YMCA pickup game.

She reinjured it in 2009 during the N.C. Amateur Athletic Union state tournament.

McCollum transferred to Statesville Christian from Lake Norman in 2010, her junior year. Further discomfort in the knee led to another doctor’s visit and a similar diagnosis.

Surgery and rehabilitation followed each setback.

“She came back fighting each time,” her mother said. “I think this one hit her a little bit harder because it’s her senior year.”

Aided by encouragement from family, friends and coaches, McCollum refused to give up when others probably would.

Basketball means that much to her.

“It’s hard to face that it’s happened so many times, but then again I don’t want to let it get me down because I still want to play. I’ve played basketball since I was about 5,” McCollum said, noting the different levels, including outside of school. “I never had a break. It became my life, and I couldn’t imagine my life without it.”

That attitude prevented her circumstances from diminishing her desire to play college basketball.

McCollum’s recovery period, she said, is expected to extend into July, shortly before she begins her freshman year at Coastal Carolina University, where she plans to study marine biology. McCollum hopes for a shot to be part of the Chanticleers women’s basketball team.

“I want to strengthen and maybe I can make the practice squad at first,” she said. “Then work harder and maybe get to where I can play on the team.”

Marveled by her resilient nature, McNeill doesn’t doubt McCollum’s willingness to conquer that ambition.

“I’ve never met or had the opportunity to work with a kid who has the resiliency and the drive to play this game like she has,” he said. “Even after the injuries she’s sustained.”