2011 First team All-MAAC attackman and the League’s Rookie of the Year Shayne Adams talks about his recovery from a knee injury.
Watching my teammates take the field on May 8 for the MAAC finals may have been one of the toughest things that I have done in my career as an athlete. Of all the sprints, stairs, and 6 a.m., workouts that we as a team had been put through could not compare to the feeling that I was going through as my best friends laced up their cleats for the biggest games of their lives.
On May 6 I had found out that with 10 seconds left in the game, I had torn my ACL and that I would be held out of Sunday’s championship contest. This was heart breaking to me, but my teammates picked me up with various text messages and visiting my hotel room all night. They pulled through for me when I was down and on Sunday’s game, I wanted to do the same for my brothers. I did not want my injury to slow our team down anymore than it already had. I wanted to be the spark that they would need to beat a tough Siena team. It did not end the way that we wanted, but as a team this will make us even more motivated to get the MAAC championship next season.
Putting the 2011 season behind me, I knew that I had a long way that I needed to go before I could return to the field. My road to recovery started on May 24 at 7 a.m., as I had reconstruction done on my left knee for a torn ACL and meniscus. I had the support from my Detroit family throughout my whole surgery process as Coach (Matt) Holtz, Coach (Chris) Kolon, Coach (Nick) Wilson and my trainer Mike Miller were all in attendance from what I could remember when I woke up from surgery. Just knowing that I have the support from not only my family back home in St. Catharines, Ontario, but from my family right here in Detroit really motivated me in the healing process.
After returning home from surgery for a little over two weeks, I returned to UDM to start my physical rehab on my knee. I am in the training room five days a week, a little under two hours each day working on getting my knee back to game form. I am now in my sixth week of rehab at the school and am walking and recently been removed from my brace. These are just baby steps in my road to recovery but they are steps. I am now cleared to train with our strength and conditioning coach Nick Wilson and this now gives me a chance to work on getting myself stronger for the upcoming season. Coach Wilson does a tremendous job working with our team and puts us through grueling workouts that really get us prepared for the upcoming season. I am continuing the work on my knee confident and motivated that I will be hitting the field 110% in February with my teammates by my side with one thing on our mind, the 2012 MAAC championship.
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