Returning with a purpose

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Whitney Ellenor (Will Huang)One couldnโ€™t ask for a better start to the season.

In her season debut, fourth-year womenโ€™s basketball centre Whitney Ellenor scored 34 points throughout the Concordia Tournament, and was named the โ€œall-star MVPโ€ for Wilfrid Laurier.

โ€œYeah, it wasnโ€™t too bad. I was a little surprised honestly,โ€ Ellenor said regarding her performance. โ€œI didnโ€™t think I would do that well. It was great โ€” just to get my confidence back more than anything.โ€

But before then, Ellenor was in no way in game form at the beginning of the 2013-14 campaign. She spent the entire first half of the season with a walking boot, after breaking her ankle in two places during the preseason.

โ€œFirst, I was on crutches for the first three weeks, no pressure on it at all, and then I spent another two and a half to three weeks in a walking boot. So I was able to walk on it, and then slowly from there I could take the boot off so our trainer could do an ultrasound โ€ฆ for the first while I couldnโ€™t do any pressure on it.โ€

After she started to rehabilitate her ankle, Ellenor was finally able to do conditioning to continue building its strength.

โ€œOnce I was able to put some weight on it we did some balancing exercises; first just standing on my one leg, trying to get the stability back in it, and I would touch the ground in different spots while balancing on that leg. Sitting on a trampoline. [The trainer] would also massage and stretch out my calf because I was having a lot of pain there with everything tightened up,โ€ she explained.

โ€œThen slowly getting on the bike and working on going up on calf raises, slowly getting back into it,โ€ Ellenor continued.

Being out for so long had an impact on the fourth-year centre, who was entering her second full year with Laurier, but she kept herself motivated through time and patience.

โ€œAt first it was a little bit hard, but as soon as [the doctor] said, โ€˜you can walk on it nowโ€™ or any little accomplishment that I had or any little gain was such a big motivator for me to get back on the court. Especially sitting there and watching the girls practice every day, that was so hard for me. I just wanted to be back out there with them,โ€ she said.

And Ellenor made a statement.

Along with her 34 points, she also added 20 rebounds and six blocked shots while capturing all-star MVP for Laurier at the tournament.

โ€œThat was my goal from the beginning,โ€ Ellenor said on returning during the tournament.

โ€œI wish I couldโ€™ve been back sooner, but Jen [Childs, Laurier athletic therapist] and I had to sit down and make a realistic goal that we both agreed would be within my reach. We worked really hard for that.โ€

โ€œI wanted a couple games in before we had to play Windsor so that I wasnโ€™t jumping back into it, for Windsor.โ€

Currently, Windsor sits atop the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) West standings with a stellar 11-1 record. In Ellenorโ€™s 2013-14 season debut against the Lancers, where Laurier lost 73-44, she scored seven points and one rebound while claiming back a starting position.

In a dramatic 74-73 win against the Western Mustangs, Ellenor had four points and two rebounds.

When repositioning her focus, Ellenor had only one thing in mind.

โ€œTo not hurt the team,โ€ she laughed. โ€œI wanted to come in and contribute, even if it was just as little as possible. I really wanted to focus on defence and stopping the post players.โ€


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