DRAGON ATHLETICS
News
Long journey
Heath Hotzler, The Forum
Published Friday, November 02, 2007
The loud pop seemed to fill Alex Nemzek Fieldhouse.
Minnesota State Moorhead guard Blake Strouth swears he heard it from several feet away. Dragons coach Stu Engen heard it, too.
The sickening sound originated from 6-foot-9 center Kyle Nelson’s right knee.
Yelps of agony followed as Nelson lay on the hardwood squirming with a familiar throbbing sensation pulsing through his leg.
This moment, the third major knee injury of his college basketball career, was the end of the line. Everyone knew it. Nobody could find it in them to say it.
“I really started thinking that this could have lasting effects on me past basketball,” said Nelson, who will return to the Dragons for his fifth season despite his checkered medical history. “I was pretty heartbroken after that third one. I was past ground zero.”
Nelson, a May-Port-CG High School graduate, was surprisingly upbeat when he blew out his knee five games into his freshman season.
He took it in stride when he was forced to redshirt as a sophomore when doctors diagnosed him with another shredded knee and a pair of stress fractures in his foot.
However, injury No. 3 was devastating.
For a third time, Nelson expected he would need to endure surgery.
He flashed back to the bolts of pain he had for weeks after previous encounters with the doctor’s knife.
Then came the memories of the struggles to re-learn how to walk, run and jump.
It wouldn’t be worth it to attempt another comeback, he thought.
“We definitely shed some tears,” said Strouth, a senior and Nelson’s roommate. “It was definitely one of the lowest points in his life. We sat down and talked in his room and he only thing he could say was, ‘I’m done, man. It’s over.’”
But a funny thing happened on the way to Nelson’s retirement.
When the swelling subsided, doctors discovered Nelson’s knee wasn’t as badly hurt as initially thought.
The MCL would heal on its own. Nelson wouldn’t need surgery.
Nelson battled to make it back for the end of the season.
He finished with 4.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 10 minutes per game in 11 appearances.
“He was one of the hardest kids to lose,” Engen said, “because of what he’s gone through and what kind of kid he is.”
Nelson didn’t have to come back this season. No one would blame him if he walked away.
After all, his comeback story was complete. He finished the season on his own terms, completing his only goal after falling to the floor last year.
But he said he couldn’t abandon his teammates. He wanted one last run with fellow seniors Strouth, Lee Isaacson and Craig Williams.
“He said he wanted some time to think about (coming back) after the season,” Engen said. “But once he came back for the end of the year I knew he’d be back for his senior season. A lot of it has to do with those other guys. He didn’t want to leave them hanging.”
Nelson will likely provide the Dragons with a strong defensive presence and a burst of energy when he’s on the floor.
And the competitive drive remains, despite the constant reminder of his knee’s frailty in the form of an ever-present black knee brace.
“I’m very nervous and very excited,” he said. “We had an exhibition against Jamestown and no one was in the gym. I had butterflies as if it was my first game as a freshman.”
Exhibition
MSU Moorhead at NDSU
- When: 7 p.m. today
Readers can reach Forum reporter Heath Hotzler at (701) 241-5562.
Hotzler’s small college blog can be found at www.areavoices.com
