Monday, March 16, 2020 — 8
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Maddie Nolan’s long road back

It was just an ordinary play.

Maddie Nolan, playing for her AAU 

team in mid-July after her junior year 

of high school, went up for a layup. But 

the result was anything but ordinary.

On the way up, Maddie made 

contact with a defender, causing her 

to land awkwardly on her left leg. She 

immediately went down in pain, the 

possibility of an ACL tear running 

through her mind.

Maddie’s mother, Kris, viewing 

the play from the stands, saw it a 

little differently. Her first thought 

was an ankle injury, possibly a sprain. 

Something not too serious. But when 

she saw that Maddie couldn’t get up 

on her own, couldn’t put any weight 

on her leg, she knew it was worse. 

Much worse.

The Nolans immediately got in 

their car and drove seven hours from 

Kansas City to Zionsville, Indiana — 

their hometown —fearing the worst. 

Maddie’s uncle, a doctor, helped her 

get an MRI immediately when they 

got back.

The initial diagnosis was a torn 

popliteus tendon, which would keep 

Maddie out six to eight weeks. It 

was definitely a setback, but she was 

relieved. She would still be able to play 

her senior season of high school.

But because it was such an 

uncommon injury, doctors continued 

to re-evaluate it. And when they did, 

they found that Maddie was missing 

a chunk of cartilage in her knee — a 

microfracture — which could keep 

her out anywhere between six and 18 

months, depending on the procedure.

“I cried,” Maddie said. “You miss 

your senior season. You miss playing 

with all the kids you’ve grown up 

with. It was really tough.”

Added 
Kris: 
“(It 
was) 
like 

somebody had sucker punched me 

right in the stomach. … Just knowing 

that she wouldn’t be able to play her 

senior year, because she loved her 

high school teammates so much, was 

probably even more heartbreaking.”

***

From a young age, Kris and Henry 

— Maddie’s father — knew that 

Maddie was driven.

When she was five, she played on 

a co-ed youth soccer team. She was 

never afraid to take down the boys 

and do whatever it took to score.

“She was a pretty intense little kid,” 

Kris said.

But she was always destined to 

play basketball. Both her parents 

coached high school basketball and 

Kris played at New Mexico State, 

where she graduated as the all-time 

leading scorer. Dinners were filled 

with conversations about plays and 

days were filled either in the gym or 

watching basketball on TV.

Kris knew that Maddie could be 

something special since sixth grade, 

but it wasn’t until eighth grade 

Maddie started to put the work in.

Zionsville 
hadn’t 
been 
a 

powerhouse in girls basketball for 

a long time — it was long since Kris 

played there and set the all-time 

scoring record. When Maddie was in 

eighth grade, the team won just four 

games. But Maddie wanted to change 

that.

“Maddie’s class came in and they 

were told, ‘Oh, you guys will never 

amount to anything. Nobody wants to 

come to girls games,’ ” Kris said. “And 

Maddie and her teammates, her class, 

are just like ‘OK, watch us.’ ”

Maddie knew freshman year would 

be a challenge. For the first time in her 

life, she was playing against players 

four years older than her, who were 

bigger and stronger. But Maddie saw 

the potential the team had and knew 

her class could change the reputation 

of Zionsville girls basketball. She 

spent hours in the gym after practices 

putting up shots. On Sundays, she 

took Henry’s key to the school and 

shot for hours on end. 

Maddie earned a starting spot her 

freshman year and led Zionsville to 

its first section title in 20 years. Her 

sophomore year, Zionsville won the 

section again.

By the time her junior year came 

around, the college offers started 

coming in. Maddie had interest from 

many power conference schools, 

including Michigan. Her dream of 

playing at one looked like it would 

become a reality.

All the while, Maddie was playing 

the best basketball of her life. She 

averaged 21.5 points per game and 

broke 
Kris’s 
Zionsville 
all-time 

scoring record as it made a run to the 

state championship game. Maddie 

was named to the Indiana all-state 

team. Her basketball career looked as 

promising as ever.

But then came that dreaded July 

day.

***

When Maddie heard the six to 18 

month timetable, her first thought 

was, “Six months and I’m playing 

again.” 

She counted out the days. Six 

months would allow her to return for 

her final regular season high school 

game. There was no doubt in her mind 

she would be back for that game. But 

those six months were difficult.

The 
phone 
stopped 
ringing. 

Schools stopped showing interest. 

Maddie didn’t have many options 

left, and committed to Miami (OH). 

She wouldn’t get to play at a power 

conference school.

“She wanted to be on the big stage,” 

Kris said. “That was her goal, and 

when she got hurt, there were just a 

handful of schools that stuck with her. 

So seeing that dream, at that time, was 

not going to be realized was hard. 

“We just kept saying, ‘Look, you 

still get to play basketball. There are 

a lot of kids who don’t and who won’t 

be able to come back from something 

like this or get a worse diagnosis than 

you had.’ ”

Maddie started physical therapy 

a month after her surgery, but she 

couldn’t do much — she would still be 

on crutches for another month. In her 

first few sessions, she was extremely 

limited. 

“For the first couple times I would 

literally sit on a table, do heel slides, 

trying to see how far I could bring up 

my leg, just kind of flexing my quad, 

getting those muscles back,” Maddie 

said “So it was very limited.”

All she wanted to do was get back 

to playing basketball, but for the first 

few months of her rehab she had to 

essentially re-learn how to use her 

leg. But once she was allowed to put 

weight on it and stop using crutches 

— about two-and-a-half months after 

her surgery — the road back became 

a little bit clearer. Maddie started 

seeing a sport-specific trainer to begin 

basketball activities, in addition to her 

physical therapist.

Once she got back to basketball, 

as limited as it was, Maddie was 

more motivated than ever to make it 

back in six months. When her high 

school season started, and for the first 

time ever she had to watch from the 

bench, it grew even more. There was 

no doubt in her mind she would play 

another high school game.

And 
when 
that 
doctor’s 

appointment finally came, exactly 

six months after her surgery, Maddie 

finally heard the words she had waited 

so long to hear. She was cleared to play 

basketball again.

A couple days later, midway 

through 
the 
first 
quarter 
of 

Zionsville’s 
final 
regular 
season 

game, Maddie checked in. She didn’t 

play much. She limped a lot. She was 

nowhere near the dominant player 

she had been her junior year. But 

Maddie was just happy to be back.

“The smile on her face when she 

went into the game midway through 

the first quarter, that smile could light 

up a dark room,” Kris said.

Adrenaline got Maddie through 

that first game. But for Kris, it was 

the most stressed she had ever been 

watching from the sidelines.

“I could hardly watch that game,” 

Kris said. “Every time she fell down, 

or drove to the basket, I’m covering 

my eyes. It was nerve racking.”

Maddie played in four more games 

her senior year, feeling pain and 

limping in every one. Getting to finish 

out her high school career on the court 

was worth it, and Maddie was excited 

to get the chance to truly return to full 

strength at Miami (OH).

But in April, a coaching change at 

Miami allowed Maddie to re-open 

her recruitment. And when she did, 

her dream of playing at a power 

conference school came back as 

Michigan re-entered the fold. While 

Maddie wanted to commit, she was 

concerned that when she got to 

campus her knee wouldn’t be fully 

healed and she wouldn’t be able to 

play at that level.

“She was still rehabbing and still 

working on strength,” Kris said. “And 

(Michigan coach) Kim (Barnes Arico) 

just believed in her. Kim had seen her, 

knew what she was capable of doing.”

Maddie committed to Michigan in 

May.

Before she got to Ann Arbor, 

Maddie was selected to play on the 

Indiana All-Star team in June — her 

first game action in three months. 

In that time, her knee hadn’t gotten 

much better. She still felt pain. She 

still limped.

“Obviously I was playing,” Nolan 

said. “But I didn’t feel like it was the 

same.”

So 
when 
Maddie 
arrived 
in 

Ann Arbor weeks later, there were 

concerns as to whether she would 

ever be able to contribute at the 

college level. She couldn’t practice 

fully from the start. She didn’t do all 

of the workouts and running, and 

sometimes she didn’t practice at all if 

her knee was hurting too much.

To alleviate the pain and stabilize 

her knee when she played, the training 

staff gave Maddie a bulky knee brace, 

which added about an inch on the side 

of her leg. She had to learn how to run 

with the brace on and how to dribble 

without dribbling off the brace.

Despite all the obstacles, Maddie 

got to work. When she didn’t practice, 

she biked or ran on an Ultra-G 

treadmill. After practice, she worked 

to strengthen her leg. Her thigh grew 

so much over the summer that she had 

to get a new knee brace.

“I got a lot more muscular, which 

I think helped with the pounding 

not as much,” Maddie said. “It’s more 

muscle around my leg so it doesn’t 

hurt as much when I step.”

Even though Maddie saw major 

improvement over the summer, by 

the time the season started she was 

still behind the rest of the team. Early 

in the season, she played sparingly, 

typically only in blowouts.

But as the season progressed, 

Maddie showed more and more in 

practice, and she impressed. By the 

time senior forward Kayla Robbins 

suffered a season-ending torn ACL on 

Jan. 19, Maddie had earned enough 

trust from the coaching staff to take 

some of her minutes.

“She was kind of behind everyone 

just because she wasn’t out there, and 

we didn’t really have an opportunity 

to see her game and see what she was 

capable of doing,” Barnes Arico said. 

“But it was funny because then when 

she started to get out there, little by 

little I’m like, ‘Golly, Maddie’s doing a 

good job. Golly, Maddie’s doing a good 

job.’ And it was quiet. It was a quiet 

way about her that she continued to 

impress.

“She just always seems to be in 

the right place. She doesn’t get sped 

up. For a young kid, for a freshman, 

her understanding of the game is 

incredible. She handles pressure 

well.”

And when starting sophomore 

guard Danielle Rauch broke her hand 

in practice the day before a Feb. 6 

game against Purdue, it was Maddie 

who Barnes Arico called upon to fill 

her spot.

But when Maddie told her parents 

earlier that day she might be starting, 

they didn’t really believe it. They were 

headed to the airport, about to get on 

a plane to El Paso for Kris’s college 

reunion. 

And when they got off the plane an 

hour before the game started and saw 

that it was true, that Maddie really 

was starting, everything else they had 

planned had to wait.

“I’ve got my phone pulled up, we’ve 

got it ready to go,” Kris said. “So we’re 

watching the game on the drive to Las 

Cruces, New Mexico, and then we 

check into the hotel and I’m like, ‘We 

can’t eat or anything until we watch 

this.’ ”

Maddie played 29 minutes that 

game and scored two points. For 

her first few starts, that was the 

norm — she wasn’t an offensive focal 

point. But over time, Maddie gained 

confidence, and made more and more 

of an impact. 

Like in a Feb. 27 win against Penn 

State, when she hit two consecutive 

3-pointers to put the game out 

of reach. Or against Nebraska in 

the second round of the Big Ten 

Tournament, when she scored five 

points in two minutes to break a tie 

and give Michigan a lead it wouldn’t 

relinquish. Or the next day against 

No. 11 Northwestern, when her 10 

second-half points led the Wolverines 

to their biggest victory of the season.

“She’s become an offensive threat,” 

junior forward Hailey Brown said 

after the Northwestern game. “You 

have to guard her. She can take it 

off the bounce, she kind of does 

everything. … She’s a large defensive 

presence as well. She’s definitely a 

strength in our team and opponents 

have to guard her.”

Maddie may never regain the same 

speed or explosiveness that she had 

before. She still has to wear the bulky 

brace. She has to go through intensive 

preparation before each game just to 

be able to play, including cutting off 

80 percent of the blood flow to her leg 

and doing leg presses to strengthen it.

But to Maddie, it’s all worth it. 

She may never be the most talented 

player on the team. She may never get 

back to her pre-injury form. But it’s 

becoming harder and harder to see a 

future for Michigan in which she isn’t 

a key asset.

And if you told her that less than 

two years ago, she would feel lucky.

“When she takes time to reflect 

on what her journey has been, I 

think she’s just very thankful for the 

opportunities that she’s been given,” 

Kris said. “... It just amazes me what 

she’s done. When Dr. Miller told her 

an ACL tear would have been better 

— you hear that and you’re like, ‘What 

did you just say?’ — than to have this 

injury. 

“It’s a chip on her shoulder. That’s 

how she rolls.”

JACK KINGSLEY
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily

Maddie Nolan recovered from an injury that could have kept her out as long as 18 months.

