SMITHVILLE — Faith Ralph couldn’t imagine life without basketball.
The senior nearly faced that reality before the season even started.
During the G. M. Blackman Tournament in 2009 at Bastrop, Ralph injured her right knee in Smithville’s first game of the tournament.
She said she didn’t think it was too serious, but it was later discovered that Ralph completely tore her ACL and had a lateral and medial tear of her meniscus cartilage.
The injury forced Ralph to miss the rest of the 2008-2009 basketball season, including Smithville’s 16th consecutive trip to the girls basketball playoffs.
“It was the hardest thing,” Ralph said. “When we played La Grange, it killed me that I couldn’t be out there. I knew I wanted to make it back.”
Ralph didn’t skip out on her team after her injury.
She was right there every step of the way on the bench in her street clothes cheering on her “family” for the remainder of her junior season.
Ralph’s family repaid the honor in April, when she had surgery to reconstruct her ACL and meniscus cartilage.
“The entire team was at the hospital the day I had surgery,” Ralph said. “Blakelee (Saunders) was there every day. She was the best nurse anyone could have asked for.”
Ralph spent the summer rehabilitating her reconstructed knee.
It was a process that proved difficult at times and almost made her give up basketball all together.
“I didn’t want to play,” she said. “Two days before practice began, I decided I wasn’t ready to give up basketball. All of us grew up together and played little dribblers together. This is my family.”
Doctors had not cleared Ralph to play when the season started.
That still didn’t stop her from being a part of the Lady Tigers basketball team.
When Smithville started the 2009-2010 season in November, Ralph was right there on the bench in street clothes cheering on her family that is Lady Tiger basketball.
“She’s pretty old school,” said head coach Robin Ramsay. “In this day, you don’t always see a kid want to still be a part of a team after an injury like that. They have so much going on, but Faith is all about the team. She was at every practice and every game.”
Ralph said she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Whether I am playing or not, this is still my team and they are all my friends,” she said. “They sat through all of my pain and were by my side.”
Ralph finally got clearance to play in January and suited up for her first game of her senior season.
Her time is limited and she fights the pain each and every time she steps out on the basketball court.
“It definitely hurts,” she said. “I have to ice my knees and take ibuprofen after every practice and every game, but it’s worth it.”
Ramsay said Ralph is the, “ultimate sixth-man” and couldn’t imagine this team without her.
“There isn’t another player on the bench that’s more ready to play than she is,” Ramsay said. “She brings so much to this team. I know she got frustrated, but she fought tooth and toe nail to get back.”
Ralph now gets to partake in the one thing she missed out on last season – the playoffs.
Smithville will take on West Columbia Tuesday at Rice Consolidated High School. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
The Lady Tigers haven’t made it out of the first round in Ralph’s four years on the basketball team.
For a player that was on the verge of giving up basketball all together, Ralph now says she isn’t ready for it to end.
“I am just enjoying every last minute I have,” she said. “I want us to go further than we ever have.”