Amanda Drake '20 Recruiting Profile

This section is supposed to fill people in a little more about who I am, describe my attributes that aren’t stats and other facts. If anything describes me best, it’s this story.

4 years ago, I was 13. I was participating in a basketball camp put on by my high school, in the summer between 7th and 8th grade. I was going up for a layup during a scrimmage, and while I was in the air coming down from my release, mine and my defender’s body collided in the air, changing my landing. I landed on my right heel, my entire leg stick straight. I bounced off of it, and landed on the floor, with an initial shot of pain, and then this weird feeling set in around my knee. Not exactly painful, but different. After a few minutes of sitting out, I went back in, and it felt funny. No big deal, I thought. Camp ended, and a few days later I went off to an annual sleep away camp held at a local college. Each day at camp, we’d be on the court for around 10 hours or so. By the second day, my leg hurt like something I’ve never felt before. I lived off ibuprofen, and called my mom. She told me not to worry, that we’d get it looked at when I got home. I tolerated it for the rest of camp, taking ibuprofen again the instant the last dose had worn off, and went to the trainer to get ice during the afternoons. 4 days and 44 hours in the gym later, I went home. The doctors couldn’t find a problem on the X-rays, but sent ordered an MRI to be safe. The results:

Vertical fracture of the tibia

Edema of the medial femoral condyle

That fall I had taken two weeks prior, and shrugged off, had broken, bruised and flattened 2 bones in my leg, and I proceeded to play for 2 weeks, through pain, aches, and never stopped.

This is the kind of effort you can expect from me each and every day. There’s a saying, that certain people will run through a brick wall for their team, and I would hope that I would fall into that category.