Brace yourself ... ... for the feel-good return of Grayslake C.s Andrew Sipes
There was a booming landscaping business to manage, and a screened room on the family deck to build.
There was a room full of children at church to teach, and a woodshop and guitar class to master.
There was even a massive food drive for a local food pantry to organize.
Clearly, Andrew Sipes had plenty to do over the last year. And, well, he had the time to do it.
When basketball is at the center of his world, as it is now that the 2009-10 high school hoops season is on the horizon, Sipes often has little time for much else. But when a catastrophic injury to his right knee abruptly ended his season a year ago next week, the standout Grayslake Central forward suddenly saw his schedule clear.
Oh sure, he was still expected to do hours upon hours upon hours of physical therapy. Rehabbing a torn anterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and medial meniscus, or what is commonly referred to in the medical profession as the "Unhappy Triad," is quite involved.
But even those taxing treatments lasted only so long.
"You know, there are a lot of things you have to give up to play basketball, especially if you play year-round," said Sipes, now a senior. "I used to volunteer at church and work with the little kids and I hadn't done that in a long time. When I got hurt, I figured, 'Well, I can't play. I have a lot more time now. I might as well go back to volunteering at church.'"
Eventually, Sipes also got involved in organizing a food drive for a Lake County food pantry. It was such a success that a semi-truck needed to be called in to take away all the food.
"We kept putting reminder signs out everywhere and we ended up getting like 4,000 bags of food," Sipes said. "That was a lot of food." Sipes also had a lot of lawns to care for last summer. The landscaping business he started with his brother when they were younger was booming and he had 30 lawns a week to mow. Add in the screened room he promised to build for his parents and the classes on woodshop and guitar that he took for fun and Sipes was nothing short of productive in his "down time."
"I had a lot of fun doing all that stuff," Sipes said. "But I'm ready to get back to basketball. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this season turns out."
Sipes isn't the only one.
Everyone associated with the Grayslake Central program is wondering how their boy wonder, the kid who earned a starting spot on the varsity as a freshman and quickly became one of the best players in the Fox Valley Conference, will bounce back from such a serious injury.
In Grayslake Central's third game last season, a Thanksgiving tournament tilt against Rockford Jefferson at Mundelein, Sipes tried a spin move at the free throw line on his way to the basket and his knee inexplicably gave out on him.
He was averaging 21 points a game at the time and had gotten off to a fast start against Jefferson by scoring 8 points in the first quarter.
"I felt like I was at the top of my game then," said Sipes, a 6-foot-3 slasher and banger who is a relentless rebounder and can mix it up in the paint with players of any size. "I was doing personal training back then. I was doing strength and conditioning like crazy. I was playing all the time. I was playing well.
"Now, there are definitely things that I can't do that I used to be able to do and it's like, 'Will I ever get that back? Will I ever get back to the point I was at before I got hurt? Will I ever be the same?'"
Of course, Sipes, who now wears a knee brace when he plays, can't know for sure, but he thinks he has the answer.
Yes, he can get back to his old self. But in time.
Doctors have already told him that he technically won't be 100 percent until he's about 18 months removed from surgery. Even though he was cleared to start practicing sparingly in June, and has been given the full green light now, he's at least another six months from a total recovery.
"There are definitely times when Andrew seems to notice that 'Hey, I used to be able to do this or that and I can't right now and I'm sure that's frustrating," Grayslake Central coach Brian Moe said. "But we're always like, 'You'll get that back.'"
Sipes certainly hopes so. He has goals. Before his injury, he had his sights set on a college basketball scholarship. He still does.
But Sipes, who has made subtle changes to his game - like focusing more on his jumpshot - to tide him over while the range of motion in his knee continues to improve, is trying to be patient. He's decided to let his strong faith guide him through the final challenges of this setback.
"At this point, I'm just giving it all up to God," Sipes said. "If my knee gets a lot better, it does. If I get to play in college, I do. If it happens, it happens."
If not, odds are Sipes will do something else equally fulfilling.
pbabcock@dailyherald.com