(This story has been updated)
Bradley Central girls basketball star Chelsie Summars, who underwent two serious operations on her right knee that wiped out her sophomore season, has suffered a third injury that will end her playing career, Bearettes coach Jason Reuter said Sunday via text.
Summars, who helped the Bearettes win district, region and sectional titles en route to the 2013-14 Class AAA state tournament, was injured at the YMCA last week.
“She’s done,” Reuter said in a text message.
In a message posted on her Twitter account, Summars wrote: “I can’t believe I’m done. That’s hard to accept.”
On Monday, Summars’ mother, Ginger, said in a telephone interview that her daughter was at the YMCA for a routine workout that included shooting basketball as a prelude to lifting weights.
“Chelsie said she took a shot and came down on her right leg and it happened,” Ginger Summars said. “It was nothing she didn’t do all of last season, but after examinations it was determined she tore the meniscus in her knee. She’s looking at a third surgery around May 10.
“It’s just heartbreaking. Basketball has been Chelsie’s life for years. A lot of colleges were after her and I feel sure a scholarship was in her future. Now, she won’t get to play her senior year at Bradley Central and it looks like all hopes for playing college ball are over as well. She can’t do anything that involves pivoting, like basketball or snow skiing, things like that, for at least a year or 18 months.”
Summars said her daughter’s local surgeon flew to Pensacola, Fla., to consult with Dr. James Andrews, who performed Chelsie’s second surgery, and come up with a plan to fix the third injury the 18-year-old has had in two years.
“A this point, she has no ACL,” Ginger said. “After looking at all the information, the doctors don’t believe the graphs in the last surgery actually took. This last injury probably could have happened at any time during the season.”
Chelsie expects to be with the Bearettes throughout her senior year, just not on the floor during games.
“She wants to mentor the younger point guards,” her mother said. “Maybe the Lord wants her to be a coach.
Summars’ original injury occurred at an AAU exposure tournament in Brentwood, Tenn., on July 25, 2012. She underwent surgery on Aug. 16, but Summars hoped to be back on the court in January of her sophomore season.
However, in only her second practice after being cleared by physicians to get back on the court, Summars reinjured the same knee.
In December, Summars had a second corrective surgery performed by Dr. James Andrews.
She did not play as a sophomore season and watched the second-half of the season walking with crutches.
Summars returned to the Bearettes for the entire 2013-14 season and her point guard play was an important factor in the team’s key component – 6-foot “Twin Towers,” Brooke Copeland and Rebecca Reuter – spearheading Bradley’s drive to its second consecutive state tournament.
The Bearettes’ season ended with a 53-45 quarterfinal loss to Memphis Ridgeway in the quarterfinals at Middle Tennessee State University.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com)