From broken noses to sprained ankles, most basketball players have experienced a laundry list of cuts, bruises, sprains and breaks but Righetti’s Bree Luna knows what it’s like to have a devastating knee injury not once but twice and now in her senior year, she’s showing what it’s like to finish strong.
“Mentally it was hard,” Luna said of tearing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) for a second time.
After tearing her ACL her freshman year, as a junior tore the ACL in her other knee towards the end of January, ending her season.
“I went up for the layup. I came up and I came down and I knew instantly once I heard the pop, I tore my ACL.”
At first, it seemed like Luna’s basketball career was over.
“I really wanted to give up and after the second time I was just like, I don't want to go through the whole surgery, the whole process again," Luna recalled. "I even told my coach I don't think I could do it anymore.”
However, the love for Righetti basketball and support from her teammates and Head Coach Desiree Hitch changed her mind with the mentality that she's come back from that injury before, she can do it again.
“The second time around, I think she knew exactly what to expect with surgery and the healing process," Hitch said. "As soon as she was able to kind of straighten her leg out, she was hitting the gym.”
Senior Makiah Cutliff went through the same thing her freshman year knowing full well the mental rehabilitation is just as important as the physical.
“It's one step at a time," Cutliff explained of the process. "I think if you focus on what you can't do, it gets really overwhelming.“
“Before I had Bree and Makiah, I've never had a player that's torn an ACL, and so that was really tough," Hitch admitted. "To have them both just back playing their senior year and just healthy. I'm so excited. “
Both were sidelined when Righetti won a Division I CIF Section championship in 2021 but now are fighting to be the seniors they once looked up to as freshmen finishing out their careers on a high note.
“I have Bree, Makiah, and I have Martha [Durazo], who's also a senior that were a part of that team and they were able to live through that experience and know what my expectation is,” Hitch said.
According to the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS), ACL injuries are 2-8 times more common in female athletes and re-injury to the same ACL is about ten percent while the risk of tearing the ACL on the other knee is also about ten percent. For Luna, Cutliff and the Righetti Warriors though, the numbers don’t matter, what does is stepping out onto the court with confidence.
“I think we're completely confident," Cutliff stated. "Every time we step on the floor, we know we're going to score. We know we're going to play good defense. We know we're going to facilitate the ball and we come into every game thinking that we're going to win because of our chemistry and our toughness. “
The Warriors are led by their trio of seniors in Luna, Cutliff and Martha Durazo. Last year they lost to Clovis East in the first round of the Division I Central Section playoffs.
