The Injury Waiting Game

CARL FONTICELLA

Ohio sophomore forward Jason Carter celebrates on the bench after a big play in the second half of the Bobcats' 73-66 loss on Friday, Janaury 26.
Carter is out for the remainder of the 2017-18 season due to a foot injury.

02.15.18

Watching — and waiting — proves most difficult part of recovery for injured Bobcats

Jordan Horrobin / Staff Writer

Ben Vander Plas admits he’s dozed off for brief moments. Jason Carter has, at times, resorted to juggling tennis balls. James Gollon, when it was his turn, stopped traveling for road games and stuck his nose deeper into his studies.

There’s only so much a player can do while waiting out a long-term injury. Ohio knows this all too well.

Returning scholarship players have missed 27 combined games this year due to injury, as well as countless practices. A pair of injured freshmen inflate those numbers even more. The result is scrambled lineups and thin game rotations, which have contributed to the team’s last-place standing in the Mid-American Conference.

The hardest part of recovery, as players will say, is the helplessness of watching from the sideline.

“I would expect us to be a lot more pouty than we are right now,” coach Saul Phillips said in regard to his team’s position in the conference. “The only guys that get long in the face are the guys that can’t be out there practicing.”

After a practice in early December, Carter said he couldn’t recall a time since childhood that he’d spent more than a few weeks off a basketball court. That’s why, in his return from a lower right leg injury that kept him out the first month of the season, he was eager for the wait to be over.

“That’s what that month of no basketball will do to you,” he said at the time. “You’re just like, ‘All right, I’m just happy to be back out here.’”

But on Dec. 16 — just three games later — Carter was back on the bench wearing a walking boot. He had a stress fracture.

The team hasn’t made an announcement, but Carter, a preseason all-conference pick as a forward, appears to be shut down for the season and in position to receive a medical redshirt. Now, when he isn’t taking part in shooting drills and the occasional juggling, he can only watch.

For someone who is used to playing virtually non-stop throughout the year, that’s tough to do.

“Especially in those games that are close and you can’t be out there helping the team,” he said in December. “But it (has) helped me in just learning how much I miss the game.”

For Vander Plas, Carter’s roommate, the wait is over — to some extent.

Vander Plas, a forward, broke his tibia on a spin move during an open gym in the second weekend of September.

He spent two months wearing a hard cast and using a scooter to motor around, then began his rehab process by stretching with bands and doing balance exercises. Shooting drills, squatting and sprints followed, until he finally returned for his first full practice on Jan. 15.

Ohio has played nine games since then — all without Vander Plas. As with Carter, there has been no announcement from the team about Vander Plas’ situation, but it’s a near-certainty he, too, will be redshirted.

Under that assumption, his time off the court had less to do with an inability to help the team and more to do with an inability to help himself. He is a freshman, after all, who needs time to acclimate to playing at the college level.

“Everyone else is in midseason form, and I’m still recovering from an injury,” Vander Plas said. “It’s definitely a challenge. Yeah, I put some pressure on myself, but it’s all good. Just pushing me to get back and work the hardest to get as good as I can right now.”

“It’s kind of like when you have people around you who are also hurt, it helps you a lot. Because you kind of help each other out and motivate each other to get through it and push through it.”- James Gollon, a redshirt sophomore guard

Another freshman who had a late start to the season is forward A.J. Gareri. He injured his shoulder in late July, had surgery in October and worked his way back to full health by mid-December.

At its worst, Gareri’s injury prevented him from raising his hand above his head. But since his first full day of practice Dec. 14, he’s played in 10 of Ohio’s 16 games.

Players seeking someone with a light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel mindset should look no further than Gollon, a redshirt sophomore guard, who has found his way into the regular rotation after an injury-stricken season last year.

Last spring and into the summer, Gollon had two surgeries in a three-month span. He knows injuries can be isolating when they take players out of their regular routine. But injuries are unifying, too.

“It’s kind of like when you have people around you who are also hurt, it helps you a lot,” he said. “Because you kind of help each other out and motivate each other to get through it and push through it.”

Gollon is happy to share his experience with those currently in the thick of their recoveries. When he has heart-to-heart conversations with teammates, he tells them to look at what lies ahead.

“It’s never been nothing more major than me just telling them, ‘Well, look man, if you’re dealing with a three-month injury, you can make it through,’” Gollon said. “‘I just sat out for 12, 14 months.’ … So I just tell them to put it in perspective.”

In some contexts, injuries are an excuse for underperforming teams. Phillips doesn’t like talking about how injuries have impacted his group, but they make up a dense chapter of this season, whether he likes it or not.

And while Phillips uses the players available to him, others must wait — patiently or otherwise — for their chance.

“In a perfect world, everyone would be healthy,” Phillips said.

Development by: Taylor Johnston / Digital Production Editor