A routine basketball play turned into Kamryn Koetting's worst nightmare.
"I was going for a layup and felt a "pop' all through my body," the California High School senior recalled. "I laid on the floor and couldn't feel my leg. I knew something was wrong."
That "something" was a major injury, leaving her basketball career in doubt. Koetting, a junior at the time, tore the anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in her left knee.
"I was devastated," said Koetting, who suffered the injury during a travel basketball game last spring. "It was really upsetting, physically and emotionally."
After successful knee surgery in May, doctors recommended six to eight months of recovery and rehabilitation.
"I had therapy every day and remember thinking, "Why did this happen?'" Koetting said. "I kept asking that."
With a long rehab process ahead, Koetting didn't expect to recover in time for high school volleyball. Instead, her main focus shifted to the Lady Pintos' 2014-15 basketball season.
Read more in this week's California Democrat.