Outside the Tribe: Madie Wilson's Basketball Career is Going to End on Her Terms
By Chris Johnson on March 10, 2020 from Outside the Tribe
A lot of people will tell you that Madie Wilson shouldn’t be playing basketball.
And to be fair, most people that have been through what she has been through wouldn’t.
But Madie Wilson isn’t most people.
Suffering and recovering from a torn ACL unfortunately happens way too often to athletes who put in hours of unseen hard work and have a relatively short time to pay a sport they love.
Two ACL injuries? That is brutal. A third injury right on the heels of the second tear? That just seems downright unfair and probably reason enough to just hang it up.
But that’s not the way Madie Wilson does things.
“It’s hard for people to understand the decision I made because they never felt the way I felt and been through what I went through,” Wilson said. “I understand though. A lot of people told me I was making a mistake by trying to play and not get surgery but it just hit me, the thought of sports being over after 13 years, that made me sick.”
Wilson’s high school basketball career is actually going to come to an end this week but it’s ending on her terms and it’s ending at the destination every player has the goal of reaching when the season starts in December — the state tournament in Charleston.
Wilson and her BHS teammates will be the No. 8 seed in the Class AA bracket and they will take on No. 1 North Marion at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
To tell the tale of Wilson’s perseverance, we have to start with her freshman year at Bridgeport as a standout soccer and basketball player. That’s when the first injury occurred.
She tore the ACL on her right knee, bringing her basketball season to a halt before it really got going.
For myself though, this is where Wilson first made an impression. I covered that year’s Bridgeport team a good bit. With seniors like Quinn Stalnaker and Gianinia Renzelli leading the way and one of the area’s best coaches, Dennis Hutson, at the helm, the Indians went to the state tournament that year to start a streak that is now at four straight seasons with this year’s squad.
I tend to get to games earlier than most so I saw at least a half of a lot of the JV games that season. With Wilson out with injury, she kept busy by keeping the book for those games. You could just tell she was a student of the game and she loved the game.
“I remember I would be watching and keeping the book and going through scenarios,” Wilson said. “When I’m watching a game I try to put myself out there so when I actually get out there I can fix what I need to fix or continue doing what I was doing.”
She fought back from that injury and made it through her sophomore and junior seasons. But then in the summer before her senior year at BHS, she tore the ACL on her left knee.
“I always told my friends that I couldn’t imagine anything worse that tearing my ACL my senior year or during my senior year,” Wilson said. “I think I jinxed myself.”
It was June 22 to be exact and one would think the best case scenario would be Wilson missing her senior soccer season and maybe, just maybe, being back in time before basketball season was over right?
Wilson played her senior soccer season with a torn ACL. Not only did she play, she was a second-team all-state forward and a big reason why the Indians advanced all the way to the Class AA-A semifinals..jpeg)
“It was a challenge at first,” Wilson said. “Dr. (Chris) Courtney was a huge reason why I was able to play but through the process I learned a lot more about my knee itself and how everything in my leg worked so I was able to strengthen the muscles around my knee which in a way took the place of my ACL.
“The first two games, my knee was on my mind and I was tentative but then a few games after that I kind of stopped noticing that the brace was even there. The brace became just a part of me. I was afraid that if I started to give up on my knee, that’s when I would get hurt.”
She gutted it out and made it through soccer season but if you asked just about anybody around BHS athletics, there would be no way Wilson was going to play basketball with a torn ACL.
But there she was, one of two seniors for the Indians, on the first day of practice for Herman Pierson, in his first year as head coach after serving as Hutson’s assistant the past couple of years.
This is where the plot thickens.
The BHS girls were off to a 3-0 start heading into what would be the first of four matchups with Braxton County, this on in the final round of the IOGA Tournament at Glenville State on Dec. 20.
“Oh my gosh, the play runs through my mind all the time,” Wilson said. “We were losing but it was a close game. It was in the third quarter and I stole the ball. I actually remember I was running as fast as I could down to the other end of the court.
"I had three of the Braxton girls behind me. I was going in for a left-handed layup and one of the Braxton girls kind of shoved me a little a bit and knocked me off balanced, so when I came down I stepped wrong and it was the most aggressive pop in my knee. It was terrible.”
OK….now that had to be it right? That would be it for Wilson’s career and who could blame her?
But again, that’s not how Madie Wilson handles things.
The diagnosis was a torn patellar ligament, a slight tear in the meniscus and a bad bone bruise.
“I guess I was just kind of going for a full blowout,” Wilson said.
She missed a grand total of three basketball games before returning on Jan. 7 to help the Indians snap a four-game losing streak with a 52-31 win against Liberty.
“Part of me knew that I should probably not risk future health problems to finish out the basketball season,” Wilson said. “But I just couldn’t. I didn’t want my last basketball game to be me on the ground in pain. That just didn’t set well with me.”
The Indians have a record of 13-12 heading into the state tournament. They have maybe won a game or two they weren’t expected to win, maybe lost a game or two that they shouldn’t have. In fact they had two ranked foes and fellow state tournament competitors — Fairmont Senior and Lincoln — on the ropes through four quarters before losing in overtime. The Indians also let a late lead on the road get away from them against a really good Class AAA team in Buckhannon-Upshur.
But through the course of the season, the Indians have developed the reputation of being a feisty defensive team never gives up — traits no doubt that have been influenced by Wilson.
“Madie is one of the toughest kids I’ve ever been around,” Pierson said. “I didn’t think I was going to have her this year. Then I thought I lost her again three games into the season. Most people could not do what she has done. I don’t think I could.
“Her personality has definitely rubbed off on this team. She has been the heart and soul of this team and we wouldn’t be where we are at without Madie.”
Along with battling through her injuries, Wilson has had to get used to a new position on the court. A point guard the majority of her career, she moved to forward upon the return from the most recent injury.
If anything the BHS roster is guard heavy this year so according to Pierson the move was to help the Indians get better on the wing and in the post. And it has worked.
“Madie is a great guard and a great shooter,” Pierson said. “But she has some height and she is such a smart player. We wouldn’t have moved her if we didn’t think it would make us better and it has.”
Wilson says that now she wishes she would have become a post player sooner.
“I’ve always thought of myself as a point guard,” she said. “I’ve always been told, ‘You are such a tall point guard and that’s good.’ But this past year, all I’ve done is go to the gym and try to get bigger and stronger so when I switched positions I felt like I could get a bit more physical. In practice, I would show more confidence going strong to the basket. And I know after this latest injury, I couldn’t move as quick so having me out at guard would hurt the team.
“I kind of wish I would have moved to being a post player a bit earlier because I think I could have gotten even better at it.”
Wilson has always been the type of player that is more inclined to help her team win by doing some of the little things that go unnoticed in a boxscore.
Not that she can’t knock down a clutch shot, but she is also going to create a turnover, make the right pass, clog up the other team’s passing lanes, etc.
“I’ve always assisted more than I have shot,” Wilson said. “My Dad has always told me that basketball is so much more than the numbers that show up in the newspaper. I want to do all the things that don’t get recognized. Doing things to cause a turnover. The defensive end of it, I’ve always thought that with my soccer experience, I just know where people are.”
A perfect example of one of those plays came in last week’s co-regional game against Braxton County. The Indians had fallen behind by as many as eight in the first half. They clawed their way back into right before halftime. A Gabby Reep jumper cut their deficit to one. On the ensuing inbound pass, Wilson was there to create a turnover. She proceeded to gather the ball and find Hannah Bartlett cutting to the basket.
A perfect pass to Bartlett in stride resulted in a layup and the Indians were now leading 20-19. Braxton County would tie the game once in the second half, but Bridgeport never trailed after that sequence.
Plays like that and her never give up attitude are why the Indians are headed to Charleston this week.
Wilson’s senior year class schedule may be tougher for some than overcoming three knee injuries. It’s college-course loaded with AP Calculus, AP Government, Sociology and English. She plans to attend WVU in the fall and major in exercise physiology. The goal is to get to med school where she would like to eventually become — ironically enough — an orthopedic surgeon.
“I should have plenty of visual aid,” she jokingly said.
As far as an athletic career that she has given so much to and fought to keep it going as long as it could, that ends this week and there is nothing she can do to stop it this time.
The BHS girls have one guaranteed basketball game left. Three at the very most.
Wilson, who fittingly was the last one on the ladder to cut the net down following the regional victory, is going to savor every second of it.
“I can’t even describe what it felt like to cut down that net,” Wilson said. “It was so nice. To get to go to the state tournament again, that’s what the goal is for everybody. I’m so excited to go play on the floor in that environment, one more time.”
There is no question, Madie Wilson deserves the state tournament spotlight one more time and her basketball career is going to end on her terms, not crutches.
Few thought she would play this year. Most didn’t think that she should. Some probably still don’t. None of them have been through what she has.
But Madie Wilson isn’t most people.
Editor's Note: Photos Photos 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 feature Madie Wilson in recent basketball games for the Indians. Photos by Joey Signorelli for www.benqueenphotography.com Photos 3,4 were submitted by Madie Wilson and show some of the workouts she did while rehabbing her knee injury.
With all these nice things said I would like to add.... Madie is 1 of the most exceptional teammates i have ever seen. EVERYTHING she does is for her team/teammates to make them better as a whole. She is a breath of fresh air in todays youth sports world of "me first". I'm thankful my daughter got the opportunity to play soccer and basketball with Madie this year and learn what a true leader does for their team. She embodies what all parents wish for in their student-athletes. Great article!
Posted by Billy Reep
Mar. 10, 2020 at 9:22 PM EST
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