Sunday,
January 17, 2016
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Old Tappan senior Alexie Piccinich had a double-double in last year's Group 3 state final. On December 20, she tore her a knee ligmament for the second time in her high school career. |
OLD TAPPAN – Alexie Piccinich was just starting out. A two-sport standout who had cracked the varsity lineup as a freshman in both basketball and softball, she was just about to really get to work on what should have been an eight-varsity-letter kind of career at Northern Valley/Old Tappan High School. In that pursuit, she showed up for the first captain’s practice before what would have been her sophomore hoops season.
And then it happened.
The anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee gave way. Her sophomore seasons in her favored two sports went from promising to over with one non-contact injury and she spent the rest of them rehabbing instead of enjoying her time on the court and softball diamond. Surgery, crutches, a leg immobilizer, a brace, constant running on the roads and working in the weight room…that was the progression.
Over time and with great effort, the limp became less noticeable and it was completely absent when Piccinich returned, fully healthy, for her junior basketball season, which became one for the ages for the Old Tappan program. The Golden Knights won their first state sectional title since 2007, beat Nutley in the Group 3 state semifinals and then made their first-ever appearance in a state final, the Group 3 championship game at the Pine Belt Arena in Toms River.
Although Old Tappan fell short against Middletown South, Piccinich was brilliant in that game. She had a double-double of 11 points and 16 rebounds and almost led the Knights all the way back from a 20-point second half deficit.
“I am really happy that I got to experience that even though we didn’t win that last game,” said Piccinich. “There was so much excitement in the team, around the team in those last couple of weeks of the season and it was a great ride.”
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A two-sport standout, Piccinich will play at Franklin & Marshall College. |
She stayed healthy through the softball season, reclaiming her starting spot at third base and hitting in the middle of the order. She was all set up for a senior year in which her basketball team was poised to make another run at a state title and a softball season that was going to set her up for what comes next, a spot on the softball team at Franklin & Marshall College and maybe even a run at being a two-sport collegiate athlete.
And then it happened again.
Nine seconds in to Old Tappan’s second game of the season against Albertus Magnus (NY) in the Hoops4Autism games hosted at Old Tappan on December 20, Piccinich found herself on the floor again, this time holding her right knee.
And she knew it.
“I remember getting the ball from Emily [Crevani] and I saw an open lane to the basket, a baseline cut and I went for it. It was the same move, the same thing I did last time when I tore my other ACL. It seemed like my foot stayed still, but everything else went the other way.”
There was some initial optimism, an early prognosis was met with the word ‘sprain’, but an MRI showed same injury, different knee. Hoops season over, softball season over, hello rehab once again.
Brutal, or at least it would have been if not for the fighting spirit that Piccinich possesses. She knows what comes next and she knows that the next time she plays in a competitive game it will be as a college freshman.
Well wishes poured in on every social media platform and by every means of communication, but when Old Tappan assistant coach Bob Silvestri went to weigh in with his own, he found a kid who did not need a pep talk.
“I thought I was going to have to tell her to remember last year, that she went out a champion and in some way try to pick up her spirits. I had this whole repertoire planned to try to put a smile on her face, but we never even had to have the conversation,” said Silvestri. “This kid is relentless and she is a great role model for all of us. Since this latest [injury] happened she has been right here with us. She is working out with the trainer, she comes every day to practice and the kids see her toughness and resolve. She is into the games on the bench, she is talking to her teammates trying to make them better, she has a smile on her face and she is getting after it. It would be easy for a 17-year old kid to pack it in and just say, ‘Why me?’ walk out of the gym and we never see her again, but not this kid. She’ll walk into the gym right in the middle of practice dripping wet with sweat from working out and the other kids see that. She is still a big part of this team and will be all season.”
Old Tappan is blessed with quality depth and Piccinich’s injury is not a season-killer. She is a part of a talented senior group that includes Crevani, Ariana Chipolone, Kailyn Seitsma, Kelsey McLaughlin, Ashley Sullivan and Maia Levenshus and her minutes will be dispersed between a capable group. Sophomore center Alex George, who missed most of last season with a knee injury of her own, is back healthy and that certainly helps.
But Piccinich’s game is about more than just the numbers on the score sheet.
“I told her and I told the other kids right after it happened that our toughness level just dropped by 50 percent with her off the floor. That kid brings it every single day. Every day she wants to compete and get better. She is relentless in wanting to compete and improve,” said Old Tappan head coach Brian Dunn. “I told her she has nothing to be regretful for. She walked off this floor a champion last year, winning a section and playing her [hardest] in a state final. She reached the peak as far as a high school player on a high school team. She didn’t miss a thing, but we certainly are going to miss her as we try to do it again.”
For the second time in four years, Piccinich is among the walking wounded, but that walk comes with the chin up and the smile. It’s a bummer, there is no way around that, but her attitude suggests that the best is yet to come.
“We’ll be fine. Even though I am not going to be a part of it on the floor, we are still the same team with the same goals and we will fill all of the holes. We still want to get back and win another state sectional, get back to the state final and try to win counties. Nothing changes,” said Piccinich. “I have to say that I am [angry]. I am really [angry] because I worked so hard over the summer. I’d run every day, I’d workout and I would go shoot hoops because I knew I couldn’t take anything for granted. I never thought it would happen to me again, there was something like a six percent chance, but it happened and I am moving forward. It’s back to rehab, I know what to expect, I know the process I have to go through and I will work just as hard as I did last time. Nothing changes there either.”
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