Shalee Lehning Blog: Basketball & Books

Shalee’s Graduation Photos!

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I have blogged. The past few months have just flown by. For those of you that don’t know, in September, I separated my AC joint in my shoulder the game before playoffs. I was running after a loose ball and collided with Washington’s Lindsey Harding. I had to have surgery to repair the ligaments around my AC joint. It was so incredibly hard for me to have to watch my team on TV in the first round of playoffs. To give you a little perspective on the magnitude of my injury, Sam Bradford, quarterback for Oklahoma, had a 2nd degree sprain in his shoulder and missed most of his season… I had a 4th degree separation. Doctors say my injury is the equivalent to an ACL tear in the knee. My original plan was to graduate in December from Kansas State and then go to Europe to play in January. It appears that God had a different plan for me.

I returned to K-State to finish my degree. At first I had some major adjustments to make. First of all, I was COMPLETELY out of “school” mode since I had an enjoyable summer traveling around playing basketball with NO homework. I always said my dream was to just play basketball and not have to worry about homework. It was all I thought it would be! So my first challenge was getting myself back into study mode. My second challenge was doing homework while my shoulder was in a sling. Unfortunately, my major didn’t just have “homework” where I had to study. I’m a broadcast journalism major so I had to tote around a camera and tripod for multiple projects. It was quite a challenge, let me tell you! Luckily, I have really great friends and they volunteered to carry my equipment as I worked on different news stories. It is funny now because my friends learned a lot about the news so they will talk to me using news “lingo” as if they know what is going on! The third challenge was not playing basketball. Not only could I not play, I couldn’t do much of any physical activity since my shoulder was in a sling, not to mention the pain that came along with it. With time I adjusted, and before I knew it I was back into student mode.

While I was finishing school, I did a form of student coaching with the women’s basketball team. I didn’t really do much but it was a way for me to stay involved with the program and basketball so I didn’t go through total withdrawal. The first KSU game, I was sitting on the bench and tears welled up in my eyes as I remembered my time at K-State. College was definitely a great four year so of my life. I’m blessed that basketball didn’t end there for me. Going to Atlanta definitely made dealing with the end of college basketball more bearable.

The semester flew by and now it is December. As of last weekend, I’m officially a college graduate! I’ve always thought the word “alumni” meant that you were old, but I now fit in that description so I don’t have those thoughts anymore! Graduating was a great experience. It is nice accomplishing something that you’ve worked your whole life for. The moment I made the team in Atlanta, I knew no matter what I was still going back to finish my degree. I went to school for 18 years of my life, why would I stop when I only had one semester left to get what I worked for? It’s also reassuring that I have other avenues to pursue once basketball ends for me, and at some point, it will end. Injuries like the one I recently suffered are a nice reminder that life can drastically change at any moment.

Graduation was on Saturday and a group of my family and friends came to support me on that special day. I invited everyone to my house to eat and socialize. It was really nice to spend some time with the people that had supported me so much through my basketball career. It was cool to see how they wanted to celebrate my academic success as well. Some of our dear friends from Sublette drove the 5 hours to come to the ceremony. I was blown away by their willingness to drive so many hours to watch an hour ceremony. As we all know, graduation ceremonies are the most exciting events to attend in the world, unless you are the one graduating, but even then you want it to get over fast! What was also neat about this day was that my two best friends Danielle Zanotti and Marlies Gipson graduated at the same time. We have known each other since our freshman year and since then we’ve formed a bond that only teammates can have. It’s pretty awesome how we came in together and are leaving…together.

So I’m sure all of you are thinking what happens now? My priority right now is rehabbing my shoulder. I plan to stay here at KSU to work out and rehab. I’m on schedule as it relates to my progress and we are shooting for me to be completely released to play full contact in February. As of now, my shoulder is recovering nicely. I’ve been out of the sling for almost two months and can do all normal daily activities just fine without noticing my shoulder holding me back. I’m able to dribble and shoot close shots right now. I also have been riding a bike and elliptical to work on my cardio and lifting lower body. It is a slow and frustrating process but I’m happy to see the progress I’ve made. I’m just a few degrees away from having my range of motion completely back. The range of motion has been the most frustrating part. I’m a person that wants to just work hard and build strength back immediately. Most of the other injuries I’ve faced before now have been injuries which I can do x-amount of exercises and then I’m ready to go. Unfortunately with this injury, I have to be patient and get my range of motion back before I can start strengthening my arm. If I can make as much progress the next two months as I’ve made in the past three, I will be ready to roll by February and have four months to get ready for Atlanta.

Well, that is what has been going on in my life the past few months. It has been a busy time but very fulfilling. I’m excited to see what the next chapter of life after college consists of. I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. May God bless you all.

Merry Christmas,
Shalee

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