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This kid has made a huge comeback Mail Tribune/Bob Pennell Kirsten Gillingham's emergence coincides with South Medford's three-game winning streak. The Panthers resume Southern Oregon Conference action tonight at 7 when they are host to Klamath Union. Basketball player Kirsten Gillingham has rebounded from multiple injuries and is a cog for South Medford By DON HUNT Mail Tribune As an eighth-grade female basketball player at Hedrick Middle School, Kirsten Gillingham had few equals. Tall, quick and fundamentally sound, she dominated virtually anyone who guarded her, and she could win games single-handedly. But that was three knee operations, two infections and one severe hip injury ago. "To be on top of the world and then to have it pulled from underneath you is just awful," says Mindy Gillingham, Kirsten's mother. "Going through all the rehabilitation was tough, but the worst thing was not being able to play for so long and then, when she came back, not being her old self. "She's been on an emotional roller coaster for the last three years." The younger Gillingham still isn't her old self, but 75 to 80 percent is still superior to most other players. The 5-foot-11 junior is averaging 12 points and seven rebounds per game for the South Medford High girls, who play host to Klamath Union at 7 o'clock tonight. "I feel like my legs are getting stronger, I feel like I'm coming back," says Gillingham, whose burgeoning play has mirrored the Panthers' three-game winning streak. "It's exciting." South Medford coach Andrea Jaime moved Gillingham from wing to post following the Panthers' opening game. Although Gillingham resisted the move into the paint - she had always played shooting guard or small forward in the past - the results have paid big dividends for the team. Since the switch, Gillingham has posted two double-doubles in points and rebounds and come within one rebound of a third. "She doesn't have many post moves yet, but she's very quick for a post and uses her natural ability to get shots off," Jaime says. "She has a knack for finding openings in the defense. "And she's one of those kids who comes up big in games. "The really exciting part about it is, what we're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg." Gillingham still sees herself more as a guard than a post and continues to use some of her backcourt skills, such as dribbling and shooting from the perimeter. "I've come to accept it," Gillingham says of the move to a post. "A lot of our plays aren't really position-specific, and the coaches don't care if I take some outside shots, so it really isn't that big of a deal." "And," she adds with a smile, "they put me out on the wing once in awhile just to keep me happy." In the fall of 1997, shortly after entering the seventh grade, Gillingham began getting twinges of pain in her hip. Her pediatrician told her she had a pulled muscle, but when the pain persisted and worsened, her mother took her to a specialist. The new diagnosis: a growth plate in her hip had slipped out, possibly from playing soccer. A pin was inserted to hold the hip in place, and Gillingham sat out the next six months. Six months after that, Gillingham dislocated her left kneecap while playing soccer at Hawthorne Park. She was sidelined another six weeks, but recovered in time for the eighth-grade basketball season. Everything seemed to be going well when Gillingham entered high school, but toward the end of soccer season - she was called up to varsity as the state playoffs unfolded - her right kneecap dislocated. Then the chronic problems began. The right kneecap dislocated again. And again. And again. Eight times in all. Finally, in November of 1999, Medford orthopedic surgeon Steve Chamberlain performed what's called a lateral release - releasing certain muscles around the patella tendon so it would no longer fall out of place. Gillingham, who once dreamed of playing varsity basketball her freshman year, missed the first half of the season, but joined the JV team in late January. On her first day back, she made a hard cut and - you guessed it - the knee went out again. "I was really, really mad," Gillingham recalls, "and mostly at myself. I thought if I had taken more time, maybe it would have healed. But I was so anxious to get back and play." At that point, Gillingham realized her days as an athlete might be over. And maybe it was just as well. How much pain and suffering should one person have to endure? But Chamberlain was willing to perform one more surgery. This was a delicate one as it entailed shaving a piece of bone from her shin and grafting it to the groove in which the right kneecap fits. A pair of titanium screws would be used to strengthen the two parts. The operation went off without a hitch, but with it came a six-month recovery period, not to mention an 11-inch scar. Gillingham couldn't move her leg well enough to finish her freshman year of school; a tutor came to her home. A month went by and her recovery was proceeding well, but then came an infection, followed by a second one. Both required additional surgeries, and Gillingham spent the summer of 2000 with a pick drip in her arm - enabling her to administer antibiotics intravenously twice a day. "She went through that for the entire summer," Mindy Gillingham says. "She really couldn't go anywhere and spend the night - she had to stay home." Kirsten Gillingham didn't have high expectations when she showed up for her first basketball practice in nearly two years on Nov. 6, 2000. She knew that much of her speed and quickness had vanished. She knew the fundamentals of the game - shooting, dribbling, passing - might be slow to come back. And she knew that the players around her were much better now. Nonetheless, Gillingham wasn't prepared for the tremendous decline her game had taken. She was no longer a starter - not even on the JV team - and averaged about four points and two rebounds a game through the first half of her sophomore season. Within moments after certain games ended, her eyes would fill with tears. "I thought I'd never get back to where I was before," she admits. But by the end of the season Gillingham was beginning to show signs of her old self. She had some 10- and 15-point games, and one night drained four 3-point baskets. Her confidence reappeared, as did her penchant for being a clutch player. Gillingham even logged some time on the varsity squad late in the season as the Panthers advanced to the Class 4A state tournament. Mindy Gillingham saw something in her daughter's face the other day that she hadn't seen in three years: a glow. It was Saturday, Dec. 8, the day after Kirsten had scored 18 points and collected nine rebounds in a 77-53 victory over North Eugene. "Any mother who has gone through something like this knows how good it feels to see your kid happy like that again," Mindy Gillingham says. For the Gillinghams, it's the best Christmas present of all. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.