Once injured, now important

On Jan. 12, 2014, then-Jay County High School sophomore Bre McIntire was in the lane as a Connersville player drove to the hoop.
The Spartan ball-handler collided with McIntire, who absorbed the majority of the impact.
“It was weird. It was a pain I have never felt before, but it was only for a minute,” McIntire, now a senior, said of the sensation in her right knee. “I’m on the floor crying. Coach (Chris) Krieg and (athletic trainer) Rita (Bollenbacher) come out, and Coach Krieg has me laughing, telling me that I’m fine.”
As the tears stopped, McIntire thought she was overreacting, that she was exaggerating a knee-to-knee hit. Sitting on the bench with ice on her knee, she watched her teammates finish off a come-from-behind victory over the Spartans. It was a Saturday, and she figured she would just rest up and be ready to play the following Tuesday.
Much to her dismay, she was forced to miss the rest of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
She sat out the final six games of the season, and the Patriots struggled without her. She was second on the team in points (7.7) and rebounds (4.9) per game.
“She was playing a ton of minutes and a big part of our team,” said Krieg. “She was by far our best skilled player around the basket and one of the better girls that can handle pressure.”

Time off
Sitting out wasn’t the only thing on her mind as she went through physical therapy in the spring.
Also a volleyball player, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to return to the court for her junior season.
“I remember thinking that I might have to choose one or the other,” she said. “There for a while I considered not playing volleyball, taking it easy and trying to play basketball.
“Then I got released and it ended up working out.”
Even before then, prior to being cleared by doctors and Bollenbacher, McIntire was already rehabbing so she could play volleyball.
“I spent a lot of time doing my exercises, doing everything I could,” she said. “Before I was even released — which I probably shouldn’t have done — I worked out with a personal trainer.
“He specifically gave me stuff to do to get that leg stronger so I could come back and perform.”
Aside from strengthening her knee, she spent her time off improving her volleyball and basketball skills. During Craig Teagle’s “Body Conditioning” class she would shoot free throws. She would work on serving with her volleyball teammates too, getting together in an open gym to practice.

Back in action
When volleyball season rolled around, JCHS coach Fred Medler anticipated he would be without McIntire and prepared to fill the void. She had cracked the lineup as a freshman and played ever since, and he was counting on her leadership on a team that didn’t have any seniors.
“We were looking at other options,” he said, “just trying to plug that hole.”
If McIntire was able to return, he didn’t think it would be immediate.
“I was there the night Bre got hurt, sitting in the crowd watching her go down,” he said. “Just from my experiences, watching her go down did not look good.”
Medler spoke with McIntire before and after her surgery, trying to convince her that he was going to ease her back into playing. Five games into the season, McIntire hit the court for the first time in a match against Adams Central.
“It was a really good feeling,” she said of her return. “I was a little bit apprehensive. I had to wear a brace. It was awful. It pinched me, I felt like I was going to be slow.”
But as the season progressed, she regained more lateral movement and began playing at a higher level. She also turned into one of the team’s best servers. As a senior, she led the team in serves (380), points (185), aces (58) and serving percentage (94.2)
The nervousness as a junior went away, and the knee brace did too, until basketball season, at least.
During the volleyball sectional championship against Homestead, McIntire dove for a ball and thought she tweaked her knee. Not taking any chances, she went back to the doctor and missed a handful of practices at the start of basketball season.

Impact player
Before her injury as a sophomore, McIntire was tops on the team in free-throw percentage (70) for players with 40 or more attempts. She had also set her career-high in scoring with 17 points, Dec. 6, 2012, against Frankton.

It was her junior season on the hardwood that McIntire really started to improve. All the work she put perfecting her shot while she was sidelined allowed her to become an impact player. She led the team in scoring (9.3 points per game) and was third in rebounds (5.1), and her 75-percent mark from the free-throw line was the highest on the squad.
“When you have an ACL tear, obviously you can’t get up and down (the court) but what you can do is shoot a basketball,” said Krieg. “She spent hours working on her shots and it paid off because she led us in scoring.
“It was all because she spent hours just shooting a basketball (and) working on her form.”
As one of two seniors this season, McIntire continues to produce. She has reached double figures in scoring eight times, is third on the team in scoring (8.3), second on the team in rebounds (4.6) and shooting percentage (43 percent), and leads the team in free-throw percentage (79 percent) yet again.
Her performance from the charity stripe has solidified her as the player Krieg wants at the line in crucial moments.
“All coaches want a post player that can make free throws,” he said. “With Bre, she’ll score around the basket (and) she is a great free-throw shooter. That is what you want out of the post players.”

Leader
With her play on the court, McIntire has proven herself to be a leader to both the volleyball and basketball teams. The soft-spoken senior is not one to be vocal, but her coaches note that she works hard and gives it her all whenever she’s on the floor.
“She has it in her mind what she’s got to do and she knows what it takes for her to play at that level,” said Medler, adding that if at any point the volleyball team would lose focus she was the one to restore order. “The others were just the kinds of kids that bought into (her work ethic).”
“The kids love her (and) the coaches love her,” added Krieg. “She’s just a great person. She works extremely hard to get where she’s at.
“We’re excited to have that in a player like Bre.”
Her injury has helped shape her attitude toward practicing and playing in games. She realized she wouldn’t be able to play forever.
In a sense, she saw hurting her knee as a blessing.
“I definitely think it helped me not take so much for granted,” she said. “In a way, not be lazy. Not that I was a lazy player, but (to) always make the most of it.
“I wanted to make sure I took every practice to the fullest because I never know when it’s gone.”