![]() ![]() 23 game against UNC-Asheville as complications from the quad tendon tear proved unrelenting. However, right when things were trending upward, Craig endured yet another setback, missing five weeks following ETSU’s Nov. Thanks to her determination and due diligence in recovery, she’d be able to do exactly that, making her first appearance of the 2019-20 campaign against High Point. When her senior season started eight months later, the long and arduous recovery from the injury delayed her debut, Craig missing the Bucs first two games of the year while doing everything she could to ensure she would be able to participate in her penultimate year. ![]() I just wanted to do normal things like walk and run again. I had to learn how to jump properly, land properly, re-learning a lot of the basics. I lost my entire quad muscle, it was like starting over. ![]() ![]() “What am I doing wrong? With back-to-back injuries like that, it was hard not to. “Going into that surgery I started to blame myself,” Craig said. While Craig rehabbed in hopes of avoiding surgery this time around, her return to the lineup later that year would be brief, the veteran backcourt Buc able to play in only three games in January before being shelved for the season, going under the knife for a second time in less than a year. The rubber was hitting the road for Craig, and then another blow was dealt to the junior, a seven-week absence caused by a quad tendon tear sidelining the Bucs floor general. Her summer was filled with rest, rehabilitation and preparation, but once Craig’s third season with the Buccaneers got underway, the North Carolina native showed no signs of being slowed by her first surgery, starting the first four games of the year while piling up 18 assists during that time, one of the best marks in the Southern Conference. I was on crutches for three months in the summer because the bone and area had to mend, it was a fight mentally.” They had to go in and drill holes in my bone to help promote growth and healing after the season. It was a hard time for me, but I wanted to tough it out for my team. “My grades dropped, I was having trouble focusing, I was really struggling. “It caused me a lot of pain, both on and off the court,” Craig said. Having missed six straight games in January with the painful injury that displaced the upper-leg bone, sinking it towards the meniscus in her knee, Craig wouldn’t be deterred, toughing out the last 12 contests of the season to help her team claim a WNIT bid. That, though, is when the road first began to wind away from her planned path on the court, Craig suffering a concussion early in the 2017-18 season, only to chip her femur six weeks later. “I knew what I was going to work on so I could better myself and contribute to the team, I was confident in what I was doing.” “I knew what to expect after my freshman year,” Craig said. “I loved her competitiveness and willingness to do the dirty work, she exemplified a blue collar worker.”įollowing a fruitful first year in which Craig appeared in 29 games, acclimating nicely to the collegiate game, little seemed to change as she worked through an important pre-sophomore summer and into her second year as a member of the Blue and Gold. “Jada played with an edge,” said head coach Brittney Ezell, the one responsible for recruiting Craig to come to ETSU. In reality, there’s nothing simple about the long and difficult road that only the toughest of talents successfully traverse.Ĭoming to ETSU as a top-five point guard in North Carolina after leading Winston-Salem Prep to their first state championship, the trajectory for senior Jada Craig was one of sure success, a Division I starting lineup in her near future. ASHEVILLE, N.C. (March 4, 2020) – For athletes entering college, the path seems straightforward and simple – four years to showcase your talents and make the most of your chance to compete against some of the best the country has to offer. ![]()
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