RIDGEFIELD — Whether Alicia Andrew goes up for a lay-in, snags a rebound, or rejects a shot in the paint, her 6-foot-3 1/2 frame sets the sophomore apart.
So does titanium.
Andrew, the starting center on Ridgefield’s girls basketball team, is bolstered by two titanium rods nearly a foot-and-a-half long to correct the effects of scoliosis, a horizontal curvature of the spine. Twenty screws hold the two rods in place.
She’s proud of the hardware that runs from her shoulders down to her pelvis because it’s as every bit a part of her as her 6-foot-8 wingspan, her basketball-palming hands and her size 11 feet.
Though she missed her freshman year in volleyball and basketball, a year-long recovery from the surgical procedure performed 18 months ago allows Andrew to thrive again in competitive sports. That includes being a middle hitter on the Spudders’ state championship volleyball team this past fall, and now averaging a double-double for Ridgefield (9-5 overall, 3-3 2A Greater St. Helens League) in basketball this winter, in addition to her love of long-distance running.
‘The best feeling ever’
Standing upright and living every day pain-free is what Andrew cherishes most after four years of struggles following the scoliosis discovery at age 10.
“Once that was fixed,” said Andrew, 16, “it was the best feeling ever. I’m thankful to be able to go through that surgery. I’m straight and can walk and enjoy my sports and I’m not in pain all the time, which is awesome.”
Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine, and more commonly found in females than males during youth growth spurts, according to the Scoliosis Research Society. While it can develop at any age, adolescent girls are at a higher risk for a curve worsening and requiring treatments that vary from bracing to spinal fusion surgery to straighten the spine.
Age 10 is when Andrew’s parents, Dan and Rachel, first noticed their oldest child’s asymmetry in her back at a pool party. Doctors later confirmed their suspicions.
Always an active child from swimming to soccer, basketball to volleyball –“very energetic,” said mom, Rachel, “she never sat still” — Andrew played as many as five sports in one middle-school season. Pain only worsened, through, as Andrew grew older and taller. By age 14, she stood 6 feet inheriting the height from both parents, who stand 6-8 (dad) and 5-11 (mom).
A team-first player who has an equal love for volleyball and basketball, maintaining an active regime proved difficult.
“It made loving them and playing them really hard,” the teen said.
Scoliosis runs in Andrew’s family. Dan Andrew said he spent nine months as a high school senior in a brace for scoliosis, and it’s the father’s background with the curvature that helped the family seek out the best course of treatment.
The Andrew family reached out to specialists as far away as the Midwest, and doctors locally said their daughter’s curve sat at 30 degrees at her age 10 initial diagnosis; spinal fusion surgery is recommended at 50 degrees, the parents said. Early on, Andrew got fitted for three separate torso-length custom-fitted back braces to be worn 24/7 as a non-operative option in hopes to slow or stop further curve growth.
Four years later, it didn’t help. The ‘S’ curve on Andrew’s spine worsened by the end of eighth grade to 80 degrees on her lower curve and 40 degrees at the upper curve.
The family’s choice for a permanent fix was elementary, despite knowing spinal fusion would permanently stopped their daughter’s growth of height.
“We couldn’t let it keep curving,” Rachel Andrew said. “Once you get the rods in there, you pin everything in and can’t grow anymore.”
Re-learning to walk
Doctors performed the 9-hour surgery at Randall Children’s Hospital at Portland’s Legacy Emanuel Medical Center on June 14, 2017, coming three days after eighth-grade graduation at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School. It was Andrew’s first major surgical procedure.
All surgeries require recovery, but spinal fusion is especially debilitating. In order to install the rods and screws, surgeons cut through the back muscles to access the spine. Andrew spent two weeks in the hospital, and re-learned to walk. She spent most of the summer bedridden while building up strength to do ordinary tasks, learning quickly how the back affects your entire body.
“All I could do was walk and lay in bed,” she said.
The surgery gained Andrew 3 inches in height. She laughs when she talks about how her persistence, stubbornness and love for athletics aided her drive and motivation on a long road to back to what she describes as her 100 percent.
A quick study
Though she didn’t play last season, she learned many lessons while on the bench last season as Ridgefield’s team manager for head coach Tom Klutz.
“I’ve learned so much about control and patience,” Andrew said. “I want this more now because I’ve felt it taken away and not being able to play. I love it that much more and feel more humble to be able to play.”
Twelve months post-surgery is the benchmark doctors gave Andrew for playing selective contact sports again. She got all-clear in time for June’s basketball summer league and played her first game in more than a year at a tournament hosted by Mountain View.
Klutz, Ridgefield’s coach, is astonished as not only the Andrew’s statistics that include 12 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks a game, but how quickly she adjusted in her return. After all, it’s essentially her first year of high school basketball.
“From Day 1,” Klutz said, “she’s coming in and playing well. … Some kids take four, five, six games to catch a groove, but she caught her groove right away.”
And there’s more.
“She’s getting better all the time,” the coach added.
Andrew’s best game came Jan. 4 in an overtime win at R.A. Long, recording a triple-double of 19 points, 25 rebounds and 10 blocks. The Spudders start the second half of 2A GSHL play Wednesday hosting Columbia River.
Andrew believes she’s a different player now, and a better one, too, because of what she calls a life-changing journey back to sports.
“It’s such a privilege,” she said. “There’s so many people who can’t and I have the opportunity now pain-free. I know me and I know what I can do and there’s nothing holding me back.”
