By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After helping lead Washburn Rural to back-to-back Class 6A state championships in basketball and volleyball, Zoe Canfield suddenly found herself on the sidelines after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament tear nine games into her junior basketball season.
Washburn Rural senior volleyball/basketball star Zoe Canfield (second from right) watches warmups before Tuesday's volleyball triangular at Rural. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"I had a deep gut feeling that something bad happened, but I was just hoping that it wasn't,'' Canfield said.
Eight months later Canield is finally inching ever closer to returning to action for the Junior Blues and is upbeat about her mental and physical health.
"I feel good,'' Canfield said. "Hopefully, I'll be able to get cleared in the next couple of weeks but I'm just taking it day by day.''
After playing a major role as a sophomore as Rural won the 2022 6A basketball title the Kansas basketball commit had to watch from the sidelines the second half of the '22-'23 season as the Junior Blues posted a runnerup state finish.
Canfield has also been unable to take the floor for the Washburn Rural volleyball team early this fall after helping the Junior Blues post a 45-1 record en route to the eighth 6A state crown in school history last fall.
"It's definitely hard to watch but I think it's good to see the game from a different perspective and be able to kind of put that into practice later on and give little pointers here and there for the girls,'' Canfield said. "It's definitely been really difficult but I think it's also been like a period of growth for me, physically with my body.
"I've been able to build my upper body more, lift weights more, watch more film and support my teammates, so I think it's been good overall.''
Having said that, Canfield admitted that she went through a brief period of 'Why me?' after her injury.
"Definitely a little bit, but my parents really helped me to keep my head up and focus on maybe the positives that are going to come out of it, which was really hard but I think that overall it's kind of helped me as a player and as a person develop more,'' she said.
Canfield has gradually been able to do more and more physically over the last few weeks and is getting a tad impatient to return to action.
"Right now it might even be more difficult because I feel like I could be out there,'' she said. "I'm able to do most of the stuff during practice. I'm able to run and sprint and cut, so it's kind of even harder sitting there now.''
When Canfield does return to fulltime duty she's sure she'll be more thankful for that opportunity.
"I think being back out on the court honestly makes me kind of emotional sometimes,'' she said. "You really just take it for granted and the last few years we've been really fortunate with great teams, so I'm just excited to finally be back out on the court again.''
