Latoya Wily’s Back With Seariders, Sore Shoulder Or Not

Wednesday - November 19, 2008
By Jack Danilewicz
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As the nation’s leading rebounder in 2006-07, it isn’t easy for BYU-Hawaii’s Latoya Wily to slip in “under the radar” these days, but she tried anyway. After a year away from basketball to have her shoulder surgically repaired, she returned to the playing floor in an exhibition game versus the University of Hawaii recently.

Unaware how she would fare in her return, she didn’t mention the game to her family.“They saw it in the paper and found out there was a game, anyway,” laughed Wily. “I wanted to see where I was at in my first game before (the family caught a glimpse of her). I was just really nervous. It was my first game in a long time.Even getting back to practice every day felt funny for me.After awhile, the court became my natural habitat again.”

Wily figures it took her about a half to get back in the swing of things against UH, where she finished with 15 points and five rebounds to lead the way for BYUH in a more-than-respectable 66-60 loss to the Division I Warriors.


 

Before the Seasiders opened preseason camp Oct. 15, Wily had last competed in a game on March 2, 2007, when BYUH wrapped up a 13-12 season, including a second-place finish in the Pac West Conference.

Wily had been the catalyst on that team, earning PWC Player of the Year honors, and leading the nation with 14.2 rebounds per game. She also scored at a 20.6 clip, which placed her 13th nationally, and her shooting percentage from the field (53.6) was 26th best in the nation. What those numbers don’t reveal

is the pain she played in that season, having had a shoulder ailment suffered during her freshman and sophomore seasons at Alcorn State, which got progressively worse after transferring to BYUH.

“I’m stubborn like that,” she admitted.“I just didn’t want to sit out. I want to compete with my teammates. My shoulder used to pop out all of the time. Even though it hurt really bad, I would just pop it back into place and play. The coaches and trainers say I have a high threshold for pain. They told me to think about my future beyond basketball and convinced me to have surgery.”


After her surgery in November, a long layoff awaited Wily.“The ligament was completely torn. They had to put it back together. It was a long healing process. I thought I’d at least be able to run.” She also acknowledged having tendinitis in both knees.

“Rehab started with a lot of slow movement. It was almost two months after surgery before I could finally do a small rotation (with the shoulder). I have more movement now. I’m at about 85 percent, but I still can’t do what I normally could do yet.”

The return of Wily is a big boost for BYUH, which finished 5-20 last year under Wendy Anae, who was Wily’s coach at Kahuku High. The effort vs. Hawaii was a solid start.

Wily and BYUH bounced back from the loss to UH to defeat Tianjin University of China 85-66 in an exhibition game last Monday. Wily had a game-high 23 points in that game, including 16 in the first half, to go with 17 rebounds.

BYU-Hawaii will open its regular season at 5 p.m. Friday against Whitworth at the Cannon Activities Center in Laie.

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