Naperville Central outside hitter Makenna Devick had two surgical options after she suffered a torn meniscus over the summer.
Devick could have it repaired, or she could have it removed. Repairing the cartilage would make her knee nearly normal but would sideline her for her senior season. Removing it would leave bone on bone, which could increase her chances of getting arthritis in the joint as early as her 30s.
Devick, who has chosen not to play in college, opted for the latter.
“It was a decision between being out for six to eight months or six to eight weeks,” Devick said. “Kind of realizing this is the last season was the turning point.
“I was like, ‘OK, I’ll just take it out.’”
Devick isn’t the first athlete in her family to have such an injury. Her brother, Logan, had three meniscus tears while playing football for the Redhawks.
“We’ve kind of gone through it, so we kind of knew the downside of both,” Devick said. “He took it out on his last one, so it works.”
What nobody anticipated was how quickly Devick would come back, or how well she would play when she did.
She had surgery in early August, so the thought was Devick would be sidelined through September. Instead, she missed only one week of matches and stunned everyone by showing up for practice the day after the operation.
“I said something to her mom on the day of the surgery: ‘Tell her we’re thinking about her,’” Naperville Central coach Brie Isaacson said. “She’s like, ‘She thinks she’s going to be back tomorrow.’
‘I was like, ‘Haha.’ Then she walks in those doors the next day. Now obviously she didn’t participate. She was on crutches.”
Even so, Devick’s presence was motivating.
“When she came in, I thought it was a pretty incredible message to the whole program,” Isaacson said. “We posted it on our Instagram.
“I know everyone is different, but I just wanted to send a message because I think sometimes we limit ourselves, like ‘I can’t do that.’ Sometimes we don’t know what we can do until we try.”
Devick wasn’t on crutches for long. She made her season debut in early September and seems no worse for wear on the court.
Isaacson sees Devick limping at times but never complaining.
“Day to day, it’s fine,” Devick said. “There are times where it gets really aggravated and you can feel it more, but on a normal basis, it’s kind of a normal knee.”
Devick, a third-year starter, is back to her normal self. She contributed three kills, four service points and a block during Naperville Central’s 25-21, 25-19 victory against visiting Geneva on Monday and has 103 kills, 50 digs, 17 blocks and 13 aces this season.
“I don’t know how she does it, honestly,” senior setter Sarah Butler said. “We were a little bit nervous at first that she’d be out for the season. But she made a really fast recovery, and we’re all super happy about that.”
The Redhawks (10-9) are also a bit amazed that Devick is playing with her knee in such condition.
“It’s truly crazy,” Butler said. “But she’s a very tough person, a very hardworking person, so I’m not surprised she got back as soon as she could.”
Butler hasn’t noticed any difference in Devick’s demeanor.
“She’s just the same old fiery Makenna,” Butler said. “She’s out there playing with lots of confidence, putting balls away, and she’s doing great for us. She’s a great team player.”
Devick, who is undecided on a college but intends to study nursing, said she came back because she has great teammates.
“I feel like everyone looks forward to their senior year,” Devick said. “It’s one of those things that you really want to come back for.
“What made me want to come back even more was just the team and who I was going to be playing with and doing that for one more year. I’m enjoying it.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
