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ALLENTOWN: Gurdon’s return a welcome addition

Senior aids Redbirds on court

By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
   The Allentown High School girls basketball team wanted Heather Gurdon to come to their games the last two years, but it was too tough for her.
   Gurdon lost two years of basketball when she suffered a knee injury in the first game of her sophomore year.
   ”As soon as I wasn’t able to enjoy the game and play, it killed me,” Gurdon said. “I hated sitting on the bench. It’s hard not to think, I wish I could be helping my team out.”
   Gurdon, now a senior guard, is making the most of her return to the Redbirds. She scored a team-high 12 points in their recent loss to Notre Dame, their fifth loss in six games, all without Kristal Noyan to an ankle injury. Gurdon knows all too well that helpless feeling after sitting out two seasons.
   ”It’s been a struggle,” Gurdon said. “I’ve had my ups and downs. The whole time in the back of my mind is to get back on the court and help lead my team again. I got cleared honestly two days before tryouts this year.”
   She has been trying to soak up every second of playing and practice time that she can get. It’s not enough to make up for the last two years, but nothing has made her happier than getting back out on the court.
   ”It’s been absolutely amazing,” Gurdon said. “I’ve been waiting for this for so long, it’s insane.”
   The Redbirds have enjoyed her return as well. Her 12 points against Notre Dame was one off her season-high of 13 against Robbinsville, but getting her back has given Allentown a lift at both ends of the floor.
   ”It’s meant so much to our team,” said Allentown head coach Linda Weise, whose 5-6 squad was scheduled to face Hopewell Valley on Tuesday and hosts West Windsor-Plainsboro South on Friday. “When I look at her out there, I realize how much we missed her for the past two seasons. She does so much for our team. She’s a great leader. She’s probably our best defender. She brings a lot of energy. Having her energy out on the court, everyone feeds off it too.”
   Energy was something that she had to fight to get back after being cleared for 5-on-5 play so close to the season’s start. She’d been running, but it wasn’t the same as going through a practice or game. There was an adjustment period.
   ”Just the endurance you have to have to keep up with the game,” Gurdon said. “The first two weeks with tryouts, I completely forgot how hard it was.”
   Nothing, though, was as hard as stepping away from the game for so long. It started when she drove for a layup in the first quarter of the first game of her sophomore year. She was among the Redbirds full of hope after winning their first state playoff game in 15 years the previous season. She was pushed as she attempted the layup and landed awkwardly. More than two years later, the memory still affected her.
   ”In the beginning of the year,” she explained, “just driving to the basket, in the back of my mind, I was thinking, this is scary.
   ”Sometimes I’ll tweak it, and say, there it is. For the most part, I’m trying to play the game as I always have in the past.”
   Aside from a knee brace, few could guess all that she went through to get back on the court. An operation was supposed to fix the knee sophomore year, but she then missed her junior year after a second operation was required.
   ”I had a lot of complications the first surgery,” Gurdon said. “Then I got mono right after. I had some kind of infection on my leg so I was all over the place. I tried to just concentrate on school. I was missing a lot with absences.”
   In her recovery, Gurdon found a bright spot — her future after high school and college.
   ”I want to do physical therapy,” she said.
   While she was away from the team, many of the players that she had made her varsity debut with had graduated and moved on. Aside from a few classmates, she hadn’t played with many of the current Redbirds.
   ”It’s so different,” Gurdon said. “As a freshman, there were really good leaders on the team at the time. I kind of took after them. They showed me how to be a leader. As a senior, I’m trying to push my teammates and get everything done.”
   Allentown is looking for all-around play out of Gurdon. Weise is hoping it’s not asking too much from a player that’s had so much time off.
   ”It’s so hard,” Weise said. “I expect more of her because I look at her as a senior. But she’s really a sophomore playing-wise. I realize how much we miss without having her for two seasons.”
   Gurdon has to remind herself to be patient as well. It’s not easy while trying to make the most of her final scholastic season.
   ”Even mentally, I got frustrated a lot early,” Gurdon said. “I do feel like I still get frustrated. It’s getting better.”
   Gurdon fears that missing two seasons cost her the chance to play college basketball, but Weise isn’t so fast as to dismiss her hopes.
   ”It’s a shame,” Weise said. “I feel she had a chance. I still feel she could play at the Division III level. She’s just trying to get through this year.”
   All the while, she wants to enjoy every chance she gets to play. With Noyan’s return, the Redbirds are more confident in their chances to be a tough team to beat.
   ”I feel like we have a lot of talent on the team and we have good chemistry together,” Gurdon said. “We have to keep getting stronger. We have to be able to battle through those mental blocks when you get down.
   ”I think we can definitely be contenders in the state tournament. Right now, we’re 5-6. We have to be .500 to make states. I think we can get to there. I think we’re going to be a team to beat.”
   The Redbirds need to win three of their next five games to reach .500. It would be quite an accomplishment given the injury to Noyan and the uncertainty about what Gurdon could provide this season.
   ”Getting Kristal back is going to mean a lot,” Weise said. “She’s definitely not 100 percent, but we’ll take what we can get. It’s been tough, but I hope in the end it makes us better with the experience the other kids have gotten.”
   In the interim, it’s been players like Gurdon who have tried to step up. She had extra incentive against Notre Dame as it was also her birthday.
   ”I feel like each game, somebody has been on,” Gurdon said. “Somebody has had the hot hand and we’ve recognized that’s who we have to get the ball to. It could be Karlee (Corvasce), Dana (Sensi) or Leah (Ogrodnik). Once the other team realizes it, they can dish it off. We have really balanced scoring and it makes it hard for teams to defend us.”
   Gurdon brings other things to the Redbirds, which is just why they were so excited to see her back with the team this year.
   ”Her defense. Her leadership. Her energy,” Weise said. “Offensively, she shot well for us in the last game. She can shoot the ball. When she’s on, it makes us even more of a threat.”