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Hays Rebels basketballPosted December 6, 2007, 3:40 a.m.
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Hays Highway Editor
BUDA – Hays High School girls basketball coach Donny McDonald walked through the infirmary Tuesday. The infirmary was located at Oran Bales Gymnasium.
On the bench sat Lindie Kimbro, the star player, out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), wearing a sleeve over her right knee. About a dozen girls on the combined varsity and junior varsity teams wore knee braces as they practiced around McDonald.
McDonald started talking about how his team would move on without Kimbro. The answer wasn't obvious. It would be easier, he suggested, if so many other players weren't also injured. The Rebels came to this season off last year's 27-8 record with four returning starters. Already, only ten games into the season, three of his key players are missing.
Anna Hernandez, the back-up point guard, tore an ACL 40 seconds after she first took the floor. One of his forwards, Kristyn Calabrese, is out until at least Christmas with a broken foot.
"We should take an ambulance to the games instead of a bus," McDonald said.
Under ordinary circumstances, McDonald is a font of dolorous humor. But he's seldom been more dry, nor more desperate, than Tuesday, the day after finding out that he's going without Kimbro, last year's Central Texas Player of the Year by the Austin American-Statesman. Kimbro tore her right ACL for the second time in eight months last weekend at the New Braunfels Canyon Tournament.
So, the Rebels worked Tuesday for the first time since receiving the bad news. Two girls entered the gym on crutches.
"Let's have a crutch fight," McDonald said to the girls, Calabrese and Hernandez, who laughed.
The Rebels held a 15-point halftime lead in last weekend's semifinal against Smithson Valley, with Kimbro scoring 18 points. Then, Kimbro fell, and the Rebels lost by nine, 62-53. McDonald said the Rebels barely showed up for the consolation game against Canyon.
McDonald has only this weekend's Rebel Classic at Hays High School to work up a functionally new team before the district season begins next week. By some measures, the Rebels, 7-3, still have a chance to finish third in District 26-4A and make the playoffs, though Steele and Del Valle are thought to be the top contenders.
The Rebels were replenished this year by players who finished 25-1 on the junior varsity last season. They went 5-1 early this year without Kimbro, who was still working back from an ACL tear she sustained in April. But now, it's going to be a long haul against district competition.
"They all kind of, in the back of their minds, knew Lindie would be there sooner or later," McDonald said. "Now, they know there's nobody here but us."
The Rebel Classic begins today, with the Rebels starting at noon in Bales against Leander and hoping to navigate through a 14-team field including Pflugerville, Lubbock Cooper, Thorndale, New Braunfels, Leander, Brentwood Christian, Weatherford and San Angelo Central.
The Hays boys team will begin its half of the Rebel Classic today at 1:30 p.m. against Rockport Fulton in the Joe Graham Gym, formerly the North Gym. The boys field has 15 teams, including Round Rock, McNeil, San Marcos and Leander.
McDonald knows he's in for hard times. On one hand, he needs to coach hard so his remaining team will round into shape. On the other hand, he needs to keep the players cheered up.
"Yeah," McDonald said, "but I don't have anybody to cheer me up."
Said Kimbro, "There's nobody like Coach Mac."
McDonald said this year's team has more speed than last year’s, and should have more numbers, except now the varsity roster is down to ten players after injuries. He's looking for an offensive program that would work almost as well as setting screens for Kimbro. He's looking for a way to minimize mistakes on the offensive end, while maximizing mistakes for opponents on the defensive end.
"We need to get better at that," McDonald said. "And we're under-sized in the post, so we need to do something to keep the ball out of the post."
The leadership will fall to two seniors, 5-foot-9 Devin Kent and 5-6 Alejia Cain. The starting lineup also includes two sophomores, 5-9 Ashley Magallanez and 5-8 Ashley Rankine, Kimbro's replacement. A junior, 5-6 Shelby Calabrese, rounds out the starting lineup.
McDonald still has hopes.
"You can do a lot as a team," he said.
Meanwhile, Kimbro sat in the bottom row of bleachers, dressed in gym clothes, dealing constructively with reality, being as cheerful and as positive as ever.
"This team works so hard," she said as she watched her mates practice. "They're not going to quit. I'll be cheering them on. These are my girls. They're there for me and I'm going to be there for them, no matter what."
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