ORANGE COUNTY ALL-STAR BASKETBALL : Krause Comes Back for North Girls
Allison Krause is not the type of person to let an sprained ankle keep her from playing in the Orange County All-Star basketball game.
Krause, who turned the ankle at the North team’s practice Wednesday, had to overcome a much more serious injury to play as a senior this past season.
Near the end of her junior year at Marina High School, after setting a school record for most assists in a season (175), Krause suffered the same type of injury to her left knee that has sidelined Clipper star Danny Manning.
When she tells Manning she knows what he is going through, she does know. And she does tell him.
Krause decided to write to Manning when she read about his injury. They have been corresponding and talking on the telephone occasionally ever since. Krause has even invited Manning to tonight’s All-Star game at UC Irvine’s Bren Center at 5:05. No word yet on whether he will attend.
Krause began writing to Manning, in care of the Sports Arena, to try and cheer him up.
“I just wrote him a letter and sent him a couple of articles on me and my recovery,” Krause said.
“And I said if I can do this, you can do this 20 times better than I can. I just wanted to encourage him. I gave him my phone number and address and said call me if you ever get bored doing your little leg lifts and he called me the day he got the letter.
“I couldn’t believe it. He just started asking about my knee, how it happened, about my brace.”
These days, Krause’s knee is doing well enough to earn her a partial athletic scholarship to Cal State Dominguez Hills, where she will study to be a physical therapist.
But she is still a little slower than before her surgery and though there is no pain when she plays, she said ice after games is now her best friend.
The injury occurred Jan. 19, 1988 with 19 seconds left in a Sunset League game against Huntington Beach and her team leading by three points. She remembers the day and the circumstances to the second.
Krause, a point guard, attempted to dribble away from a trap. She came to a sudden stop.
“Something went wrong,” she said. “I didn’t really know how bad it was. There was just the pain. That is what scared me the most. I had never felt anything like that before.
“I always tell my friends, take two big tug of war ropes and twist them together and twist them together until they start to fall apart and then light a flame under them, and that is what it felt like. It was just twisting and burning and twisting and burning.”
Dr. Doug Jackson, a Long Beach-based orthopedic surgeon, confirmed her worst fear. Her anterior cruciate ligament, one of the four bands that helps hold the knee in place, was torn.
Krause tried to strengthen the leg without surgery but a month later, in her first game back, her knee collapsed again.
It was time for surgery.
She came through the reconstructive surgery and three hours a day of often-painful rehabilitation to captain the basketball team her senior season. She averaged 5.7 points and 6.5 assists per game for a 17-9 team.
Krause finished her high school career as Marina’s career assist leader (535).
But it took a while to get back to form.
The old Allison Krause dove for loose balls. The Allison Krause with the repaired knee did not.
“I used to (say), ‘Oh, you can take that. I don’t want to hurt my knee.’ ”
She is a lot more aggressive now, Krause said. She goes up strong for layups and is not afraid to go up in a crowd.
The North will need all the aggressiveness it can get to even the score with the South team.
The South has eight victories in the 11 all-star games.
Notes
Starting for the South: forwards Keri Erkenbrack of Canyon and Kristen McDonald of Valencia, center Holly Anderson of Capistrano Valley, and guards Christa Ramirez of Canyon and Kristen Bevis of El Toro. Starting for the South: forwards Lisa Rios of Savanna and Joni Easterly of Katella, center Wendy Carlson of Katella, and guards Stacey Hisaka of Fountain Valley and Heidi Sorour of Loara. . . . The South squad is coached by Stan DeMaggio of Capistrano Valley with assistant Mary Mulligan of San Clemente. Brad Pickler of Savanna, assisted by Barb Bausch of Katella, coaches the North.