STATE PREP BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS: THE OPPONENTS : Her Problem Was a Pain in the Back : Moreau’s Noleroth Now Ready for Brea

At an age when many athletes are just developing their talents, Denise Noleroth is making a comeback.

Noleroth, 17, a 5-foot-10 junior guard/forward on the Hayward Moreau High School girls’ basketball team, sat out most of last season with a painful back injury that baffled doctors for months.

But after an orthopedist finally pinpointed the problem, Noleroth returned to the court this season, averaged 16 points and was an all-Mission Valley League selection. She will be in the starting lineup Saturday in the Oakland Coliseum Arena when the Mariners (30-2) play Brea-Olinda (32-1) for the State Division II championship.

Last year, however, was like a Stephen King novel for Noleroth. Nightmares aren’t this horrible.

The problem started near the end of Noleroth’s freshman season, during which she averaged 7.5 points as a point guard and was named all-league.

Noleroth said her back got sore when she sat in classes but didn’t hurt when she played. To skeptics, this sounded like a creative ploy to avoid those mesmerizing biology and algebra lessons, but Noleroth wasn’t looking for an escape clause. It wasn’t psychosomatic.

Initially, doctors couldn’t locate the source of the pain, and diagnoses were as varied as bedside manners. One said it was spinal curvature. Another called it stress. A third disregarded it as growing pains. The latter smacked of the truth--the pain kept growing, all right.

“It was very frustrating,” Noleroth said by phone from her Castro Valley home. “I saw so many kinds of doctors. I went to chiropractors, acupuncturists. . . . I had cortisone shots. I wore all kinds of braces.”

Nothing helped. And when she began having back spasms early in her sophomore season, Noleroth turned in her uniform and became a bench cheerleader as the Mariners reached the final of the Northern California Regional. The physical pain was compounded by the emotional hurt of being unable to play.

“I would sit on the bench, and I tried to keep my chin up, and I tried to root for the team,” Noleroth said. “That’s the way I felt I could still be a part of the team.”

During the summer, Noleroth consulted Dr. Robert Gamburd, one of the San Francisco 49ers’ team physicians, at the Spine Care Center in Daly City. Noleroth said Gamburd figured the problem was internal disk disruption--a tear in one of the fibers inside one of Noleroth’s spinal disks--and recommended only therapy. Noleroth said Gamburd told her the condition eventually might disappear without resorting to surgery.

The therapeutic approach did the trick. Noleroth said the exercises, which she does at home, have improved her back remarkably. She still suffers an occasional flare-up but nothing like before.

“I do a lot of sit-ups to keep my abdominal muscles strong to support my back,” Noleroth said. “A lot of my therapy (before the season) was lifting weights (to strengthen her upper body). Once the season started, I went to a lot of sit-ups.”

Noleroth said she also must take additional precautions before and after games. “It’s really important for me to stretch before and after games. I always try to ice (the back) after games.”

Now that her physical woes are under control, Noleroth would like to give her game a clean bill of health, too. She’s not happy with her past few outings--she scored only three points in Moreau’s 74-57 victory over previously unbeaten Sacramento El Camino in the Regional championship game Saturday--but still is confident she can contribute to the Mariners’ quest for a State title.

“My teammates have been picking up the slack,” said Noleroth, who began playing on a fifth-grade boys’ team while still in fourth grade. “But I feel I can lead the team on the floor even if I don’t score a lot of points, because I have played so much basketball.”

She doesn’t have to convince Moreau Coach Paul Phelps, who said, “She’s kind of run-down and has struggled the last couple of weeks, but she’s one of the finest players in Northern California.”