Reyes Makes Short Work of Rehab

Frantz Reyes entered a basketball game almost three months early Tuesday night.

Last February, Reyes, a forward on the Chapman men’s basketball team, fell and twisted his right knee in a California Collegiate Athletic Assn. game. He had torn his anterior cruciate ligament and required reconstructive surgery similar to that performed on Danny Manning and Ron Harper of the Clippers and UCLA’s Ed O’Bannon.

Reyes was told that recovery from such surgery usually takes at least a year. Apparently, Reyes has remarkable recuperative powers; Monday, his doctor, Miguel Prietto, found his right knee to be as strong as his left and gave him his release to play.

Reyes, who has been cleared to play 15 to 20 minutes a game, entered Tuesday’s game early in the first half. He had five points and five rebounds in 19 minutes in the Panthers’ 78-68 loss to Biola.

Not a dominating performance for a player who averaged 13 points and eight rebounds his sophomore season, but merely playing was enough for Reyes.

“I knew I was going to play again,” he said. “I just didn’t know when. I didn’t know if it was going to be in January or in the last couple of games of the season.”

Reyes had been practicing with the team since October. At first he was only permitted to jog slowly in a straight line but he progressed to the point where his only limitation was on how long he could practice.

Still he had moments of doubt. Until about 2 1/2 weeks ago, his injured knee was only 47% as strong as his left.

“My knee kept getting a little sore,” he said. “I could tell that I wasn’t jumping high enough or playing the way I usually played. I was playing kind of slow.”

Since then Reyes worked harder to build his strength, then hit and surpassed the 88% strength target set by his doctor.

“It’s been a progression,” said Jack Bauerle, Chapman’s head trainer. “We haven’t just thrown him in there but he has recovered remarkably.”

Perhaps not incidental to Reyes’ quick recovery is the fact that his rehabilitation was coordinated by Chapman’s athletic training program. Usually a physical therapist would handle the therapy, Bauerle said, but Prietto agreed to allow the university to do it.

Chapman, one of the few California schools that offers an undergraduate degree in sports medicine, has a staff of 30 student trainers and equipment not found in many athletic training facilities.

Reyes said student trainer Lisa Frank, a soccer player who had recovered from the same injury, was especially helpful.

“I was motivated by her,” Reyes said. “She did it and she had no one else helping her.”

Reyes, who averaged 23 points and 12 rebounds at Cypress High, was offered the chance to redshirt this season. He declined because he plans to graduate this spring with a psychology degree.

The 1991 Chapman women’s softball team was honored as the team with the highest cumulative grade-point average in NCAA Division II softball by the National Assn. of Softball Coaches. The Panthers, who won the CCAA championship, had a 3.4 team GPA.

The association also presented Lisle Lloyd, who has a 309-206-2 record in nine seasons as Chapman coach, with a plaque commemorating his 300 victories.

College Division Notes

Rena Strange, a senior on the Chapman women’s volleyball team was selected to the college division GTE/CoSIDA District VIII All-Academic team.