Knee Injury Ends Career of DeLaittre

After four colleges in five years, Shawn DeLaittre’s college basketball career ended suddenly earlier this month.

DeLaittre, a former Simi Valley High forward, suffered a season-ending knee injury Jan. 12 while playing for Point Loma Nazarene. The 6-foot-6 senior was the leading scorer in the NAIA District 3 with a 22.9 average, including a season-high 41 points against UC San Diego.

DeLaittre was attempting a layup against Biola when he was hit from behind and knocked to the floor. He suffered a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament and tissue damage inside his left knee joint.

“I heard my knee snap and it got real quiet in the gym,” DeLaittre said. “I yelled really loud. I was laying there thinking, ‘Will I be able to play again this season?’ ”

Because of excessive swelling in his knee, DeLaittre’s surgery is scheduled for next month. His rehabilitation program is expected to last at least seven months because of the extensive damage.

DeLaittre has not decided if he will attempt to play in a professional league overseas or simply work his knee into condition to maintain his tennis game.

“I’ve been playing a long time,” he said. “Maybe it’s time to unlace my sneakers.”

DeLaittre enrolled at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1988 but did not play because of a back injury. After using that season as a redshirt year, he transferred to Valley College where he averaged 17.5 points and 8.4 rebounds in the 1989-90 season. An All-Western State Conference selection, he led WSC players in three-point shooting percentage at 54.7.

The following season, he played at NCAA Division I Eastern Washington and was third on the team in scoring with a 12.3 average. In 1991-92, his average fell to 8.6 and he became a part-time starter.

Eager to regain a starting position in his final season, DeLaittre transferred to Point Loma, where his apartment overlooks the Pacific Ocean.

While reflecting on his career, DeLaittre said: “It was kind of fun. I like meeting new people. The only thing that set me back was that some classes didn’t transfer.”

WALKING WOUNDED

The Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team was ranked third in preseason polls, but when Coach John Price says he has yet to see that highly regarded team emerge, he is speaking literally rather than figuratively.

Coley Kyman, the Matadors’ All-American middle blocker, practiced Wednesday for the first time in almost three weeks. Two weeks ago, he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery that was expected to sideline him for only three or four days.

“His biggest problem isn’t pain,” Price said. “It’s his range of motion that hasn’t come back as fast as he thought.”

Kyman didn’t play when Northridge opened its season Jan. 15-16 in a tournament at UC Santa Barbara. Ken Lynch did, but he hasn’t played since.

Lynch, a 6-5 hitter, suffered a strain in his back early this month but still played every point in the Matadors’ eight matches at Santa Barbara.

“Every day he doesn’t practice he feels a little better,” Price said, “but one side of his back is still raised about a half-inch more than the other side. It’s pretty ugly.”

Compounding matters, hitter Axel Hager is playing with a lower back strain that also bothered him last season.

“Nothing against the rest of the guys, but not having Coley and Kenny and having Axel playing 75% or 80% tends to lower the intensity of practice,” Price said.

“We’ve been practicing since Jan. 4, and we still have not had what was theoretically supposed to be our starting lineup play at the same time.”

On Wednesday, Price received more bad news. School trainers reported that Gene Urcan, a reserve middle blocker, has a compressed nerve in his back and possibly a bulging disk.

“It’s a dangerous sport, volleyball, huh?” Price quipped.

Apparently so. Even Jeff Campbell, an assistant coach, is limping. He sustained a severely sprained ankle during practice earlier this month.

HITTING STRIDE

As the Cal State Northridge women’s swimming team continues to prepare for the Pacific Coast Swimming Conference Championships, Feb. 17-20, Coach Pete Accardy is beginning to see improvement, particularly by Marti Carlson, Denise Lamoureaux, Heather Ballard, and Nicole Hudson.

Carlson lowered her career-best to two minutes, 9.40 seconds in the 200-yard backstroke two weeks ago and she came within a second of that time last weekend against UC Irvine despite missing the warm-up session because of a five-hour exam.

Lamoureaux swam her best unshaved 200 freestyle against the Anteaters (1:56.56) and her unshaved 100 freestyle time (54.60) continues to drop.

In the 1,650 freestyle, Ballard made up for an early season loss to Northern Arizona rival April Diez by defeating Diez in a intense duel at the UC Irvine Invitational. And Hudson has dropped time in the 100 freestyle (54.57) despite a recent bout with the flu.

FAMILIAR FACE

Gabriela Knizek’s reward for breezing through the first four rounds of the Cal State Los Angeles tennis tournament last weekend was a championship match Sunday against one of her Northridge teammates, Amy Marks.

“It was weird,” Knizek said. “We didn’t talk the whole match. But I had nothing to be nervous about because it was like a challenge match.”

Knizek, a junior from Grant High, downed Marks, 6-3, 6-2, for the Nos. 3 and 4 flight championships.

Knizek’s game was sharp considering she missed eight days of practice before the tournament because of flu.

“I wasn’t even gonna play,” Knizek said. “I decided to play to get the experience. I was shocked when I won.”

Knizek played No. 1 singles last season for the Matadors, but she lost her berth when a lack of preparation over the summer resulted in challenge-match losses last fall to teammates Jenny Cotone, a sophomore from North Hollywood High, and Cindy Nielson, a senior from Westlake High.

Staff writers Mike Hiserman and Theresa Munoz contributed to this notebook.