Hockicko Does Her Legwork

There are plenty of success stories on Woodbridge High’s top-ranked girls’ tennis team, but none more enjoyable to tell than junior Adriana Hockicko’s.

It was about a year ago that Hockicko collapsed during practice, holding her left knee. Her teammate, Danielle Hustedt, remembers the scene.

“Her knee completely popped out,” Hustedt said. “People were freaking out. Then all of a sudden she popped it back in. It was scary, but she wasn’t too scared.”

It’s easier to remain calm when you’ve been through the drill before. Four years earlier, Hockicko had dislocated her right knee while practicing at Los Caballeros Racquet Club with her private coach, Wojtek Pietrowski.

“This was so ugly, the cup of the knee was outside the skin,” Pietrowski said. “I’ve never seen anything so bad in my life. I give Adriana a huge amount of credit for even playing tennis after that. Most girls would have stopped playing.

“If this would not have happened, I think Adriana would be in the top 10 in Southern California right now.”

Maybe, but Hockicko hasn’t spent much time feeling sorry for herself. After each injury, she has come back even stronger. Her teammates say she’s currently playing the best tennis of her life.

A summer of running, lifting weights and eating healthier has given Hockicko a stronger mind, lighter body, and a tougher game. She is 30-3 in singles and 9-0 in doubles for the Warriors (16-0, 8-0 in league).

“The biggest thing she gives us is her versatility,” Woodbridge Coach Joan Willett said. “She has a fine serve-and-volley game and that helps us in singles and in doubles. She’s now able to push off that leg and get in to the net.”

One of Hockicko’s losses was to Mater Dei’s Melissa Esmero, 7-6. Esmero is the top-ranked 16-year-old in Southern California and a former doubles partner of Hockicko’s. Three of her doubles victories came with April Artunian in a 10-8 victory over then top-ranked Corona del Mar.

“I was a little shocked to be playing so well, but I worked really hard over the summer,” Hockicko said.

She spent three days a week at Los Caballeros, lifting weights and running. She also decided that junk food would no longer be part of her diet.

“I used to eat French fries and cookies when I came home after practice,” she said. “But I’ve started eating more vegetables and salads. I lost a couple pounds and I feel a lot lighter out there.”

Hockicko also believes her legs are much stronger than they were last year. If she had taken better care of her legs, Hockicko said she might have been able to prevent her second knee injury.

“I guess it happened because I wasn’t exercising and my knees were weak,” she said. “The doctors also said I grew too fast and the knees didn’t have enough muscle around them.”

Incredibly, Hockicko missed only about a month of her sophomore tennis season. But when she came back, she was only able to play doubles and she did that very carefully.

“I think a lot of it was fear that she was going to re-injure herself,” Willett said. “When you’ve injured both knees like that, it’s going to be on your mind.”

Said sophomore Susanna Lingman, who beat out Hockicko this year for the No. 1 singles spot during fall tryouts: “We didn’t really know how she would come back from her injury, but we were hoping for the best.”

Once the season began, Lingman and her teammates stopped hoping and started believing.

“I think she’s changed her game mentally,” Lingman said. “She realizes that she has to take advantage of what she has and I think that’s made her more focused.”

And more confident.

“The biggest thing about overcoming an injury is mental and I think she’s done that,” Willett said. “She seems to be a lot more confident about what she is doing. I’m really proud of her.”