Being a fifth year senior in a division three sport is rare, but for an athlete like Mary Hardin-Baylor's Justin Gammill -- the circumstances are even more unbelievable.
"When you hear about ACL or MCL reconstruction," said UMHB head coach Ken DeWeese, "That's actually what Justin had. He had total ankle reconstruction."
Gamill's powered through ankle problems since he was in high school, but doctors told him last season's injury would be different.
"It can get to a hundred percent, but it's going to take a lot of work and a lot of rehab. The success rate of the surgery I had was pretty high, but the amount of rehab to get back and to get better than where you were before is pretty tough."
So, instead of playing with his senior classmates, Gammill was on the bench. DeWeese said he was happy to have him.
"We gave him a clipboard and what to look for what to do and what to be responsible for. After a few games, he even began to give me suggestions for what we should do offensively and defensively and some were pretty good."
That time out fueled Gammill, now he's the cru's top rebounder and one of their key leaders.
"I try to stay positive with it. It was hard cause sometimes you want to get negative. I worked all season to get back to this point and finally got over the mental aspect."
"Not many people see the big picture. They see their picture, but [Gammill] sees the whole thing now," said DeWeese.
After five years of work and countless injuries, Gammill has one goal.
"I want to play overseas. I want to keep playing when I graduate. I've seen a bunch of my buddies play and I want to play overseas."
With everything he's gone through so far, I'm not sure you can bet against him.
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