Sixth-year guard Jacki Gemelos will be having ACL reconstruction surgery within the week . . .for the fifth time.
Gemelos suffered her first tear, on her right knee, as a senior at St. Mary's High School in Stockton, Calif. before joining the Women of Troy in 2006. Despite the injury, she was still considered one of the most promising recruits in the country and was named a McDonald's All-American. She was redshirted her freshman year and was prepared to see action in the 2007-08 season when she tore the same ACL. She spent a second year watching and rehabbing.
Finally ready to get back on the court her third season, she tore her left ACL.
While preparing for her senior season in 2009-10, the athletic training staff discovered that her left knee had rejected the graft used to repair it. She went under the knife for a fourth time, but fortunately, this procedure was followed by a much shorter rehab.
On Feb. 4, 2010 — four years after arriving at USC — Gemelos suited up and hit the court for the first time while the Trojans were away playing Cal. She had eight points, five rebounds and five assists in her debut. She averaged 7.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists after her extended hiatus.
Now a graduate student studying gerontology, Gemelos played the entire 2010-11 season and had a crucial role in USC's journey to the WNIT Finals. She earned an All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention averaging 12.4 points (third on the team), 4.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. She led the conference in three-point percentage (42.4%). Despite being her first year back in action, she managed a 3.5 GPA in her first year of her masters program and was named to the Pac-10 All-Academic First Team.
Quite appropriately, Gemelos was a finalist for the V Foundation Comeback Award.
She played for Team USA in the 2011 World University Games. Gemelos and the team walked away with a gold medal.
Gemelos started this season healthy, averaging 11.0 points, a team-high 7.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.
But on Dec. 18 during a 71-70 loss to defending NCAA champions Texas A&M, Gemelos went down in the first period with a left knee injury and did not return to the game.
"I was just trying to think about my future, and what I was going to do next," Gemelos said.
It was her first thought as she limped back to the bench to watch to the second half.
An MRI revealed that her ACL was completely torn again.
"I've never seen anything like this," head coach Michael Cooper, who won five NBA championships with the Lakers and two as a coach with the Sparks and one as a coach in the NBADL, said in a statement. "I've seen people have the same injury twice within a week or so, but never for one player to have the same injury over and over and over again."
With all Cooper has seen in his career and in Gemelos, he still believes that she can come back.
"She's been eating right, doing the right things and weight lifting, so this will be like a new injury to her, and I think it will be something that she'll overcome very quickly. She's a warrior. She'll come back."
Gemelos agrees. When she arrived as an 18-year-old freshman, she listed trying to play in the WNBA and make the U.S. National Team as her future goals. Six years and almost five surgeries later, she plans to stick with those goals.
"Though it may not seem like it right now, I think I am supposed to play basketball for a long time."
Gemelos won't deny that it is extremely difficult to stay positive, but she doesn't look back at her shortened collegiate career with any regrets. In all she appeared in 57 games, scoring 640 points, 278 rebounds, 141 assists, 72 steals and 37 blocks. Her legacy includes the title of USC's No. 1 career free-throw shooter, shooting .833 from the line.
"The six years that I've gotten to be here will always be a huge part of my life," Gemelos said. "It wasn't as much as I thought it would have, but it's what I got and I cherish that."
