Pandemic won't stop Cardinal Mooney freshman from rehabbing knee injury

On any given day, you can find Olivia Davis, a Cardinal Mooney High freshman, in her yard, using any household items she can find as cones and dribbling a basketball around them while her seventh grader of a sister, Avery Davis, chases her, trying to steal the ball. 

The workout may be unorthodox — one of her own invention, she said — but Davis, a point guard, isn't worried about that. It's what she has to do right now, so she is going to do it. There's no choice in the matter. 

Even a pandemic won't knock her off the road to recovery.

Davis, whose family moved to Sarasota from Indianapolis in 2018, was playing in a preseason recreational league game on Sept. 19 when the player she was guarding drove the baseline. Davis planted her left leg to make a cut and get in her way. 

"My knee gave out and I heard three pops," Davis said. "I immediately yelled to the bench for help. I knew right away something was seriously wrong."

Davis had torn her ACL. She had surgery to repair the ligament on Oct. 26 and was out of the hospital that night, but the injury caused her to miss her entire freshman season, instead forced to cheer on her teammates from the bench. The Cougars had their best season in years, finishing with a 20-5 record, but it might have been even better with Davis, who holds college offers from three NCAA Division I schools — Stetson, Jacksonville State and Evansville — though she is yet to play a high school game. 

"The close games were especially tough (to watch)," Davis said. "I felt like I could have helped."

Davis said her basketball IQ is one of her strengths as a point guard, a skill that can put a team over the edge if its opponent lacks it. 

Not being able to play was difficult for Davis at first, she said. It took a heavy mental toll, but Davis said she leaned on her faith and got through it. Being able to increase her workout intensity each day gave her a new sense of challenge, she said. It kept her going. 

Davis was cleared to run and jump, but not change directions, on March 6. After that date, she was in the gym with Mooney coach Rico Antonio "every day," she said, working on her shooting, until the shutdowns caused by COVID-19 concerns prevented her from doing so. The pandemic also ended her physical therapy sessions. Davis has been doing her therapy exercises at home, she said, and with all her newfound free time has been thinking of other ways to get stronger, like the dribbling exercise in her yard. 

"I have this app called HomeCourt that I use, too," Davis said. "It was developed by (NBA Hall of Famer) Steve Nash. It has a lot of drills and exercises in it. Obviously, if they were good for him, they're good for me. It has helped improve my handles a lot. I have also been doing sprints up and down hills near my house and riding my bike for four to five miles each session. Anything I can do to stay active, I'm going to do. One of the silver linings of no one playing right now, for me, is that I have a chance to catch back up."

In June, Davis is scheduled to have her next check-up. If all goes well, she could be fully cleared then, giving her plenty of time to prepare for both the high school season and play for her travel team, the Alabama Southern Starz of the Nike Girls Elite Youth Basketball League, which is widely considered the top youth league in the country. It was playing for the Southern Starz that Davis first got noticed by college scouts. 

"I can't wait to get back out there," Davis said. "Until then, I'm still here. Still working hard, every day."