BASKETBALL: Robinson’s ‘one more year’

Cursed? That thought has crossed Krystal Robinson’s mind the last several years – though it is her knees, not her mind, that seem to be under some sort of diabolical spell.

Now, however, it’s a case of mind over matter for the former Kentridge High basketball star.

With a passion on the court that clearly makes her more driven than most of her hoop-playing counterparts, Robinson – who in recent years seems to have spent as much time rehabbing as she has rebounding – will give the game one final go this coming winter when she returns to action at Western Washington University.

Six years after enrolling at the Bellingham school – and two years longer than she ever imagined she’d be there upon making her college decision way back in 2003 – the 6-foot-1 forward knew she wasn’t ready to let go just yet.

Even if those oft-injured knees might be insisting otherwise.

“A lot of my basketball friends are always saying, ‘If I had one more year,’” said Robinson, who announced in June – just four months removed from her third knee surgery and shortly after finishing her first year as a WWU assistant coach – that she will lace up her hightops and be back in uniform when practice begins in October

“Well, this is my dream coming true.”

If it has not been one knee causing problems for Robinson, it has been the other. So the player who once stood out in green and gold has been decked out more recently in red. Not one, but two years during her collegiate career at Western, Robinson has been forced to sit the sidelines as a redshirt.

Cursed?

“I think so,” Robinson said while delivering a slight chuckle that indicates she’s ready for a battle. “I just think that once I (injured my knee), my body kind of compensated for that and maybe in return, it happened to the other … I’m not sure why this is happening to me.”

It has been a long haul for Robinson. Many athletes going through what she did likely would have cashed in their chips and called it a career.

Robinson, however, wasn’t ready to do that.

Quite the contrary.

Matter of fact, those competitive juices that made Robinson one of the finest basketball players Kentridge High has produced during the last decade are coursing through her veins as strong as ever.

Of course, there’s one catch: Robinson will have to rehabilitate her left knee.

Again.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go for Robinson, who still owns Kentridge records for career points (906), rebounds (634) and blocked shots (278). But since graduating from high school, the 24-year-old hoopster has been a lightning rod for knee injuries.

Robinson’s roller coaster ride began in January of 2004, when her first collegiate season was cut short after 15 games when she tore the anterior cruciate ligament of her right knee. Robinson made a triumphant return the following season, playing in all 29 of Western’s games, averaging 6.7 points and 3.3 rebound. She also ranked 14th nationally in blocked shots, averaging 2.5 per game.

Her college future could not have been brighter.

“I just loved how she was aggressive on the court,” Western Washington coach Carmen Dolfo said. “She played with energy and heart.”

That energy and heart, however, were quickly derailed the following season. Just two games into the Vikings’ schedule, Robinson landed awkwardly during a preseason game.

The result?

A patella stress fracture in that same right knee.

Rather than a full slate of games on the horizon, Robinson was left holding a consolation prize: Her first medical redshirt season.

Instead of asking, “Why me?,” Robinson took out her frustrations on rehabilitating that balky right knee. She returned for her junior season stronger than ever, averaging a career-best in points per game (10.1) and rebounds per game (5.3) on the way to earning All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference honorable mention accolades.

Once again, life was good.

But four games into her senior season, Robinson again went down, this time with a torn ACL in her left knee.

That was the final straw, Robinson thought at the time.

“I had done it before and I knew how it felt,” said Robinson, who ranks second on Western’s all-time blocked shots list with 190. “I knew it was torn and I had always told myself that if it happened again, I was done. I thought it was God sending me a message that it was time to be done.

“I was going to end (my career) right there.”

Dolfo could feel Robinson’s pain.

“It was so disappointing,” the coach said. “She had worked so hard to get back. I have never had to see anybody – other than Krystal – have to deal with so many injuries.”

Of course, the hardest part in the career of any gifted athlete is knowing when to step down. Robinson firmly believed that her time had come.

So instead of wallowing in self pity, she turned to coaching, joining Dolfo on the sidelines. But rather than easing out of the game, coaching rejuvenated Robinson’s passion to play. And with another medical redshirt available to her, Robinson figured she couldn’t give in to her knees while her mind remained poised as ever.

“It’s hard to explain,” admitted Robinson, who received a degree in general studies last spring and now plans on entering the nursing field so she can become an RN. “But I’ve played the sport forever and I just can’t give it up,”

Especially with one year of collegiate eligibility remaining.

So if all goes as planned, she will be ready to suit up – and possibly regain her starting role – for the Vikings this November.

“I know a lot of people think I’m crazy for doing this,” she said. “But I am going to prove them wrong.”

Prove them wrong with her legs – and her knees.

Because as the season draws nearer, that’s all that will be on Robinson’s mind.