Healthy Schrader can't wait for new season to get started
When we last visited with Lindsay Schrader, it was a solemn conversation. It was about a year ago and Schrader had just gone through surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee.
Fast forward a year and the former Bartlett High School girls basketball standout is loving life.
Funny what a successful rehab will do for you, huh?
A player who wants to be on the court every minute of every game and then some, Schrader has bounced back nicely from the injury, which took her sophomore season at Notre Dame from being an integral part of the Fighting Irish on the floor and relegated it to a role Schrader never envisioned herself being in on any basketball team.
"I had to be there for my teammates," Schrader said from South Bend earlier this week. "It was a different role."
It was a role Schrader eventually embraced and learned from. Instead of drilling jump shots, making flashy moves to the basket and grabbing rebounds, Schrader was on the bench. But instead of sitting there wallowing in her own thoughts, she participated and contributed to Notre Dame's 20-12 season in other ways.
"She learned a lot and, in some ways, benefited (from the injury)," said ND coach Muffet McGraw. "She did a great job of staying engaged and was at every practice and game. I give her a lot of credit. It's very difficult and a lot of kids wouldn't have tried to learn as much. She spent time with us in coaches meetings waiting to learn what we were doing. Her role changed last year but through it I think she became more mature."
Schrader, who led Bartlett to a runner-up finish in the Class AA state tournament in 2005 and was named Illinois Ms. Basketball that season as well as a McDonald's All-American, became a starter right away at Notre Dame. She averaged 10.5 points per game to lead the Irish her freshman season. But then, on a play at the basket in practice on Oct 10 a year ago, her right knee gave way and her sophomore season became a redshirt year.
"The first two months were the hardest but the whole season was really hard," Schrader said. "I'm a person who has to be on the floor and I couldn't stand sitting on the bench. I'd never gone through anything like this. I give credit to anyone who goes through something like this.
"But I got a different view of the game sitting next to the coaches and I think it's made me a better player. Some things you see from off the floor give you a better understanding of the game and what we're doing."
After all the rehab, a change in majors -- Schrader is now a business management major and said she's decided she'd like to be a college athletic director someday -- the former Bartlett blonde bombshell is now back, healthy and ready to lead Notre Dame to a successful season. She'll wear a brace on the knee until Nov. 9, Notre Dame's season-opener against Miami (Ohio) in the Women's NIT.
"I'm so excited," she said. "I feel 100 percent and my body is telling me I'm ready. I'm just so excited to be out there right now. That first game is going to be like my first game ever."
Schrader admits the injury has altered her physicality somewhat but she's working through that.
"I've lost some inches on my vertical but everyone tells me I'll get that back," she said. "I'm a little slower with my brace on but I'm trying my best."
McGraw praises Schrader for the way she has come back.
"We're thrilled to have her back and she's doing a great job," said the Irish's 21st year coach. "She has incredible energy, she's aggressive and she's fearless. We're expecting big things from her. We're smiling on the coaching staff."
Along the rehab trail, Schrader had incredible support from a family that missed her being on the court as much, if not more, than Lindsay herself. The injury taught Schrader life lessons as well as basketball lessons.
"I sat there and watched my team play their hearts out and I wasn't really a part of it," she said. "I wanted to be and that drove me.
"My sister and my nieces (Skyla and Shanna) were here a lot with the rest of my family. It was the care of love. I needed to laugh and I needed to understand I have a life outside of basketball. I never realized that and my friends and family showed me that basketball is not everything."
But with basketball back on the agenda, Schrader is fired up to get the season under way.
"Our team is so unique this year," she said enthusiastically. "Since I've been at Notre Dame this team is the most compatible. We get along so well and we just click. We push each other and that's what's going to win us a national championship. And I'll do whatever I can to help us win."
Healthy, a winning track record, and ready to go. That's the Lindsay Schrader we remember. Look out South Bend -- she's back and the only ones not happy about that will likely be Notre Dame's opponents.