‘Very impatiently patient’
Melendez bounces back from shoulder surgery to help guide Portage forward
Portage junior Ava Melendez was smiling.
She might have been the only one.
When the 5-foot-1 point guard slipped during a recent practice, the entire workout grinded to a halt, and everyone fell silent.
“We know what she went through to get back,” Portage coach Jovanny Gonzalez said. “She got up laughing, but everybody else freaked out because they know how much it meant to her to be playing this year. For a split-second, we were all worried, like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ That’s where your brain goes. But luckily she was OK. Nothing was wrong.
“It’s just one of those things where everybody loves her and loves to be around her. We have a lot of kids on our team that are like that, but she personifies that for us right now.”
Melendez missed all but one game last season after undergoing surgery for a torn labrum in her right shoulder. She’s averaging 13.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists this season for the Indians (3-2).
“This year I’m just trying to make up from last year,” Melendez said. “I always feel like I can play better. I’m definitely hard on myself. But I’ve been playing all right, and it’s definitely just good to be out there.”
After playing significant minutes off the bench as a freshman, Melendez was slated to start at point guard last season. Now she’s demonstrating that ability.
“She’s a kid who’s been around our program it feels like forever,” Gonzalez said. “Even when she was in fourth, fifth, sixth grade, she was around our program, our camps. We always knew who she was, and she always played up with a lot of those kids.
“That made it harder for her because a lot of those kids who graduated last year, she was playing with them since she was in third, fourth, fifth grade. She wanted to play with them their senior year.”
But it wasn’t to be.
During the summer before her sophomore season, Melendez said she went up for a rebound and “got tangled” with another player, and her shoulder “popped out of place.”
She had to wait until she turned 16 to have surgery, which took place Oct. 22, 2021, the day after her birthday.
In the interim, Melendez played golf last fall, putting together the best of her three high school seasons in that sport, despite her shoulder “constantly popping out of place” and her hand “going numb,” she said.
Gonzalez had an explanation. “She couldn’t practice basketball, so her time and energy went into golf,” he said. “She’s that competitive. She couldn’t be in the gym shooting, so she would go hit golf balls and find a way to work on her game.”
Still, it wasn’t the same.
“I was just waiting to play basketball,” Melendez said. “Basketball is my main sport. I was very impatiently patient waiting to play.”
Melendez was told she would be back on the court seven months after surgery. She did it in a little more than three, scoring seven points in Portage’s loss to Crown Point in a sectional opener Feb. 1.
“I actually felt like I was ready to go two months out of surgery,” Melendez said. “Everybody always had to tell me to put the ball down, stop shooting. But I felt I was ready. I know my body, and I wanted to go.
“I did everything good, and I knew I needed to be patient to get better. But I was also doing things like taking my sling off when I shouldn’t have and dribbling the ball when I shouldn’t have and shooting 3-pointers when I shouldn’t have. But it all worked out in the end. I was just really excited when I got to play.”
Still, Melendez was diligent in her recovery. She attended physical therapy sessions four or five days a week. She did the optional home workouts she was given three times a day. Three hours a day, she also used a chair designed to promote the strengthening of the shoulder’s soft tissue and to improve its range of motion.
“The physical therapist actually was very surprised I got that chair because very few people get it,” Melendez said. “The doctor was one of the few who gave it out to me, and we rented it out for however long I needed it. That definitely helped me get back a lot faster.”
Gonzalez also was pleasantly surprised to have her available for the postseason.
“I’ve never seen anybody rehab from an injury harder,” he said. “The doctors checked her out. They wanted to make sure she couldn’t do any more damage or reinjure it, and they cleared her. We almost didn’t believe it. Our trainer was kind of the same way. But the doctors all signed off, the trainer signed off. They said she was good to go.
“She just attacked her rehab. She couldn’t stand to be out as long as she was. That just shows her work ethic and her love for the game. This is what she does. She plays all year round. It’s hard to keep her out of the gym. She definitely puts in the work to be the kind of player that she is.”
Melendez recalled her game against Crown Point last season. Sort of.
“I don’t even know if I was there,” she said. “It felt like I wasn’t there. I was, obviously. But in my head, I was so excited and had so much adrenaline. It was fun. It was one game, but I know all my work to get back there. I was proud of myself that I even got to make it to one game.”
Physically and mentally, playing in that game was a hurdle cleared for Melendez. Furthering the process, she absorbed several blows to her shoulder this past summer, emerging unscathed and putting her in position to excel this season.
Melendez said she wants to average 15 points, five rebounds and four assists. But mostly she wants to help a developing and potential-laden Portage team have success.
“She’s a fearless player,” Gonzalez said. “She gets rebounds from the point guard spot and at her size — she had eight rebounds against South Bend Washington, the No. 1 team in the state, seven Division I kids, one of the best teams in the country. She just scraps and claws for every rebound. She plays with a lot of heart and obviously has a lot of skill to go with it.
“She’s a pure point guard and one of our leaders. As hard as she is on herself, she’s a positive one to her teammates. She’s just worried about us winning. She understands whatever the team needs of her that night, she’s going to step up and do. She’s really selfless. That’s the type of teammate she is, and the kids love playing with her.”