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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 2002)
NAi HE BATTi Sports The Battalion Page 1 B • Wednesday, September 18, 2002 \chi 1 efu takes long road to Aggie leadership »ing. Tuesd* t 600 schocs ay activities t By True Brown THE BATTALION She knew it was bad the second she nded. ^ne loud pop, the intense pain and e k ili-u wouldn't straighten - A.D. cliilefu knew something was very Tone. It wasn't supposed to happen this ay, not while she was volunteering the Texas A&M summer volleyball Not during a practice game tended to show the campers how to lay. Not before her second year of ollftgiate eligibility. “1 e mem be i it hurting and I kind of asped," Achilefu recalls. “I don’t ^Rmber much else besides letting [a blood-curdling scream. It was orrible. Everything was torn.” ‘Everything” included her anterior ru<fiate ligament, medial collateral gament and both meniscal tissues m erleft knee. Tlie injury happened when Achilefu, ho had a 29-inch vertical jump before he Injury, went up for a ball set by for- ner player Jenna Moscovic. ; “1 remember crying and talking to some of the other girls and thinking 1 was going to get kicked off the team,” she said. “I didn’t think they would keep a hurt player. I was so ready to go ahead and make my mark on the pro gram even though it would have just been my sophomore year. There were isogmiany things going through my head, so many uncertainties.” That day, July 18, 1999, was the beginning of a long road back for Achilefu. Five weeks passed before A&M orthopedic surgeon J.P. B ram hall was able to perform surgery on her ravaged knee, and Achilefu - who was still enrolled in summer school - was left wearing an assortment of knee braces. The rehabilitation process started quickly for her. With the help of A&M rehabilitation specialist Danny Kniffen, she began exercises within days of the injury. “I started rehabing immediately,” Achelifu said. “I did exercises every day for an hour.” But like many patients who suffer similar knee problems, rehab was tax ing, emotionally and physically. “I cried at least twice a week,” she said. “It was stressful emotionally and physically, but emotionally it was hard er because you go in there and work and someone tells you you're getting better but you don’t see results for a long time. I felt like I was just staying the same and not getting any better.” She continued rehab after having surgery Aug. 1 1. After being confined to a mechanical brace for one month. Achilefu was faced with a daunting task in the second month - learning how to walk again. That meant getting past the muscles that had deteriorated in her left leg as well as tendonitis in her right leg as a result of relying on it too much. “It’s tough because you lose your balance a bunch,” Achilefu said. “I had JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION Texas A&M senior A.D. Achilefu has overcome surgery and rehabilitation to become a leader on the Aggie volleyball team this year. become so dependent on that brace that my (left leg) muscles had atro phied. You lose a lot of strength, so there were a bunch of times I would trip and fall." It would be five months before Achilefu graduated from walking and running to being able to step back on the volleyball court. After a few practices, tendonitis forced her to sit out most of the spring practices, and she was granted a med ical redshirt, saving her eligibility for the 1999 season. By the time she was ready to take the court again, her vertical jump had shrunk to 21.5 inches, and she began the process of re-learning how to jump serve, how to block, how to pass and how to hit. Along with the learning process came fear. “Every day I would worry that I would hurt myself,” Achilefu said. "There were a few times when I would fall or land really hard, and it would be so painful that I would have to sit out for the rest of the practice. All it would take would be just landing funny once and it would all be over. Two ACL injuries in a row, that isn’t do-able.” However, something very impor tant happened to her during recovery. She began reflecting on where her pri orities were and what everything meant to her. Achilefu said the recov ery and relearning process was per haps the best thing that has ever hap pened to her. “It has given me a lot of character,” Achilefu said. “I could have quit and said this is too hard and that I didn’t want to do it anymore because I wouldn’t have been able to be as good as I used to be. 1 would have been totally wrong. It made me appreciate volleyball a lot more, and appreciate my coaches and my team. I’m glad I went through that.” Now, in 2002, her vertical jump is See Achilefu on page 3B ing the fai ioIic church s the the United ations within the it churches mllion adherer® Baptists being* oup. hs In UnitedSti* ►r of adherents Ad i Baptist ion eth odist ;ai Lutheran J i Amenca 5,It ch ot ristol j / Saints i an 3.141* ’s ot God 2,56'* Tsm <i>NA ANCH Wednesday Night LIVE ALTERNATIVE MUSIC HAPPY HOUR ALL NIGHT LONG S I 00 Drafts & Blue Margaritas 520 Harvey Rd. 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Shell will be on campus this fall. Please come visit us at these upcoming events: Shell Reception - October 1 8 Engineering Career Fair - October 1 7 & 1 8 Business Career Fair - October 25 Thinking about a better future? www.shell.com /careers Shell Companies in the U.S. are equal opportunity employers. The collective expression "Shell" is used to refer to the Shell Companies in the U.S., which are separate and distinct entities. PUBLIC NOTICE BRIEF EXPLANATORY STATEMENT OF PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT Special Election NOVEMBER 5, 2002 Explanatory Brief for HJR 2 HJR 2 would amend the constitution to allow the commissioners court of a county to declare the office of constable dormant if that office has been vacant for at least seven consecutive years. The records of a constable office that is declared dormant will be transferred to the county clerk. If the office is declared dormant, the previous office holder does not continue to hold the office. The office may not be filled by election or appointment unless the commissioners court votes to reinstate the office or a majority of votes cast in an election held on the issue favor reinstatement The reinstatement election may be held if the commissioners court on its own motion orders such an elec tion, or the reinstatement election must be held if the commissioners court receives a petition signed by 10% of the registered voters of the constable precinct The proposition will appear on the ballot as follows: “The constitutional amendment authorizing the commissioners court of a county to declare the office of constable in a precinct to be dormant if the office has not been filled by election or appointment for a lengthy period and providing a procedure for the reinstatement of the office. " Este es el informe explanatorio sobre la enmienda propuesta a la constitucidn que aparecerd en la boleta el 5 de noviembre de 2002. Si usted no ha recibido una copia de los informes in espanol, podrd obetener una gratis por llamar al 1/800/252/8683 o por escribir al Secretario de Estado, P.O. Box 12060 Austin TX 78711. PUBLISHED BY SECRETARY OF STATE GWYN SHEA I I ■' i
