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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Athlete Is Back With Fixed Knee

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
          Sharalynn Barela grinned every time she had the opportunity to touch the ball.
        It didn't matter whether it was on offense or defense, a kill or a block or whether her attempt was successful, Barela came away from it with a smile. The 5-foot-7 senior volleyball middle hitter/blocker was just glad to be back in the swing of things during Estancia High's first official volleyball practice Monday.
        "My knee feels strong," said Barela, who sported a pink-with-black-straps brace on her left leg. "I was tentative jumping at first, but after a while, I did better."
        Indeed, Barela, who incurred a torn anterior cruciate ligament on her left knee during a match against Mountainair last October, was getting some air by the end of the practice and even smacked a few jump serves. She had surgery in late October and missed the remainder of the volleyball season as well as the entire 2007-08 basketball and track and field seasons as a result.
        Barela's sophomore season seemed to foretell great things for her prep athletic career.
        She won the state Class 2A girls triple jump with a leap of 34 feet, 8 1/2 inches, a distance that surpassed the state record, but the 2007 state-meet effort was subsequently ruled to be wind-aided. She also was a state high-jump bronze medalist.
        "I probably just have to look to next year," said Barela back in May before the state championships. "It'll be my senior year. I want to do well next year ..."
        Well, next year is now, and Lady Bears volleyball coach Glenda Noblitt, with a slew of athletic players on this year's squad, sees the middle, especially Barela, as the key to putting her girls back in contention for a state title.
        Noblitt has her reasons for placing the 17-year-old in the middle rather than using her as an outside hitter.
        "It's because she's agile," Noblitt said. "She can move up and down the net, and she can get up on the ball really well. And she's got a great work ethic. If she's having problems getting in sync with her setter, she'll ask the setter to work with her afterward, and sometimes she'll ask me for the key to the gym so she can work on things."
        But that knee. What about that knee?
        "It did get a little sore when we were at team camp," Noblitt said. "But we put some ice on it. Then, when we were at the Rio Rancho Jamboree, it got a little sore. But her parents got her to try taking the ankle braces off. The braces were keeping her ankles from absorbing some of the impact."
        So, a little prayer wouldn't hurt as Barela, the daughter of Ted and Janice Barela, seeks to go out with a bang in her final year as a Bear.
        Ted Barela said his daughter helped herself last school year.
        "She stayed engaged with the team, was on the bench, and she continued to learn ...," he said. "As a parent, I believe, you feel for your children, but you can't get on that emotional roller coaster with them. You've got to continue to encourage them."
        Sharalynn Barela said she loves track and volleyball equally well and would like to try to compete in one of the sports in college.
        "Especially for volleyball, to win a state championship for the team, that would be the best to win it as a team," she said.
        Harold Smith can be reached by phone at 823-7104 or by e-mail at hsmith@mvtelegraph.com.