What happened to the Lehighton girls’ basketball team last season might be best described as a “double whammy.”

On Dec. 10, 2022, Emma Repsher was driving to the basket and was fouled with :40 left to play in a close game against Northern Lehigh. She made contact and fell hard to the floor. Despite crying through the intense pain in her knee that prevented her from straightening it out - and against the advice of the game’s officials - she limped to the line and took her foul shots. Seconds later, she was fouled again. But this time, she could barely stand and had to come out of the game.

Twenty-seven days later, on Jan. 6, 2023, teammate Charli McHugh rebounded a missed foul shot late in the game against North Schuylkill. While dribbling the ball on a fast break, she changed direction and felt an immediate pop and a sharp pain in her knee. She could not continue.

Double trouble

“I thought the worst, but still hoped for the best,” said Repsher. “I remember thinking, ‘this can’t be happening to me.’”

At first, doctors thought she had a dislocated patella or kneecap bone.

“I went home and had to wait a few days to get an MRI on my knee,” she said. “I was still in a lot of pain and on crutches because my leg couldn’t bear weight.” The MRI conclusively showed a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and surgery was scheduled.

For McHugh, x-rays showed nothing definitively. She was hoping that it was no more than a bone bruise, but like her teammate, an MRI proved she too had sustained a torn ACL.

“I never had an injury before,” said McHugh, “and now I was facing surgery. It was a pretty scary thing.”

According to a recent article by the Aspen Institute, the amount of ACL injuries in high school sports has increased significantly in the past 15 years, especially with female athletes. Statistics have shown that girls, because of anatomical differences, sustain ACL injuries nearly twice as much as boys in soccer and basketball, the two sports that cause the most injuries.

To have two major knee injuries happen to star players in such a short period of time was something Lehighton head coach Joe Berezwick had difficulty comprehending.

“We were snake bitten for sure,” he said. “In my 25 years of coaching, none of my teams had ever lost two key players to the same injury, one right after the other.”

The return and the results

Repsher needed three surgeries to repair her knee, which involved grafting a tendon to replace the damaged ligament.

“I had an infection after the first surgery, so I needed two more to clean out the wound,” she said. “It was all pretty scary, like I was in a bad horror movie.”

“They had me walking with assistance before my surgery, “said McHugh, “and right after, I was moving my leg again to begin the rehab.”

It normally takes about nine months of healing and therapy for athletes to return to an athletic activity following surgery, but Repsher and McHugh both resumed playing soccer with knee braces about two months ahead of schedule.

“I was a bit nervous coming back for soccer,” said McHugh about her August return to the playing field, “I got some tendonitis in my knee which is pretty common, but for the most part the soccer season went really well.

“Even though I already played several months of soccer, I think returning to play basketball was even more of a challenge because of the hard floor and changing directions at full speed.”

Through the opening half of the basketball season, both McHugh and Repsher have had outstanding results.

“Emma is fearless and relentless on the court,” said Berezwick. “She’s our leading scorer, averaging nearly 13 points and seven rebounds a game. Charli plays with such heart and desire. She is our second leading scorer with nearly 11 points a game, and she is averaging six rebounds.

“If you didn’t see the knee braces, you’d never know they had such serious injuries.”

Berezwick has been humbled by the determination of his two captains to come back and contribute like they have after their injuries.

“I remember when they both went down in such pain ... and now to see what they are accomplishing after countless hours of rehab is just incredible,” he said. “Something like this will go beyond the game. The determination they showed will help them be successful in life.

“Someone once told me that true competitors turn every setback into a comeback, and I think Emma and Charli are great examples of that.”

Repsher, a junior, and McHugh, a senior, say that their ordeals - and the possibility of having their favorite sports taken away from them - have put everything into perspective.

With Lehighton currently sporting a 7-8 record, Repsher and McHugh have put their injuries behind them as they dedicate themselves to helping the Indians finish the regular season strong and qualify for postseason play.

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SUPER SATURDAY ... The Panther Valley boys basketball team had a memorable Saturday in its 69-53 victory over Jim Thorpe. In the game, the Panthers’ Stephen Hood poured in a game-high 25 points and in the process, became only the sixth boys player in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. In addition to that milestone, Drew Kokinda became the program’s all-time leader in three-point shooting, burying his 174th career trey in the game. That allowed him to pass the mark of 173, which was held by Brandon Stilitino.

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MILESTONE WINS ... Palmerton’s Ken Termini and Tamaqua’s Jim Barron both won the 100th games of their head coaching careers within the last week. Termini reached the milestone on Thursday, Jan. 11 when Brayden Hosier scored a game-high 27 points in a 73-44 victory over Moravian Academy. The win improved Termini’s career record to 100-79. Barron reached the mark on Monday, Jan. 15 and it happened in dramatic fashion. Trailing by 11 points entering the final period, the Blue Raiders rallied for a 76-74 victory over Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg to give Barron the milestone victory.

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ON FIRE ... Palmerton senior Matt Machalik scored a season-high 45 points in an 88-63 victory over Palisades on Tuesday night.

Not only was it the highest scoring game this season by an area basketball player, but it ties Machalik for the fourth highest single-game point total in the Times News area in the last 36 seasons.

Since the 1988-89 season - when the paper began logging individual game statistics - only Brian Balliet of Jim Thorpe (55 points against Williams Valley on 2/2/95); Joe Gower of Lehighton (52 points against Palmerton on 2/1/91); and Rene Figueroa of Panther Valley (47 points against Blue Mountain on 1/22/19) have scored more points than Machalik.

Three other players - Tyler Fritz of Marian against Minersville on 1/22/19; Kysheem Lynch of Jim Thorpe against Palmerton on 12/29/08; and Joe Gower of Lehighton against Stroudsburg on 1/26/90 - also scored 45 points in a game.

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STREAKING ... The Marian girls basketball teams stayed hot, running its win streak to 13 games with a 61-42 victory over Lourdes Regional on Monday, Jan. 15. Since suffering a season-opening loss to unbeaten Scranton (11-0), not only haven’t the Fillies lost, but they’ve rarely even been challenged. Only one of the Fillies’ 13 wins has come by less than 13 points, and their average margin of victory in the games they’ve won is over 32 points.

The Fillies aren’t the only area team on a nice roll right now. Both the Panther Valley and Northern Lehigh girls teams are currently riding five-game win streaks, while the Northwestern boys and Palmerton girls have both won four straight.

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LEAGUE CHAMPS ... Northwestern’s Trent Croll and Luke Fugazzotto, along with Northern Lehigh’s Sam Frame all captured Colonial League Wrestling Tournament championships on Sunday, Jan. 14.

One day earlier, Lehighton’s Aidan Gruber and Reese Balk joined Jim Thorpe Stephen Korte in winning Schuylkill League Wrestling Tournament championships.

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TOURNEY TIME ... The annual boys and girls Coal Cracker wrestling tournaments are set for this weekend at Lehighton and Jim Thorpe, respectively. The boys event will begin Friday at 1 p.m. with the 106-132 pound weight classes at Lehighton High School, while the 138-285 weights will be contested at Lehighton’s Elementary School. The boys varsity tournament will resume Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Elementary Center, with finals tentatively scheduled for 3 p.m. Awards will be given to the top eight wrestlers in each weight class. Trophies will also be awarded to the first and second place teams, and the tournament’s outstanding wrestler as chosen by the officials and tournament directors.

The girls tournament - which will feature varsity, JV and junior high divisions - will begin Friday at Jim Thorpe High School at 4:30 p.m. Action will resume Saturday at 9 a.m. There will be a Coal Cracker trophy for the individual champion, and medals will be awarded to second-through-sixth place in each bracket. There will also be a team trophy for the champion, and JV and JH Medals for top four place winners.

The boys JV tournament will take place Saturday at Lehighton High School at 9 a.m. Wrestlers eliminated on Friday night that go 0-2 or 1-2 can be added to the tournament. Medals will be awarded to the top five place winners in each bracket.

The event will feature 60 boys and girls teams, with around 700 varsity boys and 400 varsity girls competing, with teams from Ohio and Delaware set to attend.