It was a normal AAU game for Haines City guard Arissa Jenkins in April 2022.
She was leading the fastbreak, dribbling up the floor, but two opponents were frantically trying to catch up to her before tripping and inadvertently falling on Jenkins’ leg, which buckled her knee and tore her ACL.
She was devastated, especially since she was already garnering Division I interest; she had averaged 17.8 points per game as a sophomore. Jenkins would go on to miss the rest of the AAU season as well as the entire 2022-23 Haines City season, though Haines City still went 10-9.
This winter, Jenkins has triumphantly made her return. And she is putting the Hornets on her back thanks to her 23.4 points per game, which has Haines City at 14-5.
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“It feels amazing being back on the court with my teammates,” Jenkins said. “It was tough sitting the sidelines watching and cheering my teammates on last year due to injury. Sitting last year also made me aware of how much you have to take care of your body and also what I needed to improve on.”
But it wasn’t always about improving her game. When her injury happened, she just wanted to get back to being healthy. Surgery took place in June 2022 and her rehab started with physical therapy in Orlando, which took about four months.
When the doctor finally gave her the approval, she started back with basketball training in August 2023.
Brandon Jenkins, assistant girls’ basketball coach with Haines City and also Jenkins father, helped with the process. Jenkins, who was once a basketball coach in South Carolina before accepting a job in Florida in 2018, knew what it would take to get Jenkins back to playing basketball. After all, he was right beside her when she started to play at age 5.
Fast forward to the current season, and Jenkins has exceeded expectations when it comes to players returning from ACL injuries.
“Last year was a very sad year for her,” Brandon Jenkins said. “With her not getting to play, that really hurt her (and) it kind of set her back as far as her recruiting is concerned, but as everyone knows when you get hurt, it takes you back a step and with her rehabilitating like she did, her taking the mode into training and everything that was brought upon her, her improvement was well beyond; she wasn’t supposed to be where she’s at right now given the injury she had. That was a career-ending injury.”
Now Jenkins has shifted her focus, and she has led the Hornets to one of the better starts in program history. Her individual and team goals are simple.
“(I want to) continue to keep God first, stay healthy, win and prove all of my haters wrong,” Jenkins said “(We want to) have fun, keep everyone focused, win, make a deep run in the playoffs and win a state championship.”
Haines City’s last regular-season game is 6 p.m. Thursday vs. Liberty at home.