LANDIS — Because of the torn ACL she suffered this summer, South Rowan basketball star Brittney Gaddy won’t reach some of the goals she’d set for career points and rebounds.
But Gaddy has already reached the only goal that really mattered to her.
A college scholarship.
The 6-foot-1 Gaddy signed with Division II UNC Pembroke on Wednesday.
“From the time I started playing in middle school and AAU, my No. 1 goal was for basketball to pay for college,” said Gaddy.
Mission accomplished.
Pembroke was thrilled to get a player of Gaddy’s caliber. Gaddy’s mom, Sharon, says she’s their No. 1 recruit this year. And if she regains 100 percent of her ability, “Big Britt” has every chance to be a star at that level.
Gaddy was last season’s runner-up in the county player of the year voting and scored 886 points in her first three years at South. She was looking at a rare 1,300-point career prior to the injury and was being courted by schools like Alabama and Georgia Tech before she was hurt.
“But after Brittney was hurt,” said her mother, Sharon, “the Division I schools all clammed up.”
The D-II schools kept calling, though, and Gaddy picked Pembroke from among a half-dozen or so suitors.
“Pembroke was really supportive of her,” said Sharon. “When the coaches met her, they all raised their pants legs to show her the scars from their own ACL surgeries.”
That let Brittney know that the coaches knew exactly what she’s going through in terms of rehab and just how uncertain a timetable she’s on right now.
Brittney adds that she picked Pembroke for reasons beyond basketball. She wants to be a physical therapist and Pembroke offers a pre-med program that the other D-II schools that pursued her did not.
“We’re really thrilled that she’s gotten this offer from this school,” said Sharon. “If you want to call it settling, well, it’s a good way to settle.”
Pembroke is 130 miles away — to the east. That stretches the Gaddy family a bit, as Brittney’s brother, Patrick, a football star for the Raiders a few years ago, is at Appalachian State.
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Pembroke has already told Gaddy that if it’s necessary she can redshirt next year.
South coach James Greene isn’t putting any pressure on her to rush back into uniform, either.
Greene has a huge number of post players and is confident his team can still be good without his veteran star. He’s looking at things in terms of her return being a wonderful bonus, not the make-or-break for the season.
The Gaddys aren’t sure when Brittney, who had her injured ligament replaced with a man’s, can return, either.
Brittney has a basketball in her hands every day, shoots hundreds of free throws and has been running for about a month. She’s jumping on one leg and has begun the long road back to being able to perform basketball actions like cuts and defensive slides.
“They (doctors and her physical therapist) watch me close,” said Brittney. “They’re not moving me too fast, but they do push me. They always ask me to do something I can’t do quite yet.”
Gaddy is one of the stronger female athletes in South history, an asset which has her well ahead of schedule according to most ACL recovery schedules.
Still, everyone’s best guess as to a possible return date is around the Sam Moir Christmas Classic.
“Sometimes,” said Sharon, “they tell Brittney it’ll be a little earlier than that. Sometimes, it’s a little bit later. It’s up and down. It’ll pretty much be when the doctors say go, she’ll go.”
Through everything Gaddy has stayed remarkably upbeat.
She laughs, she smiles and puts a positive — not to mention accurate — spin on playing at Pembroke instead of a D-I school.
“At Division I, I might be just a number,” she said. “At Pembroke, I’ll be a person.”
A person with a nice scholarship. And that was all that really mattered all along.
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Contact Mike London at mlondon@salisburypost.com or 704-797-4259.
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