Kirsten Long tried. Oh, how she tried.
As a sophomore and coming off painful surgery to both calves, Long attempted to play for the Hopewell Valley Central High School girls’ basketball team after a freshman year in which she averaged 8.0 points and made 45 3-point baskets. Most girls might have sat out the season while making a full recovery, but Long wanted to help her team.
The torment was obvious, as she would struggle just to get up and down the court, exiting games with tears in her eyes after a brief playing stint.
Due to last season’s physical ailments, Long’s scoring average dropped to 5.8 points per game and she made 12 fewer 3-pointers than her freshman season. She decided to sit out AAU last summer in order rebuild leg strength.
This season, Long and Sol Ashgarcia give the Bulldogs a potent inside-out punch. Through the Bulldogs’ 13-6 start, Long was averaging 11.3 points and canned 39 3-pointers, while Ashgarcia was averaging 13.5 points. Long’s 117 threes through 19 games this year put her 63 away from breaking assistant coach Kristy Cramp’s school record of 179 threes.
“Her whole sophomore year she was in pain,” coach Jeff Losch said. “She couldn’t play more than three minutes max. I’d put her in, take her out, put her in. It hurt her a lot physically, and the mental side was tough. She just couldn’t perform at the level she expects to.”
As the season wore on, so too, did her aggravation.
“As an athlete the most frustrating thing is getting an injury like that and having to sit out and not playing at your full potential,” Long said. “It was definitely a bummer. Sitting on the bench not being able to contribute, watching your team play, that was pretty rough.”
The surgery was something that had to be done, however, as Long suffered from compartment syndrome. Her calves were pressuring their compartments and causing numbness to set in, and the pain continually increased as she played.
It finally got too much to deal with and she visited Dr. Timothy Hosea of University Orthopaedic Associates. Dr. Hosea, who passed away in 2015, cut the casings on both legs to allow the calves to expand and prevent numbness.
“I had this pain in my calf and I didn’t know what was going on and I had an amazing orthopedic surgeon,” Long said. “I went to see him right away and he immediately knew what the problem was. It was very rare. I couldn’t be more thankful because he helped me out so much and it was amazing. He got in there right away, and I got the surgery done over the summer (of 2014).”
That was just Phase One. Then came Phase Two, a painful, arduous rehabilitation.
“It was a long, drawn out process,” she said. “You can’t get up and start running right away. You can’t re-injure it. It took me really a full year. I did a lot of physical therapy, lifting. That helped a lot.”
She sat out the field hockey season as a sophomore but decided to give it a go for basketball despite not being 100 percent.
“My family and my teammates were nice about it. They said ‘You have to keep pushing through it’ and that helped a lot,” Long said. “It feels amazing this year. I’m just enjoying every minute being back at 100 percent.”
Her play is indicative of that. Losch said Long has had “great” games offensively this season. =She also filled in at point guard for several games when starter Julia Tobia was out with a broken bone in her hand, and Losch said she filled the role well.
Long has also done an excellent job as a defensive stopper on the other team’s top threat when asked, although Losch tries to spare her that responsibility in order to allow her to focus on scoring.
At 5-foot-7, Long grew up a guard since watching her brother Brett play at the Hopewell YMCA. Kirsten joined the Y team in third grade and eventually played travel ball for her dad, Bob Long.
“When I could play in an organized league, I just remember enjoying it when I stepped out on the court,” said Long, who went from travel to AAU in sixth grade. She played for Allentown coach Linda Weise before moving to Hunterdon United the past five years.
Long always knew her place was in the backcourt, and she worked hard at it. Countless hours were spent in the gym honing her jump shot, and not just long range.
Unlike many players who take the court and immediately start warming up behind the 3-point arc, Long starts within five feet of the basket and works her way back.
“I saw her in middle school, she worked really hard at it,” Losch said. “She works on her form, understands her form. She gets it, she knows how to work on her own shot. When she’s missing shots I don’t give her that much instruction, she knows her shot as well as anybody.”
Long has also worked with AAU coach Bob Tanguay on her footwork, allowing her to step back and create a shot. It’s a lot of tedious time alone in the gym but, what some would consider drudgery, Long thinks is fun.
She will, of course, play out every kid’s dream by pretending she’s in the NCAA finals and taking the final jump shot to win the championship.
“I would say I’ve won a couple,” she said with a laugh.
Long also gives sets mini-practice goals before calling it a day.
“That makes it more intense practicing when it’s by yourself,” she said. “You say ‘I have to make eight out of 10 of these or I have to do something else.’ It puts that pressure on you so you get better at playing under pressure. I’ll set a number of shots to make and if I don’t do it, I do something to punish myself.”
Long’s game is about more than shooting, however. Despite missing AAU this past summer, Losch had no concerns about any rust factor.
“She’s got such a high basketball IQ and she knows what she’s doing out there,” the coach said. “Even if she’s not making her shots she’s still very valuable out there for us. The fact she makes her shots makes things easier for our post players and other players on the team.”
It was easier for Long as a freshman, when Kara Hageman was the team’s focal point and Long was left alone to hoist open jumpers. This season, teams have used several gimmick defenses to try and stop her. Fortunately, HoVal has other players to pick up the slack, which eventually opens things up for Long.
She has also become better at creating her own shot.
“She’s shooting from deeper and shooting off the move,” Losch said. “She’s doing a pretty good job with that.”
Missing last summer’s AAU season hurt Long slightly where recruiting was concerned, but she is still getting interest and hopes to play Division III, possibly in New England.
An A student, Long is a Key Club leader and student council member. She foresees herself in the medical field, perhaps in orthopedics or pediatrics.
“That depends,” she said. “I haven’t figured it out yet.”
She has figured out, however, that having the right orthopedic surgeon makes all the difference when it comes to playing pain-free basketball.
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