The fortunes of the Española Valley boys basketball team, as well as those of star guard Jerek Duda, took a serious sideways turn on the night of the Sundevils’ homecoming victory over Moriarty on Sept. 19.
As he made a tackle while playing cornerback, his leg caught while he was being shoved from behind. Something had to give and it turned out to be Duda’s leg.
While the Sundevils celebrated their biggest win of the season, Duda lay in the Española Hospital with a broken femur.
“I didn’t hear a snap,” Duda said. “Once I got hit, it was an instant burn-type feeling, almost like a dead-leg feeling. All my weight went into my leg, Once I fell, I knew something was up. I knew it was broken.”
The next day he was airlifted to Albuquerque for surgery, during which a rod was inserted in his right leg, with screws holding it in place near his knee and hip.
What followed was months of pain, therapy and uncertainty. And through it all was an unabashed desire to get back on the court where the basketball in his hands is an extension of himself.
“I love playing the sport,” he said of hooping. “I started playing when I was young. And once I found out I broke my femur, when I found out how bad I was hurt, I started crying once I saw my X-ray.”
Duda played football when he was younger and he thought he’d give it one more shot in his final season.
“I wanted to give it a try my senior year,” he said.
Duda was coming off a season in which he helped the Sundevils basketball team reach the Class 4A state semifinals while averaging 15.7 points with 3.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.9 steals. He was the only returner of the team’s big three and was being counted on to be the team’s leader as it tried to make another deep tournament run.
Instead, Española has struggled to a 4-14 record and has replaced its coach mid-season.
There is some hope with District 2 play starting this week (Tuesday against rival Pojoaque Valley) that Duda will make his return after getting cleared to play during a Friday doctor’s visit.
All it took to reach this point was an incredible amount of work, beginning about six weeks or so after the injury. That included twice a week, hour-long physical therapy sessions in Albuquerque, as well as regular workouts in Española.
“I started working out really intense,” Duda said. “Working with a therapist and with the trainer at the high school. Once my therapy in Albuquerque finished, I started going here at the hospital.”
But it all was a constant grind.
“I was trying to get my leg stronger,” he explained. “A lot of squats, a lot of one-legged balancing. Just trying to get back in the groove, get my leg right.”
And there were setbacks.
“When I was doing my therapies, three or four times a day, I went to a follow-up in Albuquerque and my leg wasn’t healing,” Duda said. “The doctor told me to take a break. When I first broke my leg, I didn’t know how long it was going to take.”
Even his grandmother, Sylvia Maestas, helped out in her way, blessing his leg with the phrase, Sana sana colita de rana, or Heal, heal, little frog’s tail.
It was all part of Duda’s effort to do everything he could to make it back to the court as soon as possible, and enlisting the aid of anybody he could get to help him.
“I was shooting the ball a lot, working out,” he said. “I was on the shooting machine and I had a lot of support. My teammates would help out. My coaches. I was never alone through the hard journey. I always had somebody there lifting me up. My brother (Jordan Duda, who plays at Northern New Mexico College). My mom (Donna Duda).”
It’s the first time Duda has had to miss time for a serious injury and it was a physical and mental challenge.
“Rehab, it was hard,” he admitted. “When I first got out of surgery, it was really tough. I couldn’t put pressure on my leg. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my family and coaches. They just stayed positive with me and helped me to stay working out. I really don’t like sitting out, so it’s been tough for me.”
Especially since the team has been struggling.
“It’s been really tough, sitting on the bench,” he said. “I have to stay positive with my team, trying to be a good teammate on and off the court. Just trying to help my team succeed and just trying to stay positive for them.”
As he gets ready to play for the first time this season, Duda anticipates easing back onto the court, playing sparingly, as he builds back up.
“Right now, I’m running, trying to get my speed back up and doing a lot of ball handling drills,” he said. “Little stuff just to get back into it. How I’m feeling by Tuesday, I’m hoping to get a little bit of playing time. Play a minute or two or three, just to get back into it slowly.”
As for the future, Duda said his dreams of playing college ball may have to be put on hold for a year and he’s exploring the option of playing in post-high school prep school to help get back into playing shape and to catch the eyes of college recruiters.
For right now, however, “I’m trying to come back and at least help a little bit,” he said.