Yet, St. Anthony's senior point guard Chris Jimenez was on the court Jan. 18 in Hicksville, unloading a seemingly endless supply of three pointers against a Holy Trinity squad powerless to stop him.
He finished with a game-high 21 points, highlighted by a second quarter scoring burst in which he drained five three pointers against the first-place Titans. Not bad for a kid who, only nine months earlier, didn't think he would ever pick up a basketball again.
Jimenez had just finished a game for the St. Elizabeth summer league at Walt Whitman High School in South Huntington when he and friend Pam Gagliano went searching for food. It was dark.
Jimenez was being courted by several colleges, including Navy, and relishing the prospect of a weekend basketball tournament in Washington, D.C. Life was good.
In the blink of an eye, tragedy struck.
A 1996 bluish / gray Honda Civic struck Jimenez as he was crossing Jericho Turnpike. The car swerved and then took off, leaving Jimenez lying in the middle of a busy intersection with an "ice cream scoop" sized dent in his left leg.
His leg — and hopes of a college scholarship — were seemingly shattered, the victim of a hit-and-run. Police have yet to catch the driver. And for Jimenez, the accident still vividly replays in his mind.
"It's like a nightmare. Every time I see a car that resembles it, I keep in the back of my head what happened," Jimenez said. "I think about the driver all the time. If that was me and I would have hit somebody, I would have definitely stopped to see if they were ok."
It would have been easy for self-pity to take over. Instead, Jimenez fought to regain his life.
Jimenez was placed in a cast from his hip down before undergoing surgery to insert a steel rod and four screws into his knee and ankle. His leg was shattered, and so seemed the Friars basketball season.
The injury was severe enough that coach Mike Ryan doubted Jimenez would return. St. Anthony's would attempt to repeat as Nassau-Suffolk CHSAA Class A champions without the 5-9 point guard — one of the best in the state.
Immediately after the injury, Jimenez couldn't even stomach the word basketball, let alone watch a game on television. "I didn't want to say it, or believe it, but I really didn't think I was going to play anymore," Jimenez said.
When they cut off his cast, he couldn't extend his leg a full 180 degrees. He had dropped from 160 pounds to 135 and was afraid an accident or fall would land him in the emergency room again.
To call his recovery a miracle would be an understatement.
But Jimenez approached rehab the way he approaches basketball: "All out. I don't know any other way."
He suffered through months of agility and flexibility training, while his friends and teammates quietly urged him on. The college recruiters were gone, but it didn't matter. All he wanted to do was win.
Finally, he had had enough. Watching his team suffer an embarrassing rout in a scrimmage against Holy Cross was the boiling point. "I'm the team leader," Jimenez said. "Me taking stats doesn't help the team."
So when coach Ryan asked Jimenez if he was ready to return to the court, Jimenez knew he couldn't let the team down. He had to go through with this.
Jimenez made his return to the court on Dec. 23 at home against Fordham Prep to thunderous applause. His friends and family were looking on. They couldn't have been any prouder — even if Jimenez was a bit rusty.
"I was cold all night; I was just trying to get rid of the nerves."
But if he was cold against Fordham Prep in his comeback, he's certainly heating up now. And his coach knows just how important he is. "Just having him here on the court is enough," said Ryan. "He's the sparkplug, the catalyst. He has a winning attitude."
Need proof? Witness the dazzling offensive display he put on last Friday. Jimenez accounted for 15 of the Friars 17 points in the second quarter, flashing a big grin each time one of his quick-strike quick three pointers swished through the net.
But Jimenez and the Friars have bigger things on their minds. They won't be satisfied unless they can build upon last season's giant success — winning the league title.
So far, things are looking pretty good. The Friars are 3-1 in league play heading into Friday's game at St. Dominic. And the comeback kid, Jimenez, is leading the way.
PROFILE: CHRIS JIMENEZ
