Basketball, Track&Field
Favorite athlete: Ronda Rousey
Favorite team: Philadelphia 76ers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Senior Night this year
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: In seventh grade at basketball practice, someone hit me in the eye, and I got a black eye. Then a few days later, I made my Confirmation with a black eye, and the Bishop asked me if I got into a fight.
Music on mobile device: Vance Joy, Train, the Beatles, George Ezra, Tom Petty, Khalid
Future plans: Attend Swarthmore College where I’ll play basketball and most likely major in biology
Words to live by: “Well done is better than well said,” -Ben Franklin
One goal before turning 30: Complete medical school
One thing people don’t know about me: I eat between 4,000 and 5,000 calories a day.
By Mary Jane Souder
Dana Bandurick will never take competing in sports for granted.
Sure, there may have been times in the Council Rock North senior’s stellar athletic career when that might have been the case, but those days are over. Ask Bandurck how much she appreciates being on the court with her basketball team, and her joy is unmistakable.
“I am so ridiculously happy,” she said. “After spending so much time out – there are just random times when I’m in practice or we’re at a game or in the locker room, and I’ll think about how happy I am to be there with my team and playing a sport I love. You appreciate it a lot more after you miss out on a lot.”
Bandurick certainly knows all about ‘missing out on a lot.’ On March 10, 2017, she tore the ACL in her right knee. A week to the day a year later, on March 3, 2018, Bandurick tore the ACL in her left knee.
If anyone ever had a reason walk away from basketball, Bandurick certainly did.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking she might not come back because when she went down for the second time, she knew,” Rock North coach Lou Palkovics said. “I could hear her scream saying, ‘Not again, not again.’
“I’ve had a bunch of girls that had knee surgeries and have come back from them. She just seems to have come back stronger and quicker.”
If that sounds impossible, you haven’t met Dana Bandurick. Yes, she admits she did some soul searching when she tore her second ACL.
“A lot of people thought I was crazy when I came back from my first one,” she said. “Two ACL injuries – that’s a lot to deal with.
“I really thought hard about if it was worth coming back. It’s a huge commitment to think about. I tried to imagine not playing basketball and not continuing this huge part of my life. I couldn’t imagine not doing it.”
Bandurick isn’t just playing basketball for the sake of playing, she’s excelling. Through 22 games, she averaged 17.3 points and 8.3 rebounds with 51 blocked shots and 57 steals.
“People don’t realize what she does offensively,” Palkovics said. “A lot of times when we run breaks off turnovers or getting the ball in quick, it’s no passing.
“She’s so fast, she can beat most big people down the floor. She’s so athletic, tall and lanky. She can play the middle and block shots, she times people’s shots, she can step away, and her leadership has been unbelievable.
“What she’s done as a person – these girls have so much respect for her. Blowing one knee out, I’m thinking I’m not playing anymore. Blow two knees out and she’s still battling back and playing at this kind of level. It’s unbelievable. I’ve had some really great players. Her story is no story I’ve ever experienced before as a coach.”
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Interestingly, soccer was Bandurick's sport of choice as a youngster.
“I thought that was my main sport, and I didn’t actually try basketball until I was in second or third grade,” she said. “I remember I didn’t really want to play. I don’t know why. My mom kind of made me play it, and I ended up really enjoying it.
“I ended up playing with Upper Makefield, and that’s where I met all the seniors I play with now. Cam (Polinsky), Sydney (Blum), Liv (Boyle) and I – we all started playing together for Upper Makefield, so we’ve played together for a really long time.”
Bandurick opted to give up soccer when she reached middle school and added track to her resume. Track also proved to be a perfect fit with high jump and the mile her two main events.
“High jump people are normally sprinter types, but that’s how it happened,” she said. “I like distance, and when I run, I get really competitive. The nice thing about track is you can always control how you’re doing pretty much.”
As a freshman, Bandurick cleared a top height of 5’1” and earned a spot in districts. She plans to return to the track team this spring.
After seeing some varsity action for the basketball team as a swing player her freshman year, Bandurick was a fixture in the lineup as a sophomore. The script was going exactly as planned, and even after she went down with her first knee injury on that fateful March day, it didn’t initially appear to be cause for serious concern.
“I didn’t realize it was torn, so I went back in and finished the game,” she said. “It wasn’t hurting that much. It was just a very weird scenario because usually you don’t continue to play after that.
“I also played in the next game and didn’t realize it was actually torn until April 5.”
Two days later, Bandurick underwent surgery.
“Usually, it’s common after an ACL tear for the leg to swell up a lot, and it’s very obvious there’s some sort of trauma, but I didn’t have a lot of swelling in my knee joint, so that’s why I was able to get my surgery so soon after I knew,” she said.
Seven months and 15 days after she had surgery, Bandurick was cleared to play. A standout junior season that saw Bandurick earn second team All-SOL National Conference honors came to an abrupt end when she went down in a district playback game against Neshaminy.
"As soon as I went down, I knew it was the same thing," Bandurick said. “The first one – I don’t think the implications of the injury really sank in until after the surgery. I knew it would be hard, but I didn’t know exactly what it entailed. I wasn’t devastated.
“I was pretty upset when it happened, but the second time I’m not going to lie – it was pretty devastating. It was very frustrating after going through the months of rehab to get back to where I was, and I was just getting confident again, but I came back a lot stronger after my second rehab. It seems like a huge obstacle to overcome, but getting over it, I feel a lot more confident now and stronger than I’ve ever been, so I have to believe in my knees.”
This winter, Bandurick surpassed the elusive 1,000-point plateau, and she did it in style, scoring the game-winner in Rock North’s 59-56 win over Bonner-Prendergast at the Maggie Lucas Classic and finishing with 25 points, 14 rebounds, eight steals and three blocked shots. It was vintage Bandurick, who can do it all on the basketball court.
Bandurick’s comeback didn’t just happen. She went through a grueling rehab and continues to work out as much as possible.
“Before I was cleared, it was probably five days a week or six days a week, depending on what I was doing with PT or lifting or working out with my other trainer,” she said. “In season, when we were playing in the conference, I tried to do at least three times a week, sometimes four.
“Last week I only worked out twice. That makes me uncomfortable because I like to work out a lot. It makes me feel safer. Knowing that you’re stronger – there’s scientific evidence to show that when you have a weakness of your joints or bones, your muscles can compensate for that. Also, it just makes you feel better emotionally knowing you’re stronger.”
The fact that Bandurick has been through two knee surgeries has made the last two years a bonus of sorts for Palkovics and the Indians. When Bandurick recently felt some discomfort in her knee, the Indians’ coach immediately opted to rest his senior standout.
“I told her, ‘You’ve given me four years – to blow your one knee out and come back and then blow your other knee out and come back, I never expected these extra years you’ve given us. My job now is to make sure you’re ready to play college basketball,’” Palkovics said.
Bandurick will continue her basketball career at Swarthmore College.
“I didn’t even know Swarthmore was a college until summer going into my junior year,” she said. “I was very excited to hear about it because I didn’t know there was such a great D3 school pretty close to me.
“As soon as I took the tour, I had a good feeling about the place. I loved the environment and the coaches were so nice and the team was really nice.”
The school also is a perfect fit for Bandurick academically, who plans to major in biology with her sights set on a career in medicine.
“I really want to go to medical school and become some kind of doctor,” she said, admitting she is leaning toward specializing in orthopedics. “Swarthmore has a really good reputation. Their students have one of the highest acceptance rates in medical schools.
“That was definitely very interesting and a benefit for me. Since it’s a liberal arts school, I’m not just a pre-med student. I can still take the classes that are for pre-med programs and that I need to get into medical school, but I can also explore other interests.”
An outstanding student, Bandurick – who is taking three AP classes - is a member of the National Honor Society, Rho Kappa Social Studies Honor Society and the Spanish Honor Society.
“She’s a great kid, her parents are so extremely nice and supportive,” Palkovics said. “It was a great recruiting process to be part of. I think she’s going to do great at Swarthmore.
“Do I think she got cheated a little bit? She got cheated a little bit because of two long summers of no recruiting, just working on rehab. I always say Swarthmore got a steal. I tell her all the time. I thought this girl was a lower Division I player, but she’ll do really good at Swarthmore.”
“I’m very happy with how it worked out,” Bandurick said. “I couldn’t have asked for it to be any better.”
