Liz Mower has the unwavering respect of her teammates.
That fact was abundantly clear when – despite knowing that the Souderton junior would not be able to play this season – the players elected her a captain of this year’s squad.
“I don’t know how frequently that happens that players elect a teammate captain who they know isn’t going to play a minute in a game,” Souderton coach Lynn Carroll said. “She is a leader and supportive of her teammates and wants them to do well even though she’s going through personally what she’s going through.
“For them to decide that they want her as a representative of the team says a lot about Liz.”
Mower - a member of the varsity since she was a freshman - was firmly penciled in as a top player and leader of this year’s basketball squad, but everything changed in a heartbeat when she was injured late in the first half of her team’s lacrosse game against North Penn on May 10.
“When I came out, my knee hurt, but I never get hurt,” Mower said. “I went to the trainer, and I was like, ‘I’m fine.’
“I heard it pop, but I had never been hurt. I never broke a bone, I never did anything, so I’m like, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine.’”
Mower went back in the game, but she wasn’t fine.
“I realized I couldn’t go,” she said. “It was really depressing because I couldn’t play in the North Penn game, which was a big deal.”
A visit to the orthopedic doctor resulted in the diagnosis of a torn ACL.
“He didn’t even do an MRI,” Mower recalled. “He just looked at me and said, ‘You definitely tore it.’ My dad was like, ‘You can’t just tell a girl she tore her ACL,’ and I’m crying.”
A second opinion at Temple – after an MRI - confirmed Mower’s worst fears, and on June 10, she underwent surgery to repair her torn ACL.
“After that, it was all about focusing on rehabbing for three months so that I could start running again,” she said. “Those three months were probably the hardest part of it all because it was during the summer, and I really couldn’t do a lot.
“I just tried to focus on – in three months, I’ll be able to run.”
Mower seriously considered trying to come back in time for her junior basketball season.
“It would have been six months (since the surgery) just after the season started, but talking to coach Carroll and talking to my mom and dad and the doctor – they said it would be smart if I waited it out,” she said. “For an ACL, you’re not fully back until a full year.
“That was disappointing too, because I hate sitting on the sidelines. I wanted to be in the game helping my team, but I had to look at the season in a different way and try and help my team in a different way.”
During games, Mower – who has her own training regiment off site during practices - charts her team’s offensive plays, but her contributions extend well beyond helping her teammates with the X’s and O’s.
“I try to be a part of the team as much as I can even though I’m not playing,” she said. “I still feel like a part of the team, and I try to get everyone pumped and excited for the game somehow.
“I really have become close with the younger kids – I think everyone has. Every year we’re close, but this year especially we’ve become extra close, even with the freshmen. We don’t think of them as freshmen – we just like them so much.”
Mower has developed a special bond with freshman point guard Bianca Picard.
“In the summer league, she was always there, and she would be like, ‘Keep working, keep pushing,’” Picard said. “She was helping me out. If I was having a bad game – during a timeout, she would tell me what I was doing wrong and how I could improve.
“She was an upperclassmen and I have a lot of respect for her, so I started listening to her.”
The teammates became fast friends.
“We clicked right away,” Picard said. “I go to her for absolutely everything, and she’s definitely one of my best friends.
“She’s always there for me, and I’m always there for her. The bond that our whole entire team has is unreal. I don’t think any other team could relate to our bond. We’re all together, we’re one family. Honestly, I couldn’t ask for anything more perfect.”
The only thing that might have made it more perfect would have been to have Mower in uniform this season.
“I thought it would be tough, but I never realized how tough,” Mower said of being sidelined. “Sometimes I just sit there and think, ‘I just want to be in there so bad,’ but I know I can’t.
“It definitely stinks. I never realized how much I liked the sports I played until I had them taken away from me.”
Carroll acknowledged that Mower going down represented a major loss to a young Indian squad.
“It was a devastating loss for us, devastating,” the Indians’ coach said. “It’s not often you get a freshman who can play immediately and contribute right away at the varsity level, and Liz was able to do that and then contribute so much more as a sophomore.
“In a lot of ways, it was the first time for her to be in the supporting cast. She was a star in her class, and now she had to figure out how to play with the upperclassmen. She just did a great job, and I was really looking forward to this year where she was the one, she was the leader, and really it was her team.”
After the season last year, Carroll met with each of her players to discuss their personal and team goals.
“I think it was very realistic to think Liz was going to be a thousand-point scorer and our first one since I have been there,” the Indians’ coach said. “That was definitely an attainable goal for her.
“She’s the kind of kid who, the two years I had her, was always looking to get better, asking how she could get better. More impressive is that it’s all about the team for her. Individual accomplishments – I’m the one that brought up the thousand points. Who knows if it ever even occurred to her? It’s all about team first with Liz.”
Mower’s leadership to this year’s young squad has not been lost on her coach.
“She certainly would have been the leader on the court for us and she would have been a leader off the court, but it’s a more difficult job when you’re not on the court, when you’re not getting minutes and playing, and she still found a way to be a leader off the court,” Carroll said. “Liz has a personality that being a leader comes naturally to her, but it’s just not an easy thing to do when you’re not playing.
“She’s asked me several times how she can help, how she can better lead this team. I know for a fact she has taken it upon herself to help the freshmen transition to playing at this level. She was the only freshman on varsity when she was in ninth grade, which is no easy thing, and she’s experienced it all. She’s been very vocal in trying to help the younger girls through the transition.
“Playing any varsity sport is such a huge commitment, and to choose to make that commitment even though you can’t contribute in a game is a special characteristic to have.”
With just one senior on the Indians’ roster this year, the future is decidedly bright.
“I can’t wait for next year,” Carroll said. “I think Liz is going to fall right back into that role easily.”
“I’m so excited,” Mower said. “I just look at the team now – it’s going to be a good year next year.”
And look for Mower to be in the middle of the action once again.
Just the Facts
This year’s record: Souderton 7-4 SOL (11-7 overall), North Penn 8-3 SOL (13-6 overall)
Last year’s record: Souderton 13-10, North Penn 19-10
Last meeting: North Penn 54, Souderton 34 (North Penn: Steph Knauer – 16 points, 15 rebounds, Lauren Crisler – 14 points, seven rebounds; Souderton: Gabby McAndrews – 9 points, Carley Kendall – 7 points)
Last game: Souderton 56, Pennridge 31 (Carley Kendall – 17 points, Gabby McAndrews – 10 points, Bianca Picard – 9 points, Libby Wetzler – 9 points)
Central Bucks East 41, North Penn 39 (Lauren Crisler – 16 points, Shannon Knauer – 13 points)
Souderton
Projected starters:
#11 – Gabby McAndrews (5-6, Jr., Guard) 6.4 PPG
#12 – Nicole Perna* (5-2, Sr., Guard) 2.8 PPG
#14 – Carley Kendall* (5-11, Jr., Center) 12.1 PPG, 6.5 rebounds, 1.8 steals
#21 – Libby Wetzler (5-10, Soph., Forward) 7.2 PPG, 6.6 rebounds
#25 – Bianca Picard (5-5, Fr., Guard) 8.5 PPG, 5.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.7 steals
The rest of the Indians:
#1 – Allison Gallagher (5-9, Fr., Forward)
#3 – Stephanie Brown (5-5, Jr., Forward)
#4 – Katie O’Connor (5-3, Fr., Guard)
#5 – Elizabeth Mower* (5-7, Jr., Guard)
#10 – Erin Reagan (5-6, Soph., Forward) 3.3 PPG
#22 – Caitlyn Steinly (5-6, Jr., Forward)
#23 – Lindsey Kwiatkowski (5-10, Jr., Center)
*Captains
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