CLEVELAND, Tenn. —You’ll have to forgive former Cleveland High School basketball standout Kara Williams if she was a bit nervous after learning she would be in the starting lineup for Lee University’s Nov. 4 exhibition against Maryville College.
It signaled the culmination of a three-year journey to get back to that point.
In October 2020, Williams, then a senior at Cleveland, tore an ACL in a soccer match and was unable to play basketball for the Lady Blue Raiders that winter. She signed with Lee, with the coaching staff already intending to redshirt her to ensure her health and readiness for the Lady Flames’ 2022-23 season, but in October 2022, she tore the ACL in the same knee while doing a normal three-on-three drill in practice, setting her back yet another year.
So yeah, some nerves were expected and allowed ahead of her return to the competition court.
“It was like an out-of-body experience,” Williams said. “It had been so long that it felt like it wasn’t real in a way, but I was so excited and so thankful that I had been able to get through the process, and now it’s all mental.”