ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602070001
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
PATTI FISHER WASN'T ABOUT to give up on basketball, even though there were plenty of reasons for her to do so.
Patti Fisher has learned that Forrest Gump's mom could have sugar-coated college as well as life.
Fisher went from Northside High School to Radford University almost five years ago as arguably the best athlete in the history of Roanoke Valley girls' basketball. Fisher will graduate from RU this spring, she says, as ``a different person, a better person, a more mature person.''
And still a good basketball player.
The Gumpism fits Fisher like her No.50 uniform at small forward for the Highlanders. Asked how she would describe her box-of-chocolates five years in college, Fisher smiled, started to speak, hesitated, then answered, ``Probably a soap opera. No, they could probably make a movie out of it. It hasn't at all been like I expected.''
Coaches love to preach three p's - preparation, practice and performance. Fisher, 22, has played through those, and her own list - pain, persistence and pregnancy. On rebuilt knees, it often has been difficult for Fisher to drag herself to practice. Now, she often takes her baby daughter with her.
``People come up to me once in awhile and say, `I can't believe you're a mom,''' said Fisher.
Others can't believe they didn't know Fisher was going to become one until so close to the day she did.
Then, that would be starting this script in the middle.
Playing with pain
Fisher was the state Group AA girls' basketball player of the year at Northside in 1990-91. She was one of Radford coach Luby Lichonczak's first recruits, a very good player who wanted to keep playing in her back yard. Then, in the Virginia High School All-Star Game, she tore cartilage in her left knee.
After arthroscopic surgery, she began her freshman season with the Highlanders. It lasted 44 minutes over three games. ``I tore up the knee worse, the ACL [anterior cruciate ligament],'' Fisher said. ``I finally had reconstructive surgery.''
She got a medical redshirt, and started her freshman season again in 1992-93. This time, she played 15 minutes in two games. ``I blew out the right knee, but this time I had surgery two days later,'' she said. Another player came down on it and it bent. The injury looked just like Joe Theismann's [leg, when it was broken by a Lawrence Taylor tackle in an NFL game].''
The following September, which should have been the start of Fisher's junior season, she was still trying to rehab her right knee. She had played 59 minutes and had three field goals in her career. There was one consistency to her game. It hurt.
``I still have a lot of pain,'' she said. ``I still go in before practice every day and get 20 minutes of heat treatment and then stretch before practice. If I didn't keep lifting weights, I doubt I could play. I feel like it will affect me the rest of my life.''
Mind games
Playing through physical pain was one thing. Fisher's mental game wasn't so good then, either. When she returned for her sophomore season, she played in 16 games, but only 201 minutes. And in the Highlanders' media guide, she recalled, it said the 5-foot-9 forward was ```getting reacquainted with the game,' and I guess that was kind of true.''
It didn't make it any less frustrating.
``I wanted more playing time, but I wasn't bad, I just kind of wondered,'' Fisher said. ``I felt like a freshman. Then, the summer after that [1993-94] school year, everything changed. It just didn't seem to matter as much to me. I was more relaxed. Maybe I was more confident about myself, but I really wanted to play, and I didn't want anything to stop me.
``Maybe it was because I realized my time was running out. Quitting basketball did cross my mind. It's something you think about, but then I told myself, `You know you'll never do it.' How could I, after I went so far to try to get back where I was.''
Lichonczak said that Fisher had to convince herself where her game was and had been, and where it needed to be for her to play again.
``When she wasn't playing much, she wanted it real bad, but maybe Patti wasn't quite back,'' he said. ``It was almost like she hadn't played in three years. It was a matter of her relaxing and playing the way she could.
``The question after knee surgery is always what do you bring back with those scars. A person may still have the skills and the athletic ability, but there's the question of whether they can do it. Then magnify those thoughts times three, and you see what Patti has experienced.''
Fisher came into last season with more than rehabbed knees and a rehabbed attitude, although many others didn't know it. She won a starting job she thought she could have had before. She played aggressively and was the Highlanders' defensive stopper and a fierce offensive rebounder. She averaged 25 minutes per game.
She also was pregnant.
``I found out during preseason conditioning [mid-September],'' Fisher said. ``I decided I wasn't going to tell anybody, then I did tell a few of my teammates. I asked them to keep it secret. I thought maybe I could get through the season without anyone knowing, and then I'd have the baby.''
Fisher said her doctor advised her not to play, ``but he said it had to be my decision.'' she said.
``I tried to protect myself, but I also tried not to hold back anything in games. There were times in practice I could have taken a charge, but I didn't.''
She practiced and played 22 games. Few knew she was carrying a child. ``I didn't show,'' she said. ``It was like I wasn't really pregnant. I didn't feel pregnant. I guess it was an easy pregnancy. I'd heard all of these horror stories, but it never happened.''
In mid-February, Lichonczak received an anonymous phone call telling him Fisher was pregnant. Fisher said she thinks she knows the caller's identity - it was a woman - but won't divulge that. After a couple more days of practice and observation by coaches and trainers, Fisher was asked if she was pregnant.
``I was 61/2 months pregnant when they found out,'' Fisher said. ``Mostly, I was scared to know what the reaction of people would be, my parents, my friends, my teammates who didn't know,'' Fisher said. ``I wasn't ashamed. I was going to have a baby.
``As it's turned out, people have been so supportive. I was thinking the worst of anything you could imagine. Coach Luby was great about it. He took time to talk with me, to discuss how I was, what I was going to do. He really cares.''
Fisher told her parents, then admitted her pregnancy to Lichonczak. It was about one hour before the Highlanders were to board a bus for UNC Greensboro and a huge Big South game. Neither Fisher nor Lichonczak boarded that bus. They talked in his office, then rode in a car together to Greensboro. Some teammates still wondered why Fisher wasn't playing, until she told them the next day.
``I'd worked so hard, and I was disappointed,'' Fisher said. ``I never got the feeling from my teammates that I had let them down. I got that feeling from me. I did feel guilty about that, but everyone was nice about it.''
Tough decision
Lichonczak said he was stunned to learn Fisher was pregnant, but not surprised that he didn't learn it sooner.
``You would hope kids would come to you with something like this, but it's a very personal thing,'' the Highlanders' coach said. ``You can understand how someone might be embarrassed, or feel like they betrayed someone, or be scared. Kids make mistakes. We all make mistakes.
``I'm here as an educator. I'm here to help kids. If I were here about only wins and losses, then I should be fired. My job is to help them grow academically, help them grow as people, and not just win basketball games. The mental aspect of the situation has to be considered, too. Patti had three knee surgeries and had just started to play well again. If she'd come in right away and said she was pregnant, she may have seen that as another setback. That's an understandable perspective, considering what she had been through.''
The school didn't announce why Fisher suddenly was sidelined. Because women's basketball ``doesn't get much coverage, it never came up,'' said Radford sports information director Mike Ashley. ``I said that if someone asked, we should be honest about it. No one asked.''
``I guess,'' Fisher said, ``most people just assumed it was my knees again.''
She missed the last three regular-season games, three conference tournament games and Radford's NCAA Tournament loss to Florida. Obviously, it wasn't only Fisher's health that was a concern. She had been practicing pregnant since October.
``My reaction when I learned she was pregnant was concern for both her and her baby,'' Lichonczak said. ``She was practicing as she always had, and we practice very physically. I wasn't worried so much about Patti, because of her conditioning, but I was very concerned that through some contact on the floor, some damage may have occurred to the child. Fortunately, that didn't happen. There wasn't any question that she had to stop playing.''
Then, on May 16, her daughter, Kendra Camille, was born - in Tallahassee, Fla. She was three weeks premature, and arrived while Fisher was vacationing with a Florida friend after the school year had ended. ``Another surprise,'' Fisher said.
Kendra's father, Harvey Jones, graduated from Radford in December. Fisher said he's teaching and job-hunting in Northern Virginia. Fisher said she and Jones have known each other for four years, and otherwise prefers to keep their relationship personal. Meanwhile, Fisher will graduate this spring with a degree in social work and a minor in modern psychology.
A new perspective
Her final basketball season, which continues tonight when the Highlanders (10-8, 6-1) visit Liberty, has dwindled to no more than six more weeks. She's averaging 25 minutes per game, ``playing better than ever, very relaxed,'' Lichonczak said. ``She always defends the best opponent on the floor, no matter the position. She's great at blocking out, and runs the floor hard, as she always has.''
Fisher is taking 12 hours of classes, commutes to school three days a week from Roanoke, and other days stays at her Radford apartment. When Kendra isn't with her or staying with her parents, she has friends who volunteer to babysit the 9-month-old.
``There are two ways to look at Patti's career,'' Lichonczak said. ``You can say, boy, what an injustice, because of the injuries, but the positive has been that her time here is a testament to fortitude. She's been determined all along to achieve something, and she's doing that.''
Her daughter has become a frequent practice visitor, too.
``A distraction?'' Lichonczak said. ``At times, it's one, but it's a pleasant one. A baby is one of the joys of life. Seeing that child there can be a great release. When you're involved in something like athletics sometimes you can get so caught up in it, you need something to remind you that there's something more to life.''
Fisher does have another question about her daughter's experiences at the Dedmon Center.
``She's a good baby, and doesn't make much noise,'' Fisher said. ``The only thing is, after last season, has she already used up 61/2 months of her NCAA eligibility?''
Fisher said that when she came to Radford, she expected to maybe be named All-Big South a couple of times, perhaps be named the league's Freshman of the Year, and continue to be recognized as a player who prospered while playing close to home.
``Those were dreams,'' Fisher said. ``Now, that's all they'll ever be. But I'm stronger, a better person. Everything that's happened in my years here have helped me be patient, and I'm so much more responsible than I was.
``After everything I've gone through, starting with that first knee injury, I feel now like I can handle just about anything. It's a lot of work, raising a child, going to school, playing basketball. But I wasn't going to leave basketball, because I've worked hard for it. It's been a big part of my life.
``I've really grown a lot here. I have achieved something, and it's good. It's just not what I came here to achieve, or what I thought I wanted to achieve. I wanted to stay in the area where I was known. It's like I faded away in some ways. I wanted to succeed.
``I know some people back in Roanoke said I wouldn't make it. Well, I did. I did succeed, even if it wasn't with the original goals I had.''
Lichonczak said perhaps others should look at Fisher's career as those closest to her do.
``I think her teammates look at Patti and see someone who has been a fighter, someone who has had hard times and stuck with it,'' he said. ``I think they appreciate her for that. She's become a role model.''
LENGTH: Long : 225 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. 1. Patti Fisher says everyone has beenby CNBsupportive while she juggles schoolwork, basketball and her
9-month-old daughter, Kendra. Fisher (second from left) always
guards the opponent's best player, regardless of position. color. 3.
Patti Fisher (center), flanked by Radford University teammates Kim
Hairston (left) and Dede Logemann, has overcome surgery on both
knees to continue her college basketball career.