She went up to spike the ball during warm-ups before the game against Tokay not knowing it would be her last hit of the season. The best rookie on the volleyball team fell to the ground only a month before the next season would begin.

    Her face was as red as the blood that filled the entirety of her kneecap. That moment also prematurely ended her basketball career,  forcing her onto the bench and become part of the coaching staff. 

    Senior Channa Prak has not been able to suit up for this year’s basketball season. Instead, she’s been on the sidelines cheering for her team.

    The spike that was made during volleyball season causing the tear of her anterior cruciate ligament was devastating not only to her but also to the basketball team.

    Like the ligament that connects the femur to the tibia in the center of the knee, Prak was the ACL to the girls basketball team. Some teammates felt like she was the center of the team.

    Prak started playing streetball around the age of 6. Since then, she has gained a large amount of skill. She has learned techniques that made it easier for her to play on a real court with a real team.

    “She picks up the team and the team plays well with her out there (on the court),” girls basketball coach Hung Nyguen said. Even from the sidelines Prak proves that “she loves the game.”

    While she sits on the sidelines during the game, off the court during practices she’s part of the reason why the girls dont lose faith.

    Even to the players who don’t know her well, she’s still able to pump them up with encouraging words and a silly face.

    Though she can’t be a part of the game, she plays through her teammates. When the girls aren’t performing to their full potential, that silly face transforms, telling a different story.

    “I tell them if they’re doing bad but to keep pushing themselves,” Prak said. “We’re not good, but we have to settle for what we got.” Though she tries to hide her pain  beneath influential words, her teammates know that she wishes she could be on the court.

    “I know she has a lot of potential,” junior Samantha Wang said. “If she had gotten to play we would have been better.”

    Other teammates agree their season could have been better if Prak had been on the team.

    Prak would be a returning fourth year varsity starter and most likely the leading scorer.

    Unfortunately, all she can wait for is the surgery on her knee. Her surgery won’t take place until well after the season is over.

    “It hurts to know that you can’t play your senior year but there’s not much that you can do about it – you just have to live with it,” Prak said.

    As she sits on the sidelines and watches the clock tick down to the final buzzer, she has come to accept that her high school basketball career has come to an end. She does not plan on playing any more sports after her surgery.

    Prak looks back at the countless points she has scored over the span of three years and has accepted that although she couldn’t score any points this year, she knows her presence is helping out her team.