BTO Exclusive: The Long and Painful Tale of Andy Polka's Achilles Heel
By LEW FREEDMAN
Basketball Times Online
CHICAGO — The sprained ankle suffered when landing on another player’s foot in the lane while rebounding is the most common injury in basketball. But for Andy Polka it was like getting bit by a mosquito and catching malaria, or going deaf from listening to Frank Sinatra, one of those medical anomalies that grad students write a thesis about.
Polka, a 6-foot-7 forward for Loyola (Chicago) of the Horizon League, had the Guinness Book of World Records sprained ankle. Who ever heard of a career-ending sprained ankle? Polka, a former Mr. Basketball from Wisconsin, nearly did. None of this tape-it-up, grit-your-teeth, and go-out-and-play stuff for Polka. That would have been too simple.
The 11-month saga of Polka’s left ankle required the intervention of just about every medical pro outside of House and Hank Med. From the Ramblers’ trainer and team doctor to the Green Bay Packers physician and private experts along the way, the ankle defied diagnosis and treatment and nearly ruined Polka’s college basketball career.
“It was kind of like a mystery ankle injury,” Polka. “All of a sudden, it’s a possible career-ending injury.”
Polka has never been Mr. Flash on the court. Even in high school while helping Oshkosh West to a state title he was Mr. Fundamental — passing, rebounding and playing defense more than scoring. From his first moments at Loyola as a freshman in 2006, Polka played the same role. Coaches love guys like that and he started 14 games as a rookie, averaging 7.2 rebounds a game.
Skip ahead to the tenth game of Polka’s junior year, December 13, 2008, against University of Missouri-Kansas City for the fateful encounter with another foot. Polka went up for rebound 12 minutes into the contest, landed awkwardly and sprawled on the hardwood. Ouch.
“I’m used to rolling my ankle,” said Polka of the typical way the foot bends upon such contact. “I felt my ankle pop out. I was in a lot of pain.”
Polka was helped to the Loyola bench and did not return to action.
Polka’s father Mike attends every Rambler home game. The only one he missed in person, because of another family commitment, was the Missouri-Kansas City game. The elder Polka was watching on the Internet and when he saw how much pain registered on his son’s face he walked into the other room and announced to his wife that he was immediately making the three-hour drive to Chicago.
“I didn’t think a lot of it at first,” Mike Polka said. “Then I was going, ‘Andy get up. Andy get up.’ I realized this was serious.” He was ahead of the curve on that.
Mike Polka caught up to Andy while he was still being examined at the hospital.
“I never saw an ankle like that,” the senior Polka said. “It was swollen and black and blue up to the calf.”
Still, a sprained ankle, you ice it, you heat it, you wrap it, and in a few weeks you play on it. Polka’s goal was to return to the Rambler line-up by Jan. 1. Not so fast, young man, doctors ruled. Polka spent more than six weeks in a walking boot, but was suspicious that things were not A-OK when he began light jogging and felt needles and pins in his foot.
“All of a sudden, I hit a wall,” he said of his rehab.
But with the clock ticking and the season evaporating, Polka wanted to play. He returned for Loyola’s Jan. 13 game against nationally ranked Butler. He was back-pedaling on defense and all of a sudden his toes and the lower part of his foot felt a burning sensation. He came out after four minutes. Those were the last minutes Polka played during the 2008-09 season, one Loyola finished a disappointing 14-18.
“I had no strength to push off in my foot,” Polka said. “I had pain in my heel, like knives going into it.”
It really was starting to become a case for House’s diagnostic team. Polka, for one, learned medical terms he had never come across as he began a tour of baffled Midwestern doctors.
Polka limped through the remainder of his junior year classes majoring in finance and operations management. Finally, at the end of May, six months after the initial incident, Polka underwent surgery. What began as a high ankle sprain turned out to be a sprain, plus torn ligaments, torn cartilage, and bone chips.
Polka may have the quintessential Wisconsin name, but he was not doing the polka last summer, or entertaining thoughts of dancing with the stars. His main dream was to regain a vertical leap higher than a snail. Polka was never an Olympic-caliber high jumper, employing his 240 pounds, good judgment in positioning, and a relatively large caboose for rebounding advantages, but limping wasn’t going to cut it, either.
As the off-season wore on, doctors, Polka, his dad, and Loyola coach Jim Whitesell were not sure he would ever play college ball again.
“Everyone just thought it was a sprained ankle,” said Whitesell. “We kept wondering where it was going to go. It was very hard.”
When school resumed in September – Polka’s senior year – he finally played basketball again in open gym. One day he threw caution to the Windy City winds and dunked. Giddy that he could get genuine lift, Polka promptly texted Whitesell. “I think I’m back,” he wrote. It didn’t carry the deep-throated, slam-dunk confidence declaration of Arnold in “Terminator,” but Polka was right.
Forced to take extra breaks in pre-season practice, teammates teased the 21-year-old Polka that he was an old man. The ankle still swells after play, and Polka wears black knee socks on airplanes to help circulation, but he is playing.
“The passion is still there,” Polka said with a smile. “I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to play again.”
A few days before Loyola opened its 2009-10 season at Kansas State, Polka got some good news. The NCAA granted him an extra year of eligibility. The Horizon League automatically grants a bonus year for injury when 10 games or fewer are played. Polka’s four minutes against Butler put him over the limit.
“I didn’t think I was going to get it,” said Polka, who will graduate with his class, then spend next year upgrading his sports management minor into a second degree.
Showing good form against Kansas State, Polka collected 12 rebounds. Four days later he played his first home game at Gentile Gym in nearly a year. He was nervous. “I felt like a freshman again,” Polka said.
In an 89-69 victory over Canisius, the sweat soaked Polka’s curly red hair and his No. 32 jersey within minutes. He scored 11 points and gathered another 12 rebounds. But the most important statistic was 30 minutes played.
Mike Polka was in the stands for this one – wouldn’t have missed it. As a long-ago high school athlete who sprained an ankle playing football and sat out all of three weeks, he found it difficult to fathom his son’s odyssey.
“It was a long haul,” the older Polka said.
It still is. In some ways, Polka is stronger than ever. For months, the only workouts he could do were lifting weights, so now he has the arm and shoulder muscles of someone from Krypton. It is certainly a mixed metaphor to say his left ankle is his Achilles Heel, but is.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever feel the same,” Polka said. “Some doctors say it takes a full year to get back to normal.”
If so, it’s a good thing Polka will have two senior years.
Lew Freedman is a Chicago-based sportswriter and a long-time contributor to Basketball Times. He is also the author of 42 books.
Photo Credit: www.loyolaramblers.cstv.com/
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