MISSOULA – The Montana Lady Griz women’s basketball team ended its 2017-2018 season at 14-17 overall. The Lady Griz dealt with a ton of injuries, including Kayleigh Valley, Sophia Stiles and Alycia Harris, that changed their season.
But one player, sophomore Madi Schoening, was playing through an injury the entire season while letting no one other than her teammates, coaches and family members know.
“I just played through the year, would show up to practice with my little heat pack, put it on there and warm it up, took some ibuprofen every day, tried to just maintain as much health as I could,” said Schoening.
Schoening was suffering from an infection in her liver. After days of treatment trying to drain the infection, Schoening still felt pain and would need season-ending surgery if she wanted it gone.
She decided to play through the pain. She didn’t just push through but finished the season with 8.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
“I think adrenaline just took over at that point, you know? It’s game day,” Schoening said. “Didn’t really think about it, took the meds, warmed it up and it was good from there.”
“She always plays so hard. She’s one of those kids, even when she would take some time off because of her injury she would come back and just be 100 percent, full-blown, freight train Madi Schoening,” said head coach Shannon Schweyen. “And that’s what we love about her: She always competes and she’s always out there giving it her all. She suffered through a lot last year, and we were really proud of the way she gritted it out and was just a warrior all season.”
Headed into 2018-19 Schoening, along with her other injured teammates from 2017, is finally at 100 percent ,and they feel good about the challenges ahead when the group is together.
“Finally we have a group of people that we know we can put out there and feel confident that they are going to get it done,” Schoening said. “They know all the plays. They know what Shannon expects. We know each other really well, we know how to run on the floor, so I think it just gives us a little boost this year. We got it this year. We aren’t the broken little team everyone was looking at last year.”
