Liz Liechty Profile

Broken and Healed Again

By Tim Lane
Molalla Pioneer

A tale of being tough

In high school Elizabeth Liechty’s shoulder could be a bother sometimes. It had a tendency to pop out of its socket, making the painful process of pushing it back in a necessity for those around her.

“I just remember that dang shoulder,” Liechty’s high school basketball coach Ray Williams says. “When it first popped out I was mind boggled. Then I went over and felt it and I was stunned. I would have been crying but the other girls just said ‘oh, this happens all of the time,’ and they just popped it back in and she (Liechty) cringed a little bit and then got back out on the floor.”

She cringed a little bit and then got back out on the floor. She stopped, acknowledged the pain, and then pushed through it and got on with it.

Working through difficulties has been a trend in Liechty’s life.

Liechty knows pain and injury. It is something she has to deal with regularly.

Forget anticipating the worst, forget worrying if something dreadful might happen. For Liechty, she has been there, and the question in her life has always been, what now?

“We have always tried to instill in our kids that quitting is not an option,” Liz’s mother Melissa says. “Being part of what would be considered a large family by today’s standards our kids have always experienced patience and hard work because they competed with each other. None of what she has conquered has surprised me because she has always been tough.”

Liz had to be strong—she grew up in a household with four men, her father Paul, her older brother Dan, 22, and her younger brothers Aaron, 17, and Ben, 15.

“She had never quit anything in her life,” Melissa says. “She is tough. My husband always says she is tougher than all three of our boys.”

Tough like being able to keep playing a sport that knocks her shoulders out of whack.

“When I was in high school, I had two surgeries on my right shoulder,” Liechty says. “It still dislocates on a regular basis now.”

The next level

When Liechty graduated from Molalla High School in the spring of 2004, after the Indians finished fourth in the state, she decided that she wanted to continue playing.

“I got offered full tuition to play basketball and soccer at Treasure Valley Community College, but I decided that it was too far away,” Liechty says. “So I settled on Western Oregon because it was small and I really liked the campus.”

Liechty went to her freshman year of school with no guarantee that she would be able to play for the Wolves but she had a passion to compete that pushed her on.

That passion has been with her ever since she was young.

“Liz has always loved basketball,” Melissa says. “Liz slept with her basketball in grade school and middle school, hoping her ball handling skills would improve.”

After starting the sport in kindergarten and enduring two shoulder surgeries, making the Western Oregon basketball team did not seem like such a giant hurdle.

“My freshman year of college I stayed in shape and never really gave up the idea of playing,” Liechty says.

Along with the work that she put into staying in shape, Liechty also went to Western Oregon games.

“I went and watched (the) team play all their home games my freshman year,” Liechty says. “When I watched I said to myself I could be out there, I can do what they are doing.”

That spring of her freshman year, Liechty contacted the coach and started working out with the team. Those workouts and the show of dedication paid dividends as Liechty made the team as a walk-on her sophomore year of school. Then, a week before the Wolves’ first game, with about 10 minutes left in a practice something went wrong.

“I shifted my weight and my knee gave out,” Liechty remembers. “I tried to walk it off but I knew something was not right.”

After the trainer looked at her injury he agreed something was wrong and a doctor’s visit confirmed it—Liechty had torn her anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL.

“Liz’s Dad, Paul, and I were crushed when Liz called to tell us about her injury,” Melissa remembers. “She had made the cuts to play basketball and had been practicing for a couple of months (when it happened).”

Starting over

Liechty had surgery in November of that year and started throwing herself into the rehabilitation process when another obstacle was thrown up in her way—her basketball coach who had given her a roster spot on the team, resigned.

“I was told that because I had not played because of my ACL I was going to have to start at zero with a new coach,” Liechty recalls.

It was another setback, but also another chance to push through.

That new coach was Greg Bruce. Bruce came into the program looking to revamp the team into a winner.

He made it a priority to visit each one of the players on the team from the area.

“We didn’t have a lot of local kids on the team so I made it a point to visit each one,” Bruce says. “The thing that struck me the most about Liz was that she was honest and willing to do whatever it took to get on the team.”

So Bruce threw Liechty, and the rest of the team, into the fire with an intensive preseason training regimen.

“At the start of the year I went to 6 a.m. track workouts three days a week along with individual workouts in the afternoon and weights also,” Liechty says.

The workouts were no walk in the park for Liechty.

“I think that the preseason conditioning was a shock to most of the kids and I think that Liz struggled a little on the track and in the first few practices in the gym,” Bruce says. “What I liked about her though was that she accepted criticism and she allowed you to coach her. She is a ‘yes sir’ or ‘no sir’ kind of player.”

Hard work over talent

Liz’s dedication propped her up to success, even though she might not have been as naturally gifted as other players.

“If you want to stack talent on talent she was on the short end of things but through hard work she has been able to succeed,” Bruce says.

Once again, Liechty’s hard work in the face of challenge paid off and she made the team. Her goal this year was to start at least one game and she did it, along with leading the team in field goal percentage and scoring a career-high 10 points against Metro State in a tournament in Montana.

Like most of Liechty’s other goals, she earned her achievements and people around her have taken notice.

“I think Liz has truly been an example for everyone around her,” Melissa says. “She has faced whatever life has thrown her way with determination and drive. She is stubborn, she doesn’t give up. We were all extremely proud of her.”

On the flip side of that, Liz is just as thankful for the support her family has provided.

“My parents and extended family have supported me in every way and pushed me to always do better,” Liz says. “On average I had about 15 family members at every game. Whether I played 40 minutes or zero they were there. My parents have helped me the most. They always supported me and told me not to give up.”

For Liechty, the road to where she is now has been long, and at times bumpy, but the process has been worth the result.

“I never really had a low I guess,” Liechty says of working through pain and injuries on her way to becoming a college athlete. “It is weird but I enjoy practice so much. I try to go everyday and give all I have. Both my shoulders and knee still bother me but there is no way I am going to let that stop me from playing. I don’t hold anything back because I
have worked so hard to get where I am now.”

Liechty, along with playing for the Wolves, is an American Sign Language major with a minor in Physical Education. She hopes to work as an interpreter in an elementary setting.

The love you give comes back in the end.
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