Shelby Cassesse joins the Fan Morning Show to tell the story of Bethel Park senior Dolan Waldo, who suffered a gruesome injury, but returned to help the Black Hawks make the playoffs.
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Bethel Park basketball player rebounds from gruesome injury
When the 6A boy's basketball playoffs begin tonight, senior Dolan Waldo will be on the court for Bethel Park. That may come as a surprise to some, given what happened in July.
During a summer league championship game, the 6-foot-7 senior went up for a rebound.
“I came down from a rebound and landed awkwardly,” said Waldo. “My dad and a couple league associates rushed over and noticed I was bleeding out. So they immediately called 9-1-1.”
Waldo was rushed to the hospital, and underwent emergency surgery on his ankle. The first of two.
“From there, they put me into an external fixator,” he said. “They put six poles in my leg and foot.”
Doctors compared it to Louisville guard Kevin Ware's 2013 injury, an open fracture considered to be one of the most gruesome in sports history.
For the IUP commit, that news was encouraging. Ware returned to basketball the season after his injury for nine games before deciding to redshirt.
“I knew that I was going to be able to come back and play basketball after reading up on Kevin Ware’s injury,” he said. “It inspired me.”
A long recovery laid ahead. For two months, Waldo slept in a hospital bed in his family's living room, unable to make it up the steps.
With the high school hoops season just about 4 months away, Waldo’s doctors, family and head coach Josh Bears thought a return for the playoffs might be possible.
But Dolan had his sites set on a different return date, which Bears remembers with a laugh.
“He says it as a matter of fact, where it wasn’t that big of a deal, that he knew that he was gong to come back,” Bears said. “I literally just heard him say that. I knew I was going to be back, playing basketball. He’s just a throwback kid.”
So, Waldo got to work with intense physical therapy. In the meantime, he remained a dedicated teammate, showing up to open gyms and practices where he couldn't participate.
“That motivated me, going to those practices and seeing my teammates there, and that they’re still there for me and support me,” he said. “It just made me want to work harder and be better on the court.”
Outside of the gym, Waldo made fast progress with his therapy.
“Going to my checkup appointments, we just kept seeing progress with it and that it was healing correctly,” he said. “I was able to further that due date and come back for the season.”
Waldo was cleared to play a week before the season started. Now, he's poised to help the Black Hawks make a playoff run one last time, and do so alongside teammates who have played together since 5th grade.
“We’re ready and we’re ready to compete,” he said. “It means a lot, especially in my senior year here and that I’ve been around my teammates for a long time now. We’ve been waiting for this.”
That team mentality is what Bears says is a hallmark of Dolan's character, and one that will serve him well once the days of high school basketball are done.
“He cares more about his teammates and about competing than the does about his own personal accolades,” Bears said. “That’s what makes him so special. It’s also the reason he was able to recover from this injury, because of those attributes.”
Photo credit: Joe Sabella / Sabella Sports Shotz