This is not the feature Thaddesia Southall wanted written about her this season. In fact, last year, fresh off the jubilant celebration of her team’s fourth-straight state championship (and her third), she had a pretty clear picture of what she wanted this year to look like. All-American. First team All-CIF. Moore League Player of the Year. And, of course, leading her team to yet another state title. A knee injury scuttled most of those plans—but Southall, and her coach, says she’s been doing everything possible to make the last goal a reality.
“I had it all planned out,” Southall says. “I had a lot of goals. I came so close last year; I was all-league, second-team CIF, and I thought, ‘Next year I’m going to do so much better. And then…'” she trails off. In the Summer of 2009, Southall was one of ESPN’s top 20 recruits at her position, and a top 100 player in the nation. Scouting reports on college recruiting sites praised how much work she’d put in to improve her defensive presence, and to begin building a jumpshot. Her goals were so clear they were already almost a reality.
“She actually came to me and said, ‘Coach, I want to be your next All-American,'” says Poly coach Carl Buggs. “All the years I’ve been coaching, nobody has ever said that to me; Jasmine [Dixon] and Monique [Oliver, both All-Americans] might have talked about it with their families, but not with me. That showed me she was setting a standard of excellence for herself. She wanted to continue that tradition at Poly, and tie it all together with the state championships.”
In July, while playing with her travel team Cal Sparks, Southall felt something “tweak” in her knee while going for a steal. She didn’t think much of it. Then a few days later, she felt it again while driving to the basket. Knowing something was off, she got it checked out, and learned it was a partial ACL tear. “I was shocked,” she says.
Two days later she had surgery to repair the ligament, trying to get the treatment done as quickly as possible, hoping to salvage the second half of her senior season. “It was devastating, when I heard about it,” says Buggs. Southall fully committed to her rehab program, and was able to return in January for the second-round game against Lakewood. Since then, she’s been bench relief for five minutes here, five minutes there. “She’s able to contribute, but she’s nowhere near 100%,” says Buggs. “She’s not as explosive, the lateral movement’s not there—but the heart is there.”
Southall refused to be dejected that her personal goals would be unfulfilled. Instead, she focused on doing whatever she could, in practice or in a game, to help further the team goal of a record fifth-straight state title. She wants she, Brittany and Ashley Wilson, and Jazzmine Shirley (all travel ball teammates in middle school) to join Kelli Thompson as the only players in state history to walk out of high school with four rings on their fingers.
“I’m just trying to give back,” says Southall. “If Coach Buggs needs me to grab some rebounds, or just wave my hands on defense, I want to do it. I just want to contribute whatever I can.”
The potential of that contribution—while unrealized this year—was enough to earn Southall a scholarship to USC, which they were more than willing to still offer after the injury, and she hopes to go on to the WNBA after college (and a career in sports nutrition beyond that). But for now, 8 months after her injury forced her to put aside her individual goals, Southall is proof that nobody gets exactly what they want in life. If she can help her teammates earn a fifth-straight state title this Saturday, though, she’ll get what she needs for her senior season: a happy ending.
Southall and her teammates will take the court Saturday in Bakersfield, against Oak Ridge, in the CIF Division 1 State Championship game. Come back every day this week for more stories and previews!