Column: Sandburg’s Juliana Paddock is a lock to return better than ever from ACL surgery: ‘This time I have an advantage.’

Kids and comebacks.

I’ve been blessed and privileged over the years to write about so many who have courageously conquered adversity.

Sometimes more than once. In one case, four times.

Sandburg junior Juliana Paddock is facing another bout with adversity. She had ACL surgery Wednesday on her right knee. The injury she suffered on Jan. 12 prematurely ended her basketball season.

It was her second ACL surgery. The first was in 2020, for an injury to her left knee.

I visited Tuesday with Juliana at Sandburg, just before she traveled with the team to Lincoln-Way East for a big conference game.

Her smile was wonderful to see. Her attitude was awesome.

“I’m trying to take it as a good opportunity to grow,” Paddock said. “It’s all about attacking the rehab and getting better. I think this time I have an advantage because I have gone through it before. I have already proved I can do it. It’s been confirmed that I will be back and better.”

Paddock missed her freshman season after the first surgery, and Sandburg coach Nick Fotopoulos eased her in as a sophomore.

But this summer, she shed the brace. As a junior, she was a dominant leader on the court for the Eagles.

“We had some really big games this season where we put the weight on Juliana’s shoulders and she delivered,” Fotopoulos said. “Her confidence was sky high. Her low-post moves were great, and what she meant to us on defense and rebounding is irreplaceable.”

Paddock was averaging 13.5 points and seven rebounds when adversity barged back into her life. As time expired during the Eagles’ 51-48 loss to Homewood-Flossmoor, Paddock fell in a scramble for a loose ball.

“I was trying to save the ball inbounds and get it out to a shooter,” Paddock said. “I didn’t want to give up on the play. My foot was pointed one way, but with the momentum, my knee just carried me over.

“It was such a fluke. If you watch it on film, you really can’t see anything happen. Just a really weird accident.”

Unfortunate. Heart-wrenching. But Juliana Paddock beat adversity once. And she will beat it again.

On Tuesday, I told Juliana the story of Kaitlyn Ray, who in my eyes is the most resilient and inspiring athlete I’ve ever known.

Ray was a high school basketball player at Lincoln-Way West and Central and in college at St. Francis. Over the course of her eight-year career, she had four knee surgeries. She spent more than 24 months rehabbing.

But Ray never gave up. She finished her college career on her own terms, averaging 9.8 points as a senior at St. Francis and earning a spot on the all-conference team.

Today, Ray is a professional bodybuilder who has won a national competition. She owns K-Ray Fitness at AOC Gym in Monee, and has more than 30 clients.

She has a trademarked phrase: Accept it. Own it. Crush it.

When I told Ray about Paddock, the first thing she said was to give Juliana her phone number. It wasn’t to make a sales pitch.

Motivators like to motivate.

“I would tell her that it will get better,” Ray said. “I know it stinks now to hear things like, ‘Everything happens for a reason.’ People get mad to hear that, but I’m a firm believer. This is going to make her a stronger human and a stronger woman in the end.

“She’ll use this to motivate her to come back and show herself, show the rest of the world that she can be that same player again. And she’ll be even better.”