Peyton Stovall hopes this is the last Christmas he'll spend nursing a season-ending injury.
When he heads home to Lafayette this break, Stovall will await for Dec. 27, the day he has surgery on his left knee for the second time in 10 months. If the surgery is successful, Stovall will then begin another grueling eight-month recovery process that involves re-strengthening his knee and hoping he regains confidence in his ability.
Stovall's confident that this recovery will be easier and less painful than the first.
After Ball State University's loss to Butler this season, Stovall talked with Butler junior Brian Ligon about recovering for a second time. Ligon's past two seasons have ended early because of ACL injuries and he told Stovall the second time is much easier to recover from than the first.
"[Ligon] told me that the recovery for the second time goes a lot quicker," Stovall said. "There's just not the same amount of agony, and it's just not as tough since you've been through it once. But I'm still not going to rush it."
The surgery will take place a month after Stovall injured his knee in a win against Wright State on Nov. 26.
Stovall has always seen his life through his faith in God and this incident was no different. After the pain from the injury had left his body, Stovall turned to his faith to find an answer to why he had lost an entire season to an injury.
"You don't tear your ACL twice in 10 months without a huge reason for it," Stovall said. "God wanted me to not play this year. I certainly do think that this is His plan for me."
He's already begun re-strengthening the muscles around his left knee. He's trying to strengthen the quadriceps and hamstring muscles so he can begin recovering after surgery even quicker. Teammate Skip Mills said Stovall began thinking positive about his future very quickly.
"He knows what he has to do to get back to full strength, and he's very confident this time," Mills said.
Stovall will return to the court next year with two full years of eligibility left to play in college basketball. He'll apply for a medical redshirt at the end of this season and will get one from the NCAA. He qualifies for a medical redshirt because he didn't play in 20 percent of the team's games, and the injury occurred in the first half of the season.
The one thing that means the most to Stovall, however, is not that he can come back to play or will get a medical redshirt this season; it's the support he's received by family and friends. Now, for the second time, people surrounding Stovall have had to come to his aid and help him get through another troubling injury, and he said he loves how people around him have responded.
"Just having so many people back me up, it just shows how many true friends I have," Stovall said. "[The support] means everything to me. I'm just so thankful for my family and friends who know how to be there for me. That's what keeps my head up."
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