Junior guard Sydney Mains (24) and the Knoxville Catholic Fighting Irish faced the Harpeth Hall Bears in a TSSAA Division II-AA state tournament semifinal at Hooper Eblen Center on Friday, March 3, 2023, in Cookeville, Tennessee. The Catholic girls won 56-46. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY DAVE LINK
Catholic junior Sydney Mains was having a great showing during last April’s evaluation period at an Under Armour basketball tournament in Hoover, Alabama.
The 5-10 guard/forward was the second-leading scorer there. More than 30 Division I coaches were watching her one day.
Mains had 18 points at halftime of a game. In the second half, she was on defense when an opposing player drove the baseline, took a shot, and fell on Mains, who was waiting for a rebound and didn’t see her coming.
Mains’ knee buckled as she fell to the floor; she screamed while the gym went silent.
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“It was one of those deals where it shuts the whole gym down,” said Catholic coach Travis Mains, Sydney’s father. “Everyone’s watching her get carried off the floor. It was a pretty tough afternoon.”
Sydney recalls seeing a trainer right after it happened.
“It was the most excruciating pain ever,” she said.
At the doctor’s office the next morning, Mains got some bad news about her knee.
“I see some stuff wrong,” a doctor told her.
It was the start of a long off-season, one like Mains has never endured before. She had ACL surgery last June 15 and began rehab the next day.
About 11 months after the injury, Mains led Catholic (21-12) to the Division II-AA state championship, earning MVP honors for tournament.
Mains averaged 18.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists for the season.
And her knee is holding up fine.
“Obviously it will get sore after some games,” said Mains, the 5Star Preps Girls Player of the Year, “but overall, it’s as much back to normal as it could be right now.”
SURGERY AND REHAB
Mains had a long wait between sustaining the injury and having surgery.
It was an agonizing wait as swelling subsided and her knee healed enough for surgery.
“It was a very long couple of months,” Sydney Mains said, “sitting and waiting. It was like, ‘Come back next month, Come back next week.’ It was very frustrating.”
After Dr. Michael Casey of the Tennessee Orthopedic Clinic performed the surgery, rehab began immediately.
“I started therapy the day after my surgery, which was horrible,” Mains said. “I didn’t want to get out of the house, and it hurt so back, but I was on some pain meds, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”
A couple days after surgery, Mains went to Wofford with the Irish for a team camp, and after one day, her leg was so swollen, she had to return home.
“It was like a watermelon,” Mains said.
She forged ahead with her comeback.
Although she couldn’t run, Mains never stopped working on the most basic aspect of basketball.
Shooting.
She shot. And shot. And shot.
“She just spent so much time shooting,” Travis Mains said. “She cares about (basketball) and loves it, and her teammates were so supportive. They lifted her up and fed her the ball and set screens for her. She’s just in a good environment to have success when you have unselfish teammates and people around her, professional people around her, that are encouraging her and telling her, ‘You’re going to be OK. You’ve just got to keep working.’”
Mains wasn’t the only Lady Irish player on the mend when the season started in November.
Sophomore guard/forward Tinsley Walker suffered a torn ACL in the summer after replacing Mains on the AAU team, and sophomore guard/forward Amaya Redd was out with a back injury sustained during Catholic’s volleyball season.
On Dec. 22, Catholic’s record was 4-8 after a 55-48 loss to Webb School of Knoxville.
Then the Lady Irish went 4-1 in a Greeneville tournament from Dec. 27-31.
And Sydney Mains was playing again, earning MVP honors in Greeneville.
“My shooting percentage was the highest it’s ever been,” she said. “I was shooting like 50 percent. It helped that (shooting) was all I could do for a while, so my shooting was top notch when I came back.”
Her dad was thinking positively at that point.
“I thought we could be pretty special,” Travis said. “The schedule we played before Amaya and Sydney and Tinsley got back from being injured kind of set us up. We played Bradley Central twice and some other really, really good teams. I saw signs of competing with them. I knew that once we got everybody healthy and in rhythm, we were going to be pretty hard to beat.”
WINNING STATE, MOVING AHEAD
After a triple-overtime loss at Chattanooga Baylor on Feb. 7, Catholic finished the season with a seven-game winning streak.
The Lady Irish beat visiting Brentwood Academy 53-37 in the state quarterfinals for a berth in the Final Four in Cookeville.
In the semifinals, Mains scored 27 points and grabbed six rebounds in a 56-46 win over Harpeth Hall. She had 33 points and six rebounds the next day in a 64-59 victory over Ensworth for the state championship.
“Tinsley was finally getting where she was 80 to 100 percent, moving really well, and Amaya was a lot better by then,” Sydney said. “It was good to have everybody close to 100 percent.”
Once high school season ends, travel ball begins.
Mains is training every day and playing for a Nike Elite Youth Basketball Team (EYBL) team out of Alabama, the Southern Stars.
“I’m working on my mobility, my athleticism, just that part of it, and my ballhandling as well,” she said. “My shooting, I’m obviously going to keep working on that. Those are the main things I need to work on to get where I want to be.”
Mains was the 5Star Preps Underclass Player of the Year as a freshman in 2020-21 when Catholic reached the Division II-AA state championship game. She won the honor again in 2021-22.
She now has 12 Division I offers, including one from Florida Atlantic University, whose men’s team reached the NCAA Final Four this year. She’s visiting FAU at the end of April.
“I’ve been to Boca Raton,” Mains said, referring to FAU’s campus location in Florida. “You can’t ask for a better destination.”
She also has offers from Wofford, Furman, and Murray State. More will come, too.
“All the coaches and destinations are amazing,” Mains said. “I’ve gone to some schools. It’s going to be a hard choice, that’s for sure.”