After 2 knee surgeries and 2 grueling rehabs, Golden Valley star is back on the court

The knee is finally healthy, the brace is gone and the smile is back on the face of Delia Moore.

The road to recovery has been a long one for the Golden Valley High senior after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee two consecutive years.

After two surgeries and two extensive rehabs, Moore is back to her old self, playing point guard for the Cougars. The Golden Valley star showed she’s healthy, confident and lethal with the ball on Tuesday night finishing with 21 points, eight steals, seven rebounds and three blocks in a 50-39 loss to Patterson at Cougar Arena.

This was one game after Moore recorded a triple double in a 55-12 win over Adventure Academy. Moore finished with nine points, 11 rebounds, 15 assists and 11 steals.

“Actually you can’t tell at all she had the injury,” said first-year Golden Valley coach Ben Beznoska. “She moves really well. She’s very confident. She’s not scared at all. It’s very impressive the way she moves around the court.

“It’s great having her on the team. She responds well to everything. It’s like having another coach on the floor. She’s patient. She instructs the girls a lot. It’s amazing to have a player like that.”

Moore is just happy to be playing basketball again.

“I am just really appreciative,” she said. “It’s my first time playing preseason games in two years. I’m playing a lot. I don’t have any complaints. I’m not wearing my brace.

“It’s different. It’s a new team, a new coach, but I’m still on the floor that I love.”

Moore first tore her ACL toward the end of her freshman season.

“Going through the rehab process the first time felt weird,” Moore said. “I had to learn to walk again. I had to learn to run again. I never thought that would be something I’d have to do.”

Moore didn’t return to the court until January of her sophomore season when the Cougars started conference play. She came along slowly, limiting her minutes until the end of the season.

However, she injured the knee again during travel ball.

“The second time was devastating,” she said. “At the same time, I tried to tell myself it can’t get worse. I just remember the doctor telling me I tore my ACL again. I just burst into tears. I tried to understand why. I was doing all the right things. What my doctor thinks happened, and we’re pretty sure happened, is my body just didn’t accept the graph.”

A tendon from a cadaver was used in her first surgery to replace her ACL. Her doctor believes her body never accepted the new ligament and that’s why it was unsuccessful. In the second surgery, part of Moore’s patella tendon was used and so far there have been no set-backs.

She’s received a lot of support during her recovery process the past two years. Her physical therapist is a former Golden Valley High player in Christie Bryant, who was also an assistant coach for the Cougars.

Moore says Bryant was so good at pushing her in rehab. Her experience with Bryant was so positive, Moore now wants to major in kinesiology in college and help other people recover from injuries.

“Definitely going through this is a huge part of what I’m interested in,” Moore said. “It’s tough recovering from any kind of energy, especially an emotional or physical injury. That’s why I want to major in kinesiology.”

Moore’s oldest sister Valerie was also a big help because Valerie went through the same surgery three times. Valerie tore her ACL in high school and then tore her ACL twice in college at St. Mary’s.

Having an older sister who went through the same recovery process was a big help to Delia.

“I reminded her the reason she got hurt wasn’t because she wasn’t good enough or doing anything wrong,” said Valerie, who was also the Golden Valley coach last season. “The graph failed. It wasn’t that she wasn’t doing everything she could. The biggest thing is you have to believe and tell yourself you’re not going to get hurt again.”

Moore says she has no fear when she steps on the court now. She loves that her doctor told her she can ditch the knee brace.

As the top scoring threat for the Cougars, Moore can expect to see some exotic defenses aimed at stopping her this season. After she scored 13 of GV’s 17 points in the first half, Patterson played a box-and-one defense against the Cougars in the second half with one defender shadowing Moore around the court, while the other four protected the paint.

“I knew it was coming,” Beznoska said. “That’s why we ran that spread with four (players) up. We have to get our other girls to hit some shots. Once the shots start falling we’ll be all right. Confidence is a big thing for us.

“I’m sure we’ll see other teams do some imaginative things. We’ll deal with it. Our other girls will step up. I’m anticipating a box-and-one or a triangle defense down low. We’ll see a variety of things, even a man-to-man with a face guard because that’s what we used to run against them. I anticipate it because we played against her and I know what we did.”

Whatever comes her way, chances are Moore will be able to handle it. She spent two years working her way back onto the court.

“This long journey is a huge part of my life,” Moore said. “It’s part of who I am.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2017 at 4:04 PM with the headline "After 2 knee surgeries and 2 grueling rehabs, Golden Valley star is back on the court."