Rocky Mount, NC - Returning from season-ending knee surgery is difficult for any athlete.  Multiply that difficulty times two, and it’s easy to see why senior J.D. Richardson (pictured) of women’s basketball deserves a “Comeback Player of the Year” award.  The versatile 5’10” shooting guard is turning in a solid season for the 3-4 Bishops, averaging over nine points and four rebounds per game as the team’s third leading scorer.  Additionally, she leads the squad in three-point percentage and is ranked second in steals… Not bad for a player forced to wear a bulky knee brace on each leg.

Richardson, whose sophomore season came to a screeching halt when she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, fought through reconstructive surgery and made her junior season debut on January 4, 2006.  She saw action in seven games, started six, and was averaging five points per contest when her competitive nature was once again put to the test.

Just 1:06 into last season’s January 21st meeting with Greensboro College, a mere 17 days after making her return to the line-up, Richardson drove from the top of the key and came to a jump stop at the foul line preparing to make a pass.  The instant pain she felt was familiar, and she immediately knew that she had torn the ACL in her right knee.

With one year of eligibility left, Richardson didn’t know if she would return from a second reconstructive surgery less than one year after the first.  The muscles in her left leg still needed to be strengthened, and her right knee would require even more attention.  A true competitor, however, Richardson decided that watching her teammates from the stands during her senior year would hurt much more than fighting through two surgeries.

Now seven games into the 2006-07 season, Richardson has yet to regret her decision to return.  A co-captain for head coach John Brackett’s youthful Bishop squad, she has yet to miss a start for a team that has shown improvement both on the court and in the win column. 

This past weekend, just one year after returning from her first surgery and less than 12 months since enduring her second, Richardson scored a season-high 14 points in Wesleyan’s dominating 72-53 win over Eastern University at the 2007 Fairleigh-Dickinson Craig Keeler Invitational.

A talented shooter, passer, rebounder, and shot-blocker, Richardson hopes to lead the Bishops to several more wins as she enters the homestretch of her senior season… the two knee-braces she wears serving as a constant reminder that anything is possible when you put your mind to it.

J.D. is the daughter of William and Jennie Richardson.  A native of Stokesdale, NC, she is pursing her bachelor’s degree in Accounting.  The Bishop women return to action on Wednesday when they open up USA South Conference play against Peace College.  Tip-off is slated for 7:00 p.m. in Everett Gymnasium.