SAN ANTONIO -- Imagine yourself playing an entire season on one leg. For UTSA sophomore Tia Bogan, it’s an every day reality.
Bogan has been battling stress fractures since her days in high school. She suffered this devastating blow in the summer of 2001 while playing in an AAU game. It was then that she first felt pain in her right leg.
Bogan visited with a doctor and was informed she had a stress fracture in the middle of her right tibia. All she could do was rest and let it heal on its own. Prior to her sophomore season, the six-foot forward got the good news that she could play. Midway through the season, she felt pain in the leg yet again. The stress fracture didn’t heal properly and Bogan was forced into surgery. She missed the rest of her sophomore year and her entire junior season. A hole was drilled inside her tibia and a titanium rod was placed inside. A screw then was placed at the top of her knee to hold it in place. After it healed and there was no more pain, she came back to play her entire senior season.
“I will always have pain in my leg, but it’s something I have to deal with every day,” Bogan said. “I have to keep a state of mind that I will be playing with pain, but it’s not going to keep me away from basketball, because I love this game so much that I can’t give it up over two surgeries.”
After her high school days were done, Bogan signed on to play at UTSA and she showed a great deal of potential as a freshman. She was playing without pain and contributing to the program. In just her third game of her freshman year, she posted career highs with 17 points and eight rebounds in 16 minutes of action against Prairie View A&M on Nov. 26, 2004. After that game, Bogan began to feel the same pain she felt in high school.
After visiting with doctors, they determined that she had developed another stress fracture. However, this time it was in the lower part of her tibia, where the rod ended in her leg from her first surgery. After four weeks of rest and rehab, Bogan came back to play half the Southland Conference season before being shut down for the reminder of the year.
The fracture never healed and that meant one thing ? surgery and sitting out the 2005-06 season. On Sept. 28, 2005, Bogan went into surgery for the same procedure, but this time she would have a much longer and wider titanium rod that went from the top of the tibia all the way through the bottom of the bone. A longer screw also was needed to keep it in place. After her surgery was complete, she needed six months to recover before doing any type of rehab. After doctors gave her clearance to start rehabbing, Bogan worked with Associate Athletics Trainer Brenna Ellis every day to get her leg back to 100 percent and her conditioning up to game-day status.
“Tia has been an unbelievable story for us because of her situation with having not one, but two surgeries on the same leg.” head coach Rae Rippetoe-Blair said. “She has overcome a lot of adversity. I think most girls would have given up playing basketball because of this type of injury. We really didn’t want to put too much pressure on Tia, but she has been a huge asset for this program and it goes to show what type person she is.”
Bogan knew she would be seeing limited action and playing with a lot pain this season, but she is having a career year for the Roadrunners.
She has played all 28 games, starting 22, and is averaging 23.1 minutes, 9.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. Bogan came off the bench to lead UTSA with 16 points and six rebounds at New Mexico State on Nov. 19. In her first start against Eastern Washington on Nov. 24, she chipped in with seven points and hauled in four rebounds. Bogan then posted a career night with 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the floor in 33 minutes of action on March 1 at Sam Houston State in front of her family. All told, she has scored in double figures 11 times.
As the Roadrunners travel to Houston this week for the O’Reilly Auto Parts/Southland Conference Tournament, Bogan will be making her first tournament appearance and start. She is looking forward to the opportunity of playing in the postseason for the first time.
“We are playing very well right now and I think we have the chance to do well this weekend,” Bogan said. “After everything I’ve been through personally, a conference championship would make it all worth it.”
