You recognize it instantly – the crunching of the joint beneath your bodyweight. Then there's the hobbling from one place to the next. Then the tennis ball-sized swelling and the discolouring, deep purple.
For one Spartan, sitting out this past weekend's provincial basketball championship seemed like a possibility because of a severe ankle injury.
Sukhraj Dhaliwal was with some teammates in late February, running through an informal practice.
He went up for a layup and landed on his right ankle. Dhaliwal went straight to the hospital after.
"It was definitely really swollen. It was kind of blue-ish and stuff," Dhaliwal said.
The diagnosis was a sprain. The good news -- no bone fractures.
Still, the timing couldn't have been worse with the biggest tournament of his high school life only a few weeks away.
"I was definitely worried. This is my senior year and this is basically what we were all looking forward to. Not just me, but the whole team, and it would have sucked if I had missed it," he said.
Dhaliwal sat out the team's league championship on March 2. However, he made a speedy recovery, making his return at a qualifying game for the South Central Zone 3A tournament.
"Honestly, I didn't think I would be able to play zones at all because the doctor said it would probably take three weeks and zones was in two weeks. So I was pretty nervous, but the recovery process was good. I definitely kept off it for a long time and kept icing it so I was good to go after two weeks," he said.
Shooting is Dhaliwal's greatest asset. Over three days of provincials, he did it marvelously.
He drained five three-pointers for the Spartans against St. Peter the Apostle in their first game, finishing with 15 points in the 87-65 loss.
The Onoway Mustangs held him to just eight points on Friday and beat OHS 73-62.
But his best performance came on Saturday, during Olds High's only win of the tournament, against Holy Rosary. Dhaliwal sank seven buckets from beyond the arc for 21 points in the Spartans' 71-66 victory.
When asked about his tournament experience, he said, "Can't complain. It's a good time being with the team. It's lots of fun."
And considering he was in crutches just two weeks prior, can't ask for much more either.
"I was definitely worried. This is my senior year and this is basically what we were all looking forward to. Not just me, but the whole team, and it would have sucked if I had missed it."SUKHRAJ DHALIWALOHS SPARTAN BASKETBALL PLAYER
