The Fort Lewis College women’s basketball team lost a 65-63 heartbreaker to Colorado School of Mines back on Jan. 9. The Skyhawks had a late lead, but a frustrating series of events allowed the Orediggers to come back and steal the outcome. At the time nobody realized it, but the Skyhawks lost much more than a game that night.
In the second quarter of the game, former Pagosa Springs High School standout and Fort Lewis’ All-Conference captain Mary Rambo took a shoulder to the jaw. She came out of the game with concussion-like symptoms and sat out for a week.
She came back to play in two home wins against Western New Mexico and New Mexico Highlands, but the lingering effects of the injury and a second incident in practice sidelined her again. She’s tried to battle back for one last run at her senior season, but the concussion symptoms put an end to Rambo’s season and her basketball career at Fort Lewis College.
“I love to play basketball, so it’s been really frustrating having to watch from the sidelines,” Rambo said Thursday in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “I don’t think it matters when it happened, whether it was my senior or sophomore year, this would have been tough for me to deal with regardless.”
As a captain, she is still there to support her team early in the mornings before heading to class. She’s on the bench guiding them along during home games, but the concussion symptoms have followed her wherever she goes.
On the sidelines, she wears sunglasses and ear buds because light and noise sensitivity trigger debilitating headaches. She’s needed extra help in school because working for extended periods of time has caused dizziness and fatigue. She’s just recently started doing basic exercises again.
“The hardest part about this, for me, is that it’s a passive recovery,” Rambo said. “Usually when you’re coming back from an injury, it’s an active progression. You work to rebuild the injured part. This is a bunch of rest and you can’t push it. For someone who enjoys being active, it’s tough to stay still.”
Rambo isn’t one to stay still, and she’s a basketball junkie.
She was a star player for Pagosa Springs High School when she was known as Mary Brinton before getting married last summer. She still puts on basketball camps for kids in her hometown. Rambo also officiates games in southwest Colorado and hopes to get into coaching beyond orchestrating camps and clinics.
“People ask me about her all the time because she’s been a great ambassador for the game in this area,” said FLC head coach Jason Flores. “The little kids look up to her just like the girls on this team look up to her. She’s been a rock for us, an all conference player and someone we were going to lean on all season. She really doesn’t deserve to have her career end this way.”
In the 16 games Rambo played this season for FLC, she averaged 8.5 points and seven rebounds and the Skyhawks went 11-5.
“It really breaks my heart for her because I know she’s waited for these moments, especially with this group,” senior teammate Kylie Santos said. “She has so many other commitments she could give her time to if she’s not able to play, but she stays with us. Her dedication even now is a great example of the kind of person and teammate she is.”
Along with All-RMAC honors, Rambo received All-Academic First Team honors and started all 27 games of her junior season. She scored in double figures in 22 of the 27 games. She was named to the preseason All-RMAC team to begin her senior season and was Defensive Player of the Week in the first week of December. In the last two seasons, she was named FLC’s Student Athlete of the Week seven times.
Rambo will be honored with seniors Kate Bayes, Simone Ruedin, Kylie Santos and Michelle Turner on Friday’s senior night at Whalen Gymnasium before the Skyhawks’ 5:30 p.m. game against Adams State (3-21, 2-19 RMAC). The Skyhawks (16-10, 12-9 RMAC) are slated to face Colorado Mines in the opening round of the RMAC Shootout on Tuesday.
“I told (the team) that while I might not be on the court, I’m going to be the loudest one on the bench supporting the girls,” Rambo said. “I haven’t been able to make many clear observations up until now, but I’ve gotten better in the last week and, even if I feel sick, I can still contribute somehow.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
