Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Brooklyn Cartr in action for the Warriors last season.

Guest Post by John Pritchett, Family Engagement Liaison/Del Norte High School – Brooklyn Carter remembers the “pop.”

It was a Dec. 30, 2023, game at a tournament in Fort Bragg. Del Norte High’s girls basketball team sported an 11-2 record and was getting noticed as a strong contender for postseason honors. Carter, the team’s leading scorer, had just stolen the ball from a Fortuna player and headed downcourt.

She did a jump stop – something she had done hundreds of times in her career — and she heard the sound.

“I knew something was not right,” said Carter, who was a junior at the time. “My whole leg went numb. I thought, ‘Oh no.’

“But I made the shot.”

It would be her last points of the season. Doctors discovered she had torn her anterior cruciate ligament, which is crucial for knee stability, as well as tearing her meniscus. She would eventually have surgery, endure long and at times painful rehab, and go through the mental anguish of not being able to help her team … at least not on the court.

The injury left the team, and first-year coach Dylan Nelson, “shell shocked.”

Without Carter, the Warriors struggled. Del Norte dropped five of its first six conference games. But then something begin to change. The team began to find its footing. Nelson remembers his seniors stepping up both in games and in practice.

The result, according to Nelson, was “internal toughness.”

“We had so many talks at practice; we needed to have a mindset that everyone needs to step up,” Carter said. “We really did at the end of the season.”

The Warriors came on strong in the final weeks and qualified for the North Coast Section playoffs. The Warriors won their opening-round game before falling to powerful University High of San Francisco, the team that would finish second in the NCS.

In the process, Carter gained a new appreciation for the game she thought she knew well. She saw a bigger picture. She saw the game as more of a coach than as a player.

“I think watching the film, watching the plays, is really going to help this year,” she said.

While she helped her team from the bench, others helped her with her recovery. Her father, Bret Carter, has been through knee injuries himself.

He was able to provide advice and encouragement. Mom Lindsay provided support and love. So did former Warrior Molly Slayton, who underwent knee surgery at the same location just minutes before Carter went into the operating room.

Even the Huskies of Fortuna offered their best wishes, giving her flowers and a card the next time the teams played.

But it was her teammates that may have helped the most. Their warmth and encouragement helped her keep moving forward during the weeks on crutches, the recovery sessions, the stretching, the frustration and pain.

“They were awesome,” Carter said.

Now a senior with a 3.8 grade-point average, Carter is ready to help her team advance again to the postseason. It’s a team filled with promise.

Carter said she will be careful with her reconstructed knee, especially early in the season. But she refuses to play scared.

“I’m excited,” she said. “I’m just going to go out and play.”