BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
WESLACO — Weslaco High was putting the finishing touches of a thorough thrashing of Weslaco East in both teams’ district opener on Tuesday night.
Weslaco High coach Griselda Fino had already emptied most of her bench late in the fourth quarter with her team up 44 points. That bench carried Amber De Luna, a seldom-used guard who has earned the reputation as a defensive disruptor in practice, through the years.
In the game’s final minute, Fino decided to draw up a play for De Luna.
“It’s actually a play we run for our best player and that’s usually a play we run for Bree (Peña),” Fino said. “I definitely wanted Amber to get in the book while she was on the floor, so we ran it for her. It’s a play designed to get a quick and easy layup off of the defense they (Weslaco East) was running against us. When I saw who I had on the floor, it was a no-brainer.”
The Panthers ran a sideline out of bounds play steps away from the Weslaco High bench. De Luna got free from a Wildcat defender and went around a pick as she cut to the basket. She received the inbounds pass on the left side of the hoop and rolled in a layup.
The Panther bench erupted and Fino couldn’t hold back her grin after De Luna dropped in the final two points of a 60-14 victory.
“I didn’t think I was going to get it,” De Luna said. “We set it up the first time and it didn’t happen. I was kind of shook the second time. When I went up, the ball had hit an end of the rim and once it went in, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ It felt great to be out there playing with my teammates. To be getting back into it is a great experience.”
Back in June, De Luna and her Weslaco High teammates traveled up to San Antonio for a basketball tournament. De Luna was able to get some playing time in their last game on the tournament’s final day.
There was a minute left in the fourth quarter of that game. De Luna was on the floor and the Panthers were on offense. She went up for a layup.
“I went up, came back down and landed wrong,” De Luna said. “My foot went in between another girl’s legs and was twisted. When I fell, I leaned back and I heard a pop.”
De Luna tore her left ACL.
“The first thing that her summer coach texted me was, ‘Coach, you’re not going to believe who we lost,’” Fino recalled. “I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She said it was somebody that was coming along and was really going to hurt us. That’s when I told her, automatically, ‘Don’t tell me it’s Amber.’ ‘Yeah, it’s Amber.’”
“I didn’t even know if I tore it at first,” De Luna said. “After that, my head was spinning.”
De Luna said the ACL injury wasn’t the only one that required surgery. Her doctor discovered she had been playing with a torn meniscus in her knee. The diagnosis, which cast doubt as to whether she would suit up for the Panthers again, left her at a loss for words.
“From there, I picked my head up,” De Luna said. “I had to get back to work. Each day since, I’d come into practice and work out on the side. I went to therapy and worked as hard as I could to come back.”
Through De Luna’s dedication she was cleared to return to the practice floor four and a half months after she went under the knife.
“This just goes to show the amount of work it took for her to get back out here,” Fino said. “And that is her knowing that her minutes were going to be minimal to begin with. I wish I could tell you that she’s going to be a starter for us before her injury, but that wasn’t the case. She knew she’d be a roleplayer but we never had to ask her to work. She’s always worked her tail off.”
De Luna now has a second chance to end her career with her Panthers (21-4, 2-0) teammates the way she wants to.
“Going through this journey taught me a lot,” De Luna said. “The whole process was tough but it was worth it.”