Kaneland's Dana Lettow
sets school record

Dana Lettow, who has achieved just about every honor during a stellar basketball career at Aurora University despite two serious knee injuries, received the highest accolade ever bestowed on a women athlete at the school.

Lettow's No. 40 was retired during a surprise ceremony shortly after her last regular season game February 25, 1997.

Lettow's achievements at AU include:

The 1996-97 season was supposed to be a record-breaking season for a Kaneland High School graduate. But 5-foot 9-inch Aurora University basketball star Lettow spent the early part of senior year sitting in an unaccustomed place - on the Lady Spartans' bench.

Lettow entered the season needing only 170 points to become the school's all-time leader in career points. She was considered a strong candidate for NCAA Division III All-America honors (as a sophomore she was named a Kodak All-America honorable mention.) A fourth-straight selection to the All-Northern Illinois Intercollegiate Conference was almost a certainty and she would likely lead the team in scoring, as she did in each of her first three seasons at AU.

Lettow would have likely added other honors as well, including: NIIC Player of the Year (which she earned in her freshman and junior years); all tournament recognition for the Spartan Classic, the Washington (Mo.) Tournament and the Wheaton College Tournament and her third award as team MVP.

All those things were expected for Lettow until that fateful second game of the season a 68-57 loss to Wheaton on Nov. 23. Lettow fell hard to the court in the first half of that game, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament.

Lettow had scored 19 points in the opening game (an 83-68 win over North Central) and scored eight before her season was suddenly interrupted and her senior year placed in serious question. Only 143 points short of the career points record at AU, Lettow was forced to the sidelines.

"I knew it (the seriousness of the injury) right away," said Lettow , who had already torn ligaments in her other knee. "I felt it pop. I was carried from the floor. That night I went back to the house and watched the game on tape. When I saw it, it made me sick to my stomach.

Lettow had done the same thing to her right knee in the summer after her graduation from Kaneland High, forcing her to sit out the 1992-93 season as a redshirt freshman.

"There are two kinds of ligament tears... one where the ligament itself tears," said Lettow.

"The other is when it tears away from the bone, which is extremely painful. That's (from the bone) how my tears were, as a freshman and this time."

It might have caused her the career scoring record.

But on Tuesday night, January 7th Lettow got back on the court and scored six points in nine minutes of playing time. Her return had begun. Then the following Saturday she scored four points in AU's 47 - 42 win over Judson. With 13 games remaining on the schedule she needs 133 points for the school record. "I'm just happy to be out there again. As for the record... "maybe if we play some weaker teams I will get more playing time and might get close. It really doesn't matter, I'm playing again and Tuesday night was all smiles for me."

After her initial visit with orthopedic surgeon Dr. John Lacart, he said, according to Lettow: "Well, we're just going to have to rehabilitate it, Dana."

Lettow had two choices: let the injury rob her of her senior season, or fight back, endure the pain and play hurt until surgery can be performed this summer."

"I was so determined to play again, because I'm a senior and there's no next year," said Lettow, who admitted she was on an emotional roller-coaster for a number of days following this second setback. But she soon made up her mind she would not let it bear her.

For over a month Lettow has had intense rehab sessions with physical therapist Jodie Hickey at Dreyer Clinic.

"We began by lifting weights and then walking slowly on the treadmill, gradually working up to running," said Lettow, who now wears a cumbersome knee brace that nearly covers her leg from the ankle to thigh. After Tuesday's game her knee was packed in ice held in place by elastic bandages, a routine she became accustomed to injuries after injuring right knee in 1992.

Lettow finally got her chance to play when Linda Olson, AU's first-year coach, sent her into Tuesday's game with 15:48 left in the first half.

"If I had let her, Dana would have played the whole game, even though she knows she shouldn't," said Olson, "She is still working on getting into playing shape."

After a minute on the floor Lettow made her first shot, a 3 pointer. That helped take some of the pressure off.

I was consciously reminding myself to hold back, she said. "That's hard for me, because I want to go all out but can't cut and drive the way I could before.

"Before my therapist and Dr. Lacart told me most people are unable to play with this type of injury, but hey, this is my last year,,,I have nothing to lose. I had to try."

One of Lettow's teammates who also happens to be one of her roommates, Diana Thompson, never doubted her friend would return.

"I knew from the beginning she would come back," said Thompson, a senior guard who has played basketball with Lettow for four years. "She did everything she could to get back. She's so determined; such a competitor."

Lettow played in three stints averaging three minutes each Tuesday night. She entered the game for the third time at 10:53 in the game for the third time at 10:53 in the second half. About 31/2 minutes later she drove for the bucket, going up for a shot off her leg. She made the basket and was fouled (sinking the free throw for a three point play), but stepped gingerly on the injured leg almost immediately.

Al and Vicki Lettow collectively cringed when it looked like their daughter had hurt the knee again.

"I think both of us thought 'Oh no!', but I looked at her and the smile was there, so... I knew she was OK," said Vicki. "She's so happy to be playing again. I don't think the (scoring) record is as important to Dana as seeing the team do well."

"She's always had good competitive juices," said Al, a stand out athlete at Elgin Larkin in the 1960s who went on to play football for the University of Wisconsin.

"She began playing in the Youths Basketball Program at the YMCA... on boys teams. When her older brother (Scott, 27) had friends over for games in the driveway, Dana would be out there playing with them.

Record or no record, Lettow is in her element again _using her natural instincts to help her team win. She is bolstered by supportive parents, coaches, teammates and, of course, a knee brace now that makes it all possible.


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