The initial medical diagnosis a few weeks ago stunned the patient. On the other hand, why shouldn’t it? Bridget Mulholland’s once-promising basketball career had already been riddled with injury, delayed by a pandemic, and now this: a broken ankle. This was clearly discouraging news for the stalwart player, who was by then more than halfway through a resurgent campaign with Queen’s Gaels, currently third-ranked women’s football club in the nation.
Bridget Mulholland of Kingston in action this season with the Queen’s Gaels, U Sports’ third-ranked women’s basketball team as of February 14, 2023. Photo by JPGphotography
That was until she rolled that ankle in practice.
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“I walked out of the ER that night thinking, ‘Here we go again,’” Kingston’s Mulholland recalled weeks later after a Gaels training session.
Fortunately, the diagnosis was only partially correct. X-rays did show a fracture in the ankle, but the bone hadn’t been broken recently. “The radiologist’s report later said it was indeed an old fracture,” says Mulholland. “Somewhere along the line I must have broken it and didn’t know it.”
Still, the bum needed three R&R games, Mulholland’s first absence in a season in which the starting striker has played a key role in the Gaels’ climb up the national rankings. Still, a three-game stay on the shelf is a far kinder fate than a cast and eight weeks of convalescence, although given what she’s been through in the past, Mulholland could probably be three weeks on her head.
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Try losing a season to a coronavirus.
Try to leave two full seasons to a mysterious foot injury — a torn plantar fascia — that she “just woke up with.”
Trying to cope with recurring headaches, the lingering effects of a concussion she sustained nearly eight years ago during her senior year at Regiopolis-Notre Dame Catholic High School.
Mulholland’s story is the classic one of promise and potential, adversity and adversity. Most importantly, it’s a story of unwavering dedication and perseverance. It’s the story of a kind, selfless leader who sets an excellent example of the perfect teammate.
“I’ve never had a player like her,” recalls Dave Wilson, a former Gaels coach from sunny Florida, of one of his former protégés. Wilson’s opinion carries weight; He coached the women’s team for 39 seasons. “Bridge’s dedication, selflessness and extrajudicial qualities – always wanting to help in one way or another. She’s just a special player, a special person.”
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Mulholland wasn’t a diamond in the rough when he left high school. More than 40 universities, including several NCAA Division I schools south of the 49th — including Seton Hall, Villanova and Illinois — chased the exhilarating, agile point guard. She led RND to three consecutive Kingston-area high school titles and captained the Ontario U17s gold-medal winning team while earning first-team All-Star commendation.
“Bridge was not only the best recruit in the county, but in all of Ontario and maybe even the whole country,” Wilson continues. “She was very strong academically and was the best player at every stage of her development. All Canadian schools followed her, as did many well-known American schools. In the end she felt Queen’s was the best all-round fit.” He laughs at the memory of the chauffeur-driven 1937 Buick McLaughlin he hired to show the girl from his hometown of Mulholland that “she was special”. It may be the only time Queen’s has used a vintage car as a recruitment tool.
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The player’s injury problems began with November 2015’s concussion, which was the result of a teammate’s faulty elbow on her head. Mulholland was not approved to play for nine months. Today the headache continues. “Before this injury, I never had a headache,” she says. “Now sometimes they go crazy.”
As a freshman, despite missing a few games, Mulholland was named to the 2016 Ontario University Athletics All-Rookie Team. “First-year kids rarely dominate,” Wilson notes, “but in March, at the Nationals, Bridget was our best player.”
She wasn’t even anywhere near a gym the following February when she was diagnosed with a torn plantar fascia, a painful condition affecting the bottom of the foot. In 2018, she underwent “plantar fascia release” surgery. The bizarre injury kept her away for two seasons. “There was no rhyme or reason why or how it happened,” she says. “I woke up one morning with a sore foot.”
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As soon as she was back on her feet, so to speak, COVID wiped out the 2020-21 campaign.
This season, Mulholland has been averaging just over 25 minutes and 7.9 points per game, both career highs at Queen’s, where her role has changed and she has adapted in turn. Mulholland is no longer the youthful pivot whose tenacity, timing and intuition seemed, for starters, to be superior to their opponents. Gone are the days when she accepted tons of scholarship offers. She may be half a step slower these days, but those instincts and courtesy remain scalpel-sharp. And don’t let that modest point average fool you. Mulholland, who now plays on the wing, is a valued link in the chain.
“Bridget is so versatile and so reliable,” said Claire Meadows, manager of Queen, whose Gaels started the weekend with a sizzling 19-1 lead. “We call her our ‘point forward’ because we give her the ball to improve the pitch when teams meet our guards.”
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Like her predecessor Wilson, Meadows Mulholland praises the humble, helpful teammate who cheered, comforted, encouraged – a beacon of support in civilian clothes – the player who was still on the bench during those agonizing two seasons off the lineup.
“When I wasn’t playing, I was expanding my role off the court, trying to be more available and finding the capacity to do a little bit more,” says Mulholland, 24, who is as successful in the classroom as she is on the court. with an impressive grade point average of 4.1 (out of 4.3) in the master’s program in neuroscience. “I’ve been here for seven years,” she adds. “I love this program and I love my teammates; you want to show up for them.”
Coach Meadows calls them unique. “I’ve never coached a player who really cares more about the people in the program and the program itself,” says the former Gaels star, who has returned to her alma mater after serving as assistant head coach of the national team in 2019-20 Master of the University of Saskatchewan had served huskies. “Bridget is like an extension of the basketball program.”
While this year is Mulholland’s seventh at Queen’s, it’s only her fourth as a varsity player. In the coming season, she will use her final year of fitness to begin working on her PhD. This combination is a rare find these days, much like Mulholland itself.
Patrick Kennedy is a retired Whig Standard reporter. He can be reached at [email protected]
Bridget Mulholland stands between parents Gord and Shannon Mulholland in front of a 1937 Buick McLaughlin. Dave Wilson, former Queen’s Gaels women’s basketball coach, rented the vintage car to tour the heavily recruited prospects at their new campus in 2016. “I wanted to show Bridget that she was special,” Wilson explained.
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Source: www.thewhig.com
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