With two minutes to play in the fourth quarter on Jan. 6, Edward Little freshman Hope Fontaine dribbled the ball down the court for a layup against rival Lewiston.

As she jumped, the worst possible outcome became a reality — a torn ACL and two meniscus tears.

“When I went up for the layup, and I came down, I felt exactly what my coach felt (when she tore her ACL)” Hope Fontaine said, referring to Red Eddies head coach Kristina Blais. “My mind like, instantly went to the worst. (Blais) said she felt like her bones were like grinding together, so when I went down, my knee went to the side, and I felt that.”

The crowd fell silent in the Blue Devils’ gymnasium as Fontaine laid on the ground to wait for the athletic trainers to evaluate her knee. Her father, Brendan Fontaine, described it as one of the worst moments of his life.

Two months later, and the injury and the difficulties associated with it have changed Hope Fontaine’s life and provided her a better understanding of who she is.

In the days following the Lewiston game, which Edward Little won 65-37, Hope Fontaine underwent several hours of light physical therapy, underestimating the severity of her injury while she waited for scans to come back.

“We went for almost a week doing light PT with the belief that she was OK,” Brendan Fontaine said. “We were praying and didn’t believe that it was worse. We literally went to PT three times the day after the injury.”

After working with BJ Grondin at Prime 360 and Jason Burtchell at Resilience Physical Therapy, Hope Fontaine saw Dr. Ian Engler, an orthopedic surgeon at Central Maine Medical Center, for an appointment and MRI scan. Within 48 hours of the scan, Engler notified Hope’s parents that the injury far exceeded their expectations.

Brendan Fontaine said he and his wife, Faith Fontaine, cooked brunch for the family, and sat with the bad news for hours in anticipation of Hope waking up. He called it “a very emotional time.”

“Her journey in basketball is pretty extraordinary, and we were not ready for that,” Brendan Fontaine said. “Psychologically, we were ready for the good news.”

FAITH OF HOPE

It took a couple of weeks for the sting of the bad news to wear off, and since her Jan. 30 surgery, Hope Fontaine has faced numerous obstacles on her recovery journey.

Despite the fear, pain and anguish, Hope’s resiliency has only grown as a byproduct of her faith.

“I’ve always been a Christian, but I’ve never really understood how important my faith is to me,” Hope Fontaine said. “The past couple years, with COVID and now this, I’ve really started to get the real and true understanding of how important God is to me in my life.”

Beginning with the day of the injury, then through her surgery and beyond, Hope said she has felt a calm from knowing that these trials and tribulations are a part of a bigger plan that God has for her, and she has been comfortable leaning into the power of prayer and community.

“There are no words to explain what it’s like to see your child, who’s just been a super athlete and indestructible and the strongest kid you’ve ever known, go through this,” Brendan Fontaine said. “She’s far stronger than I am emotionally about this.”

Some of the biggest challenges, like learning how to walk, bend her knee or maneuver up and down stairs with crutches and a stiff leg have been challenging, but not impossible for the high school freshman.

Hope Fontaine said her biggest concern was being able to still go to the Dominican Republic this spring for a mission trip with her mother, father and younger brother. Her surgeon expedited her procedure date so she would have the necessary six weeks of non-weight bearing completed, which would allow her to travel.

FINDING HOPE

Hope said that she also experienced an identity crisis once she wasn’t able to step on the court.

“The biggest thing I’ve struggled with is feeling like basketball is my identity,” Hope Fontaine said. “The hardest thing for me, now that I don’t have basketball, is that I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m really going to take the time to think about what other things define me.”

Hope’s father described her as a “little spitfire tomboy,” who “didn’t have a care,” earning her the nickname of Punky Brewster. Her father is one of her two AAU coaches, along with Wayne Steele, with Mode3, and basketball is a big part of the Fontaines’ lives. Hope’s older sister, Grace, played on Edward Little’s 2017-18 state championship team and later for the L-A Maples.

“She became very deliberate and very mature, and put-together and faithful — overnight, really,” Brendan Fontaine said about Hope after her injury.

Brendan said the hardest part of his daughter’s injury has been seeing her struggle to know her worth off the court. He said he feels like he had failed her as a parent, because he feared she assumed all her acceptance and love came through her athletic ability.

“That was hard for me to hear, so I told her, ‘I’m going to commit to getting you 110 percent, and if you decide that you don’t want to touch a basketball again, I’m good,’” Brendan Fontaine said.

Brendan and Hope have also been able to spend more time together outside of basketball, including bonding during a father-daughter weekend in Auburn while the rest of the family went to Florida for a tournament. In a way, Hope said the injury has only strengthened her relationship with her dad, because she has been able to rely on her parents in new ways, as well as have tough conversations about identity and place.

Hope Fontaine also stressed the importance of community, citing the many athletes, doctors, family members, friends and strangers who have reached out with well wishes and worries. Edward Little teammate Rachel Penny, in particular, has been a constant source of support.

“When the injury happened, she was right there with me,” Hope said. “She ran over to me right away, and I just remember her holding my hand, and she didn’t leave me until she had to go back to the game, but I just remember her telling me, ‘I have to go now, but I love you,’ and she’s been like a really big sister to me, because we’ve just always had like, really good bond. I really appreciate that.”

Blais also has not skipped a beat in coaching Fontaine through this, having her contribute through stat- and note-taking on the sideline, while dressing in formal wear like the coaches do.

“Having her understanding what I’m going through, and just like, her being by my side, all the time, has just been like really comforting to me,” Hope Fontaine said. “I don’t look at her like a mother, but like, on the court I do.”

Looking back on the past two months, Hope Fontaine said her injury has only strengthened her desire to grow her faith and find fulfillment in activities besides athletics. Despite that, she has changed her mindset from “I have to,” to “I get to,” when it comes to basketball, and is itching to push through the next nine months of recovery to be back on the court.

Brendan Fontaine said the biggest advice he can offer after watching his daughter go through the beginning stages of this notoriously tough injury is to celebrate small milestones, whether it’s bending a knee an extra degree, taking a first step or waking up without needing pain medicine.

“My family keeps telling me that at the end of this, there will be something waiting for me from God,” Hope Fontaine said. “This is going to make me realize something we don’t yet see now.”

 

Editor’s note: Haley Jones wrote this story as part of the six-week Dow Jones News Fund Early Career Training program, which she recently completed.

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