After suffering an eye injury in late August, Helanea McKenzie thought her third season with the Wellsville-Middletown girls basketball team was in jeopardy.

“It was not good,” the W-M junior said.

But after getting several surgeries and a new pair of glasses, McKenzie was thrilled to join the Tigers when practices began in November.

“It was a lot of pain, but we’re good,” McKenzie said. “We’re on the upside. No more surgeries anymore.”

Now, McKenzie is looking to help the Tigers turn in another successful season. When she was a freshman, she played on an W-M team that finished with a 16-11 record and reached the district championship game. She helped the Tigers turn in a 13-13 record when she was a sophomore.

This winter, McKenzie is part of a team that has just seven players, five of them are back from last year. Seniors Hallie Guzy and Keigan Hall and sophomores Elly Cash and Aubrey Harmon are the other returning players.

“My goal is just to grow as a player, but also help our team grow and work better together,” said McKenzie, who is one of two juniors on the team. “We’re going to be losing a lot of seniors and that’s going to be hard on us because they’re amazing teammates and they’re also amazing players. Developing our younger girls is going to be something that will be really important.”

When was in eighth grade, McKenzie played on a junior high team that had four boys and two girls. She was the only eighth-grade student on the roster. In her final junior high game, she scored 12 points against Silex.

The following year, McKenzie won a spot on the W-M high school squad. She was the only freshman on a W-M girls team that celebrated its first winning season in many years. She played with two seniors, three juniors and three sophomores.

“That just made me really close to the girls from other grades in my school because I had to do everything with them,” McKenzie said. “So I think that was really good, too.”

On Aug. 30, McKenzie had the retina of her right eye torn following a freak accident in weightlifting class at school.

“I had laser surgery to hold it and then I had eye surgery about three months ago,” McKenzie said. “I took off for two months and that was really hard to reclick, having to make myself sit still and stuff.”

McKenzie, who got another laser surgery on Dec. 9, said despite the mishap, she was still determined to play basketball for the Tigers.

“My parents told me that they really didn’t want me to play because of protection reasons and they didn’t want me to get injured again, but I really didn’t like that answer,” the junior said. “We also said we can wait until January. I was like, ‘OK, I’ll start after Christmas.’ Then, after I got my surgery, my doctors were like, ‘As long as you can take care of yourself, you’ll be able to play.’ That made me very happy.”

With McKenzie back on the court this year, she was reunited with Steve Lasman, who took over head coaching duties of the W-M girls team after Todd Cripe retired last year. McKenzie was coached by Lasman on the W-M junior high team when she was in eighth grade.

“I love Lasman,” said McKenzie, who is the vice-president of the W-M FFA chapter. “He’s absolutely amazing.”

Lasman, who coached the W-M boys team for seven years before taking over the girls squad, said he’s pleased with McKenzie’s efforts after two months.

“She’s a great kid,” Lasman said.