By Harry Minium
It was just weeks before the 2020-21 Old Dominion University basketball season was set to begin, and Jason Wade was anxious to kick things into high gear.
He suffered a devastating knee injury late last January after stealing a pass and then being knocked to the floor by a Florida International player. He crumpled into a heap and within days, had undergone reconstructive knee surgery.
Wade was devastated by the first major injury in his career, and attacked rehabilitation as he does the game, with enthusiasm, a positive attitude and a superior work ethic.
"I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone work harder to get back than Jason did," ODU coach Jeff Jones said.
By early November, he was practicing at almost full speed. His knee hurt, but it was tolerating more each day and he pushed himself to the brink to get ready.
Then, when diving for a loose ball in practice, he felt awkwardly on his "healthy" leg. He felt severe pain, "like someone kicking me," he said.
"I kind of knew what the deal was right away and immediately let my emotions out," he said.
He had torn his Achilles tendon, another injury that would require surgery and force him to miss another season and undergo months of rehabilitation.
His teammates watched somberly as athletic trainer Jason Mitchell helped him limp into the training room. Wade was the team's best player when injured a year before. Most knew they'd lost him again.
After Jones got practice re-started, he walked into the training room, where Jason was inconsolable.
Jason knew his season was done, again, and that sent him into a very dark place, from which he only recently returned to take his place as leader of a team that begins Conference USA play at Florida International on New Year's Day.
Jones called his parents, former ODU star Ronnie Wade and his wife, Linda, and asked them to come to Norfolk.
"I was out taking a walk," Linda said. "When I heard the first few words from coach Jones, I knew something was very wrong.
"Jason was with him and said he didn't want us to come to Norfolk. But I called Ronnie, we quickly packed our bags and were headed there."
They made it from suburban Richmond in two hours. They got to his apartment and hugged and cried and prayed together, along with Jason's older brother, Jordan, who was then a basketball manager.
"I knew he would be devastated because he'd worked so hard to come back," Ronnie said. "It was such a disappointment. I knew it would be tough for him, but also thought eventually he would know that he's going to be OK."
That took a while. Jason said he put up as good a front as he could for his parents and tried to hide how traumatized he was. They ordered dinner and tried their best to keep his spirits up.
The next day, they took him to see Dr. Bradley Butkovich, who would perform his second surgery on Jason in less than ten months, and after they left, Jason fell into a deep depression.
He spent the next 36 hours in his room, with the lights down, often with the pillow over his eyes, listening to music and nodding in and out of sleep.
Wade after ODU 2019 Conference USA title
And he prayed. Jason and his family are lifelong Catholics and they pray a lot together.
"I think when you get as low as where I got, once you hit that point, there's no other option than to pray and try to find peace within yourself and with God," he said.
"I was in a very dark place. You begin to ask, 'why me and why now?' You try to get that inner peace. You know it's going to be OK and try to convince yourself not to give up."
For a while, Jason almost gave up.
But then Jones called, reminded him he was still the team captain, and asked if he would return to practice. That began Jason's ascent out of his depression.
"Sure enough, when I got back to practice and saw everyone, it lifted my spirits," Jason said. "Everyone was practicing so hard. You could just tell their energy on the court was different from what I saw before.
"They all encouraged me. They let me know how important I was to them. It meant a lot."
A few weeks later, Ronnie and Linda took Jason to his surgery at Norfolk;s Sentara Leigh Hospital, then drove him to a Norfolk hotel, where other family members were staying, including his grandparents, Edward and Brenda Foster.
They watched football games together and ate a meal they had delivered.
The next day they drove him home to Richmond, where the family finished lifting Jason out of the hole he felt trapped in.
And if you know anything about the Wades, you know family is everything.
The Wades have had family dinners together, and that includes grandparents, cousins and uncles and aunts, almost every Friday night in Richmond for more than a decade.
The family is intensely close, and Ronnie and Linda are as supportive of their two sons as any parents I've known. Their boys are everything to them.
Linda says that when Jones recruited Jason that she and Ronnie made it clear that it was a package deal, that her son Jordan would also join the team as a manager.
"I had no problem with that," Jones said with a smile.
Jordan is working on a master's degree at ODU and will be helping the ODU football team when spring practice begins. Jones decided not to have managers this season to limit the "bubble" the team is trying to maintain to avoid the pandemic.
As many as 35 Wade family members have attended ODU home games, and in their son's 2 ½ seasons at ODU, Jason said his parents have missed only three or four games, and that includes trips to Miami, Bowling Green, Kentucky, Birmingham, Alabama, Hartford, Conn. and, of course, Frisco, Texas, home of the Conference USA tournament.
They didn't spoil their kids, they just loved them. They instilled discipline and Linda, especially, told them "from whom much who is given, much is expected," a quote from the Gospel of Luke. They insisted their boys have good ethics and that they work hard. Academics were stressed over athletics and the family went to church.
Jason Wade, far left, flanked by his father, Ronnie: grandfather, Edward; mother, Linda; and grandmother, Brenda
Jason remembers telling coach Jones after tearing his Achilles tendon in practice, "you can blame my parents. They never let us do anything half way."
But responded Linda: "We never had to tell Jason to chase after loose balls. He's always done that."
The Wade family has its foundations in Richmond, where Ronnie and Linda were both raised, but they credit ODU for bringing them together.
They didn't know each other in high school and might not have met as undergraduates at ODU had Linda been looking for a ride home one weekend. A friend recommended Ronnie. They hit it off during the two-hour drive and have been a couple ever since.
One thing they immediately they knew they had in common was their love and commitment to family.
Jason's face lights up when you ask him about those Friday night dinners.
"We would have get togethers at our house or my grandparents' house," Jason said. "You heard so many great stories and the food was so good. We would just have a ball. We would stay up sometimes until 2 a.m.
"It was the highlight of our weekends."
Jason said that since he began playing at ODU, he's begun to truly appreciate just how fortunate he is to have a great family, and especially two loving parents.
"I didn't realize how blessed I am until I began playing around different guys and learning that a lot of them didn't have the same love and support that I had," he said.
"It woke me up. When you grow up with the kind of love and attention I grew up with, you can take it for granted. Hearing stories from other guys made me appreciate my family so much more."
Jason was highly recruited at Trinity Episcopal High School, where he was rated the No. 9 player in the state. And when VCU, his hometown team, offered him late in the process, "I think everyone was sure I would go there."
Ronnie Wade did not try to influence his son. He wanted Jason to go where he would be happy.
"Dad told me to go to the school where I would like to go, where I would feel most comfortable, where I felt like I would have the most fun," he said. "If you get injured and have to sit out, he told me I want to make sure to be at a place where I'd be happy.
"He also told me to go to the school where I felt most wanted."
Jones and assistant coaches Bryant Stith and John Richardson worked overtime to recruit him. On Friday mornings at 6 a.m., college coaches were allowed to see Jason and his teammates work out. for an hour. Jones was there nearly every Friday and Jason was stunned to see Jones in the stands at a summer tournament in Lawrence, Kansas.
Jason said VCU's late offer, and Jones' presence almost every time he turned around, "told me everything I wanted to know."
"I felt comfortable at ODU," he added. "Not just with the coaches and players but with the social atmosphere there.
"I liked the campus, the vibe I felt there. I knew it was the place for me."
I met some of Jason's extended family in October of 2019 at a preseason dinner held for the basketball team, including his grandfather, who would not be alive were it not for his son, Edward Foster, Jr.
Edward Sr. told me about how his son stepped up and rescued him from certain death. His liver was failing and by the time he would be eligible for a transplant, he would be long gone. So, Edward Jr. volunteered to donate a portion of his liver.
Your liver almost always regenerates itself after a portion of it is transplanted, but anytime you take part in transplant surgery, it's a risk.
"It was the first time a hospital had done a transplant like that, from one family member to another," Jason said. "And Edward never hesitated. He wanted to save his father.
"That's my family. We take care of each other."
Jones said Jason Wade's extended family was a part of the recruiting process.
"And not just his parents but his grandparents as well. They are all involved in every aspect of Jason's and Jordan's lives," Jones said.
"There was never any type of interference or pressure. They were just there supporting their son and grandson.
"I wish everyone had a family as close and loving as the Wades."
Jason is in a far better place than he was in November.
He attended his first ODU game, on crutches, on Dec. 20, when the Monarchs defeated Northeastern, 66-62. Jones name him the team captain – the Monarchs usually have two captains – over the summer, and Jason has begun to embrace that role.
"It was so good to have Jason back on the court with us, in the locker room, eating a pregame meal with us," said teammate and roommate Anthony Oliver II.
"He wasn't in a good place but now is on the way back."
Jason didn't think he'd earned the title of captain, that Jones had given it to him out of sympathy because of last season's injury.
Well, I've known Jeff Jones for more than three decades and have never heard of him giving any player anything out of sympathy. When Jason broached the subject with Jones, the coach made it clear, you've earned this. You are our team leader.
And even though you're injured, we still need you to lead.
"Coach Jones said that I was going to be captain no matter what because of all the work I put in," Jason said. "He told me to get any thought of him doing this out of sympathy out of my head, that he wouldn't have done it if he didn't think I was capable of it.
"That was very reassuring."
As crazy as it might sound, Jason said he felt like he let his teammates down when he got injured last season and again in November. Jones, his parents and family have tried to dissuade him from the notion that you let anyone down when you get injured. But as the bible says, he expects a lot of himself because, he said, "God has given me so much."
"It hurt not being there last season, especially not being there for the seniors," Jason said.
He acknowledges the pressure he put on himself to return too quickly may have led to his second injury. He felt pain in his Achilles tendon for about a week before he tore it.
"I felt something, something that didn't feel right," he said. "I didn't tell anybody because I was just in the mindset to get back.
"I felt pressure, unnecessary pressure, to get back to full speed as quickly as possible."
After he was injured for a second time, Stith gave hims some sage advice: "You have to listen to your body. I understand you want to get back out there, but you've got to take care of yourself first."
Linda reinforced that message.
"Your body tells you what you need. You just have to listen to it," she said.
Linda was pretty reserved both times I did Zoom interviews with her and has been that way when I've seen her in person. But when I asked how her son's injury affected her, the emotion poured out of her.
"If I could take away that pain or go through that injury instead of him going through it, I would do that," she said. "He had worked so hard to get back and then this happened. I tried not to show it to him, but it was devastating, so devastating to me."
Ronnie was injured while he was at ODU and when he returned, he had lost his starting position, so he's aware of the ups and downs that occur when you get hurt..
"Injuries happen," he said. "I understand it's part of sports, having played as much as I have. There's nothing you can do about it. You just have to keep going.
"I told Jason if there is a time to be hurt, this is the year. We don't know how the pandemic will play out. So many games are being postponed. I don't even know if we're going to finish this season.
"I told him to take his time, heal and get better."
Ronnie sends his son text messages every morning with a prayer sent daily to him by a friend. They usually talk afterwards.
And he's gotten support from unexpected places.
ODU football coach Ricky Rahne penned a long letter to Jason in early November.
"That was another one of those reassuring moments," Jason said. "Having a coach who knows how teams work, how coaches see players, he reassured me that this was my team and that I earned the title of captain.
"He didn't have to do that. I appreciate it so much."
Rahne ended his letter with good advice.
"He also told me to take all the time I need to get back," Jason said.
Jason will be on crutches a few more weeks and has already begun to stretch. After months of physical therapy, he should be able to resume playing again in about seven months, but if it takes eight months or longer, that's OK with Jason.
"I'm not going to rush things," he said.
Meanwhile, he's taking on his role as team captain as he took on rehab from the knee injury -- at full speed..
"I've always been one to lead by example," he said. "I realize now that I have to change, that I have to be more vocal.
"I've taken the time to get to know everyone on the team, what they like, what they don't like. It's new to me being a voice people listen to. I'm figuring out ways how I can get the team together, how they can have a better outlook on the game."
Jones said no one has a better outlook on the game than Jason.
"Jason is a poster child for what every athlete should be," he said. "He gives everything to the team, he competes so hard, is a very good student and a great teammate.
"The list kind of goes on. He's not unique, in there are others who are like him.
"But he's very special."
In so very many ways.
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Minium: ODU Basketball's Jason Wade Emerging from a Dark Place After Second Season-Ending Injury
