Minium: It's Been a Long, Arduous Road Back to the Basketball Court for ODU's Jason Wade

By Harry Minium
 
NORFOLK, Va. – There was a pit in Jason Wade's stomach when Old Dominion basketball coach Jeff Jones waved to him last Monday to come off the bench and check into the game.
 
Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't have been a big deal. The Monarchs were beating Christopher Newport pretty soundly and it was just an exhibition game. The outcome was pretty much decided.
 
But Wade had not been in a game in nearly three years, and for much of that time, he wondered not only if he would ever be able to play basketball again, but also function in life.
 
The 6-foot-4 forward was ODU's best player three years ago. The Richmond native and son of former ODU player Ronnie Wade knew all the tricks from a lifetime of basketball and would deftly head fake his way past a defender or toss a no-look pass to a teammate.

Wade was never the biggest player on the court but was generally the hardest worker. That's a lesson he learned from his parents, that success only comes from putting your nose to the grindstone.
 
At the time, he led ODU in scoring and was second in rebounding in conference games and was the team's most versatile player and best defender. He could play four positions with equal skill.
 
But he's gone through a nightmarish time the last two years and 10 months that included two major injuries, and more devastatingly, a bout with depression that was more debilitating than being injured. His depression was so deep that at times, he thought about suicide. 
 
It's something of a miracle that Wade is back in school and back to a normal routine. It's beyond miraculous that he's back playing basketball for Monarchs, who open their home schedule Monday night at 7 against Maryland-Eastern Shore.


 
"I'm not the same player I was," he said. "I've gained 50 pounds I can't jump like I used to. I'm not as fast as I used to be.
 
"But I'm playing basketball again and that is a blessing."
 
He's only been back on the court with his teammates since the beginning of the summer, and while he's made tremendous progress, he almost surely won't start for the Monarchs, at least not right away. He needs to lose weight and to make up for the years of being relatively inactive.
 
"So many other people would have quit long ago," said teammate Ben Stanley, a transfer from Xavier. "He's been through so much. It speaks to his character and his perseverance that he's back."
 
Jones, who has been coaching for 38 years, said "I'm not sure I've ever seen a player, or a family, go through what Jason and Linda and Ronnie Wade have been through.
 
"The fact that he's here competing, that's amazing."


 
Wade is not prolific on Twitter, but in early September, when practice began, he Tweeted a message that got hundreds of interactions.
 
"Just to be back out on the court is truly a blessing in itself. I could care less about the points I score or the minutes I play. Thank you to everyone who has stood behind me."

Jason Wade was in the midst of what appeared to be a great performance on January 23, 2020, when the Monarchs faced off against Florida International. He had scored 60 points and hauled down 24 rebounds in the last three games.
 
But then a split second after Wade picked the pocket of FIU guard Devin Andrews, it was his 52nd steal of the season, his long nightmare began.
 
Andrews lunged at him to try to retrieve the ball and fell on Wade, who slammed into the floor.
 
You knew the injury was bad from the moment he screamed in pain.
 
Wade knew it too. Anything that painful had to be serious, he said to himself. An MRI confirmed it was a torn ACL. His season was done.
 
It was his first major injury and when he was told he faced surgery followed by months of rehabilitation, he rolled up his sleeves and went to work with a positive, can-do attitude. He was anxious about how much the injury had set him back but had yet to suffer any depression-like symptoms.


 
Ten months later, in November of 2020, he was on the practice court for the Monarchs and was almost at full strength. His upper body, which he was able to work on throughout his rehabilitation, was ripped. His abs looked like something out of a GQ Magazine photo shoot.
 
But while going up for a rebound in practice, he felt excruciating pain in his other leg. "It felt like somebody kicked me in the back of the leg," he said.
 
He turned around and nobody was there.
 
"Then my foot got numb and I knew what it was," he said.
 
He had torn his Achilles tendon.
 
Players often come all the way back from ACL injuries, but rarely do they return to full speed after tearing their Achilles tendon. It didn't take long for Wade to figure out that he would never be the same basketball player he used to be.
 
That's when depression hit him like a two-ton anvil. He stayed in his room for nearly a week, lying in bed and listening to music and asking God, "Why me?" He went home for a month and spent time with family, but that didn't help like he'd hoped it would.
 
He began a long offseason of rehabilitation during the pandemic, and the isolation that was caused by everything being closed and people being ordered to stay at home made his depression worse.


 
Eventually, the depression became more debilitating than the injuries.
 
"I fell into a very dark place," he said. "There were days when I didn't really know whether I wanted to live."
 
His family, friends and teammates rallied around him. His parents, grandparents and so many other family members, all Catholics, prayed for him during a group Facetime call, four times each day.
 
They continue to do so every day.
 
His parents got him into intense counseling, and he began taking medication for his depression. Gradually, his family's prayers were answered.
 
He says part of his emotional recovery was a result of teachings from the Catholic church, which urges Catholics to embrace their suffering with joy, as Christ did on the cross.
 
"That wasn't easy," he said. "But I had to accept it.
 
"Life is about suffering. Everything's not going to be peaches and cream. Everyone is going to have bad things happen to them, and you've got to be able to adapt and bounce back as far as possible."
 
He stopped questioning God and accepted what happened to him.
 
"Growing up, I didn't really have many obstacles to overcome," he said. "I lived in something of a sheltered world. My parents always made sure I was in a good environment.
 
"All I had to worry about was basketball and making good grades.
 
"When basketball was taken away from me, that was a big blow. The only thing I've been doing longer than playing basketball is breathing.


 
"My family told me there are things you just can't control. They told me 'God decides these things and you don't know why.'
 
"So, you have to go make the best of what he has planned for you, and that's what I've done.
 
"It was a growing up stage for me. It taught me to see the world from a different view. Everything isn't going to go the way you want it to be."   
 
While embracing his suffering helped him deal with injuries, it did little to pull him out of his deep depression. His parents recognized he needed help long before he did.
 
Wade eventually embraced the treatment being offered by his counselors.
 
"Depression is terrible," he said. "I used to see people who were depressed, and I wondered why. Life is good. It's not always great, but it could be so much worse why not make the most of it?
 
"But then when it hit me, I realized you can't really help how you feel. It's not something you can control.
 
"I see depression from a whole new perspective."
 
He says he's comfortable about talking publicly about his battle with depression in part so that others might hear his story and be encouraged to seek help.
 
"I would not be back where I am now had I not gotten help. It helped me put my life back together," he said.
 
"If you're problems with depression, you need to get help."
 
Although he is still on meds, Wade is no longer in counseling. "These guys are my counselors," he said, waving to his teammates who were sitting nearby.


 Wade mobbed by teammates at Meet the Monarchs event

Jones wonders if the ordeal wasn't harder on Ronnie and Linda Wade than it was on their son.
 
"You love your kids, and you don't want any harm to come to them," Jones said. "And we try to be as protective as we can.
 
"And then comes the realization that sometimes we can't protect them.
 
"It's been a struggle for them, and I would say, for them, that's an understatement. They've been with Jason every step of the way, supporting him, fighting for him. And they had to make some difficult decisions at different times.
 
"But they're wonderful people. They're extremely grateful to those who have supported them up close and from a distance."
 
Linda Wade said she knew that eventually, her son would make it back into school and, she hoped, on the court.
 
"We kept telling him, you're so much stronger than you know," she said.

Meanwhile, she acknowledges that her heart was breaking.
 
"If I could have taken on any of what he was going through on myself, I would have," she said.
 
Ronnie Wade said he's encouraged his son to be patient.


 Jason Wade cutting the nets after 2019 Conference USA championship

"He's been away from basketball for so long," he said. "It's going to take time.
 
"I told him to just be patient and enjoy the process."
 
Jones has done the same, cautioning Wade not to expect too much too soon. But of Wade's goal to eventually work his way back into the starting lineup, he said, "I would never bet against Jason Wade."
 
Linda Wade said she got a lot of encouragement from ODU fans, some on social media and others who called or wrote.
 
"They say it takes a village and sometimes it does," said Linda Wade, who met her husband while both were attending ODU.
 
"We heard from so many people. The number of messages we received, the number of people praying for him, it was just amazing."
 
That support was apparent at a Meet the Monarchs dinner held last month at the Norfolk Yacht and Country Club. Ted Alexander, radio voice of the Monarchs, introduced every player and coach and interviewed them as if they were on the air.
 
When he introduced Wade, a crowd of around 300 boosters, fans and ODU administrators stood and gave him a rousing ovation that lasted several minutes.
 
Tears were streaming down the faces of Jones and his wife, Danielle, as well as the Wades, including his grandparents, Edward and Brenda Foster.
 
"I don't care if I'm playing a lot or scoring a lot of points," Wade in part told the audience. "I'm just so glad to be back with the team.
 
"This is an experimental year for me. I don't want to say I'm not expecting much, but I'm just going to take it day by day and just hope for the best each time I step on the court."
 
When he was done speaking, his teammates got out of their seats and ran to the front and mobbed Wade. It was a spontaneous act that spoke volumes about how they feel about Wade.


 Jason Wade with former ODU basketball coach Paul Webb

As they hugged him and clapped him on the head, the crowd was again cheering, and this time, there were few dry eyes in the house.
 
"My heart is so full," said his grandfather, Edward Foster. "He truly is loved here."
 
When public address announcer Jack Ankerson announced his entry into the exhibition last Wednesday with 9:22 left in the game, Wade realized that he's not been forgotten by ODU's fan base.
 
He got a rousing and sustained ovation.
 
"That was so nice," he said. "I really appreciated that."
 
Wade has slowed down, something that is apparent in practice. But it wasn't apparent this night. He took an entry pass and head faked past a defender to bank in a layup with 6:51 left. He then picked off a steal, drove the length of the court and made a fast-break layup 17 seconds later.
 
He was fouled seconds later and did something he's never done since playing in grade school basketball – he shot an air ball. He finished with four points, a rebound and a steal in seven minutes.
 
His parents congratulated and hugged him, and while his brother, Jordan, like his parents an ODU graduate, also hugged him.
 
He also gave him a hard time for the air ball.
 
"I wasn't nervous," Wade said. "I was out of breath."
 
As his father said, it's going to take a while for Jason to get back into playing shape.
 
"The feeling I had when I went into the game is hard to put into words," he said. "For the longest time, I wondered if I would ever be able to play again.
 
"I realize this is going to take time. I'm OK with that. I'm so thankful to coach Jones for holding a spot on the roster. I'm OK with whatever coach Jones wants me to do, start, come off the bench or not play, whatever I can do to help.
 
"I'm just so happy to be a part of this team again, to be back where I belong."

Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram