As a freshman in 2006, Simone Parker was fighting for the basketball when she felt her shoulder pop.
Four years later, she's completely healthy for the first time since that incident.
Her injury — a torn labrum in her left shoulder — came when an opposing player got under Parker's shoulder while going for the ball and came up hard.
"I played two years on it, though," said Parker, who shoots and dribbles primarily with her left hand. "I just stuck through it."
A gifted athlete, Parker completed her freshman year and gutted it out through her sophomore year.
Last year, the pain became too much.
Parker was shelved after playing against Lake Norman in early December.
She rehabbed throughout the season, and dressed for Statesville's West Regional game against Asheville Roberson, scoring two points in limited minutes off the bench.
"I didn't want to miss my junior year, but it was getting worse," Parker said. "The bone was starting to decay."
That sealed her decision. Now, nearly a full year later from her surgery, Parker is still on the road to recovery.
She displayed several flashes of brilliance during a season-opening loss to East Meck.
Parker scored 11 points, second on the team to Janitsha Williams, and pulled down seven rebounds.
She did most of her damage against bigger players and looked good running with the Eagles' athletes.
"Her conditioning is not where we want it, but she's doing good," Greyhounds coach Todd Jones said. "Me and (assistant coach) Ike (Williams) have talked about it a lot, we feel like we'll be pretty good with Simone down there. I just think it's going to take us some time. Simone getting back in shape is going to help us a lot. I mean, she's not in bad shape, she's just not in basketball shape because she hasn't played in so long."
Parker has plenty of time to get her legs under her before both the R&L Holiday Classic and the meat of North Piedmont Conference play.
In addition to East Meck, the Greyhounds have four total nonconference games against Mooresville and Hickory. Statesville will also play South Iredell and Lake Norman once before the holiday tournament.
With that tough schedule ahead, Parker thinks she will get back into her game in time to make another run at a NPC title.
"I feel good about what we can do together," Parker said. "It's a big deal to me. With me being healthy, there's more pressure. We're ready for it."
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