The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
After Almost Giving Up Basketball, Trista Magee Finds Home at UAB
2/7/2018 1:50:00 PM | Women's Basketball
It is easy to get knocked down and to get back up. That's part of life.
But when life knocks you down and threatens to take everything from you, standing becomes much more difficult.
In Jim Valvano's ESPY's Awards speech in 1993, he famously said, "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."
Those seven words most certainly define the journey that Trista Magee took to get to UAB.
Magee was just like any other kid. She began playing basketball at a young age and found that love and passion almost instantly. It became who she was.
"I had dedicated my life to basketball," Magee said. "When other kids were going to birthday parties, I was going to play in basketball tournaments. My family wasn't able to take normal family vacations. We spent Christmas holidays going to tournaments. Basketball has always been a huge part of our lives. It is what has brought our family together."
Her dedication to basketball made her one of the top high school players in the state of Mississippi. She was named the Clarion-Ledger MS Preps Best of Girls' Basketball Player of the Year, the USA Today All-USA Player of the Year from Mississippi and a McDonald's All-American nominee, among other prestigious accolades.
She is still the all-time leading scorer at her high school, Presbyterian Christian, and a 2014 state champion, while also balancing playing AAU with the Alabama Southern Starz.
That hard work, through her childhood and into high school, paid off when she received a phone call from the University of Alabama's Kristy Curry, offering her a chance to play basketball at the collegiate level, something that Magee had dreamed of since she was little.
Magee arrived in Tuscaloosa ready to hit the court running, but early-season injuries hampered her debut.
"I had battled through the season with shin splints and some minor other things," she said. "I had finally overcome those and was beginning to play well and get my feet under me."
Her collegiate debut came on Nov. 24 against Georgia State, finishing the game with three points, four rebounds and two steals. A solid outing for a first collegiate game.
But late in her inaugural season with Alabama, all of that hard work came to a screeching halt.
A hip injury caused her to miss the final eight games of the season, a difficult blow to what had been looking like a promising freshman season following her early injuries. It was not until later that the news of the injury took a gut-wrenching turn.
"It was a different situation because I initially had a stress reaction and ceased playing for three weeks," Magee said. "I began back doing routine things, not a lot of physical therapy, but some here and there. I eventually found out that the stress reaction had turned into a stress fracture in two places on the compression side of my femoral neck. It is a really rare injury and it was strange that I got it."
For those not familiar with the anatomy of the hip, the femoral neck is what connects the femoral head and the femoral body. In layman's terms, it's the bone that attaches the femur to the bone which connects to the hip.
Magee required surgery to replace the fractured bone that covered more than 80 percent of its surface area. But unlike an ACL surgery, where a six to nine-month recovery is common, Magee knew nothing about the procedure she was about to endure.
"Going into other surgeries in the past, I had an idea of what was going to happen," she said. "I knew what the recovery was going to be like and the timeline. With an ACL, you know it is six to nine months. But I did not know going into the surgery room this time. It was devastating not only because it was a season ending injury, but because it ended up being way worse than we had thought."
The end result?
Two screws were put into her hip to help the bone heal. Two screws that remain there today.
What wasn't known was the effect that the injury was going to have on her playing career.
"Playing basketball is something that we have decided to do and we have dedicated our lives into through high school and AAU," Magee said. "We have put a ton of work in and our bodies take a toll. It was heartbreaking that I was not able to take care of my body enough to keep it healthy."
Heartbreaking.
As the days wore on, the reality began to sink in. Basketball, the sport near and dear to her heart, was getting farther and farther away.
The sport that was once Magee's entire life was slowly being taken away from her. A decision needed to be made: fight through the injury and attempt to play or take care of her body and give up playing the sport she loved.
"Getting hurt was a huge identity challenge for me," she said. "Not only was I losing basketball itself and the time and energy and love that I have for it, but it was me. It was who I was. I am a basketball player. That is what I struggled with the most. It was the darkest time that I have ever had, to choose between the safe route and being kind to my body or taking the chance and risking it all to play basketball."
Magee almost made the decision to give up basketball. She was going to continue school at Alabama as a normal student and had some big plans for her future.
But that all changed one fateful morning when she realized that her dreams were not dead yet.
"I had made the decision to stay at Alabama and be a regular student and give up basketball. I was going to study abroad. I had all of these things that I wanted to do. But one day I woke up and it was like God said, 'Come on now, you aren't finished, are you?' It was one of those things that I cannot be done. It was one of my proudest moments. To take control of my life and believe in myself more than anything. Not because I am Trista Magee the basketball player, but because I am Trista Magee the person who doesn't give up. I chase my dreams and I am the master of my own fate."
• • •
Magee was sitting at home on April day when her phone began vibrate.
It was the coaching staff at UAB, offering her to come on an official visit.
"It was scary to get the call from UAB," Magee said. "I was scared. It had been a rough year. The comfort of being closer to home because my parents played a huge role in me being able to do this again. I felt like I needed them there. I was wary at first about UAB."
But Magee accepted the visit and made the drive to Birmingham and to Bartow Arena.
Not knowing what to expect, she was obviously hesitant. But what she found was more than she could have ever imagined.
"Everything here was incredible," she noted. "I was expecting a Sunday visit and us to go home and move on from there. I got a chance to meet the girls. I know what it is like to have to be with a recruit on a Sunday, one of your days. You want what's best for the program, obviously, but you want that day to catch up on homework. But they were so awesome. They talked to me. It wasn't a competition and they didn't care about where I had come from. You could see how genuine each of them were and are."
Relationships ultimately made the difference for Magee. Those experiences on that Sunday afternoon playing ball with what ultimately became her teammates and talking with the coaching staff made the decision easy for her.
She signed the very next day.
"More than anything, they were willing to take a chance on me. That meant a lot. I was broken and I needed a safe place to call home. What Coach Norton has done here, he has made a second home for each and every one of us. He was what I needed. He believes in each of us more than we believe in ourselves. I will never be able to repay him for the opportunity that he has given me."
Fast-forward to Dec. 19. UAB was set to take Alabama State in the middle of a four-game in-state stretch for the Green and Gold.
More importantly, it was the first time that Magee would take the court donning the UAB jersey.
"I was so nervous to take the court for the first time. I couldn't feel my legs. It had been almost two years since I had played in a basketball game. It's not like I had been working out and playing. I had been rehabbing and getting healthy, unsure if I was going to be able to play ever again. I was really nervous."
But the nerves were no match for the love and support she was getting from her teammates. It was the same love and support that she received before she signed.
It was the reason that she chose UAB.
"My teammates were awesome. The whole week was 'Trista gets to play this week! Trista gets to play this week!' I was going to take a lot of minutes. Someone else's playing time was going to get shortened because I was going to play, or I hoped so, but my teammates were so selfless and cheered me on because they knew what it meant to me and what a big had overcome. They were there to celebrate that with me."
Game time.
"The game started and I get subbed in. I can barely feel my legs as I ran up and down the court. I probably passed up on four open shots and finally Miyah Barnes came over to me and said 'If you don't shoot the next time you are open I am going to scream at you.' So I did and it was awesome. I hit a couple more in a row and they were all smiling. It was so cool to see 12 people buy into my life and care about the things I have been through and overcome. It was like nothing I have ever been a part of."
Shoot she did as she finished her first game as a Blazer with nine points on an impressive 50 percent (3-for-6) shooting effort from behind the arc.
Magee has continued to be a staple for the Blazers' this season, coming off the bench averaging 6.3 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. She was also a key contributor in UAB's school record 3-point shooting performance against UTEP on Feb. 2, knocking down four of the team's 17 triples.
But what Magee knows more than anyone is that this team is not made up of just talent. It is made up of heart.
"People just think that our team is made up of a bunch of talented players that work hard. But a lot of teams have that. We have 13 individual people that are bought in to one goal and each other. It isn't just about winning a championship and making the NCAA Tournament, it is about seeing each other succeed and doing the best that they can do. It is incredible."
Magee has been a believer since her first day on campus. She has bought into the system and to the team's mentality.
And from day one, she knew that this team was going to be special.
"I got here last June, she added. "I had been here for two weeks and we had had one or two basketball workouts and I called my mom and said 'Mom, we are good. This team is good.' I did not know a lot about last year's season. I knew the team was young. I knew from this summer that this team was going to be good.
"I think if we keep staying on this course and keep doing the things that we are doing, I think the sky is the limit. There is no ceiling. Each and every one of us works so incredibly hard, you reap what you sow. We have incredible shooters. We have incredible talent. But, it hasn't come from just God given graces. It has come from time in the gym and people putting off distractions. Putting off other things that could come in the way of our team's success."
UAB women's basketball has a lot of excitement surrounding it right now. The team is off to its best start in program history and has broken multiple school records throughout the year.
"I am excited. I was excited in June. I was excited in November. I was excited on Dec. 19 and I am excited now. With each game, we grow and it is going to continue to be a special story and a special season and I am really looking forward to more people knowing who UAB women's basketball is."
It was a wild journey for Magee. Definitely not a journey she thought that she would have to make.
But after all of the ups and the downs, the pain and the suffering, she feels like she is a better person and player because of it.
"Looking back on it all, my injury was the best thing that ever happened to me," she added. "It showed me who I was. It gave me a chance to be Trista, not the basketball player. It gave me the opportunity to wrap my head around who I am as a person, not just an athlete."
Magee had every chance to stay down. She was almost done with basketball for good. But she persevered.
She didn't give up. She never gave up.
But when life knocks you down and threatens to take everything from you, standing becomes much more difficult.
In Jim Valvano's ESPY's Awards speech in 1993, he famously said, "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."
Those seven words most certainly define the journey that Trista Magee took to get to UAB.
Magee was just like any other kid. She began playing basketball at a young age and found that love and passion almost instantly. It became who she was.
"I had dedicated my life to basketball," Magee said. "When other kids were going to birthday parties, I was going to play in basketball tournaments. My family wasn't able to take normal family vacations. We spent Christmas holidays going to tournaments. Basketball has always been a huge part of our lives. It is what has brought our family together."
Her dedication to basketball made her one of the top high school players in the state of Mississippi. She was named the Clarion-Ledger MS Preps Best of Girls' Basketball Player of the Year, the USA Today All-USA Player of the Year from Mississippi and a McDonald's All-American nominee, among other prestigious accolades.
She is still the all-time leading scorer at her high school, Presbyterian Christian, and a 2014 state champion, while also balancing playing AAU with the Alabama Southern Starz.
That hard work, through her childhood and into high school, paid off when she received a phone call from the University of Alabama's Kristy Curry, offering her a chance to play basketball at the collegiate level, something that Magee had dreamed of since she was little.
Magee arrived in Tuscaloosa ready to hit the court running, but early-season injuries hampered her debut.
"I had battled through the season with shin splints and some minor other things," she said. "I had finally overcome those and was beginning to play well and get my feet under me."
Her collegiate debut came on Nov. 24 against Georgia State, finishing the game with three points, four rebounds and two steals. A solid outing for a first collegiate game.
But late in her inaugural season with Alabama, all of that hard work came to a screeching halt.
A hip injury caused her to miss the final eight games of the season, a difficult blow to what had been looking like a promising freshman season following her early injuries. It was not until later that the news of the injury took a gut-wrenching turn.
"It was a different situation because I initially had a stress reaction and ceased playing for three weeks," Magee said. "I began back doing routine things, not a lot of physical therapy, but some here and there. I eventually found out that the stress reaction had turned into a stress fracture in two places on the compression side of my femoral neck. It is a really rare injury and it was strange that I got it."
For those not familiar with the anatomy of the hip, the femoral neck is what connects the femoral head and the femoral body. In layman's terms, it's the bone that attaches the femur to the bone which connects to the hip.
Magee required surgery to replace the fractured bone that covered more than 80 percent of its surface area. But unlike an ACL surgery, where a six to nine-month recovery is common, Magee knew nothing about the procedure she was about to endure.
"Going into other surgeries in the past, I had an idea of what was going to happen," she said. "I knew what the recovery was going to be like and the timeline. With an ACL, you know it is six to nine months. But I did not know going into the surgery room this time. It was devastating not only because it was a season ending injury, but because it ended up being way worse than we had thought."
The end result?
Two screws were put into her hip to help the bone heal. Two screws that remain there today.
What wasn't known was the effect that the injury was going to have on her playing career.
"Playing basketball is something that we have decided to do and we have dedicated our lives into through high school and AAU," Magee said. "We have put a ton of work in and our bodies take a toll. It was heartbreaking that I was not able to take care of my body enough to keep it healthy."
Heartbreaking.
As the days wore on, the reality began to sink in. Basketball, the sport near and dear to her heart, was getting farther and farther away.
The sport that was once Magee's entire life was slowly being taken away from her. A decision needed to be made: fight through the injury and attempt to play or take care of her body and give up playing the sport she loved.
"Getting hurt was a huge identity challenge for me," she said. "Not only was I losing basketball itself and the time and energy and love that I have for it, but it was me. It was who I was. I am a basketball player. That is what I struggled with the most. It was the darkest time that I have ever had, to choose between the safe route and being kind to my body or taking the chance and risking it all to play basketball."
Magee almost made the decision to give up basketball. She was going to continue school at Alabama as a normal student and had some big plans for her future.
But that all changed one fateful morning when she realized that her dreams were not dead yet.
"I had made the decision to stay at Alabama and be a regular student and give up basketball. I was going to study abroad. I had all of these things that I wanted to do. But one day I woke up and it was like God said, 'Come on now, you aren't finished, are you?' It was one of those things that I cannot be done. It was one of my proudest moments. To take control of my life and believe in myself more than anything. Not because I am Trista Magee the basketball player, but because I am Trista Magee the person who doesn't give up. I chase my dreams and I am the master of my own fate."
• • •
Magee was sitting at home on April day when her phone began vibrate.
It was the coaching staff at UAB, offering her to come on an official visit.
"It was scary to get the call from UAB," Magee said. "I was scared. It had been a rough year. The comfort of being closer to home because my parents played a huge role in me being able to do this again. I felt like I needed them there. I was wary at first about UAB."
But Magee accepted the visit and made the drive to Birmingham and to Bartow Arena.
Not knowing what to expect, she was obviously hesitant. But what she found was more than she could have ever imagined.
"Everything here was incredible," she noted. "I was expecting a Sunday visit and us to go home and move on from there. I got a chance to meet the girls. I know what it is like to have to be with a recruit on a Sunday, one of your days. You want what's best for the program, obviously, but you want that day to catch up on homework. But they were so awesome. They talked to me. It wasn't a competition and they didn't care about where I had come from. You could see how genuine each of them were and are."
Relationships ultimately made the difference for Magee. Those experiences on that Sunday afternoon playing ball with what ultimately became her teammates and talking with the coaching staff made the decision easy for her.
She signed the very next day.
"More than anything, they were willing to take a chance on me. That meant a lot. I was broken and I needed a safe place to call home. What Coach Norton has done here, he has made a second home for each and every one of us. He was what I needed. He believes in each of us more than we believe in ourselves. I will never be able to repay him for the opportunity that he has given me."
Fast-forward to Dec. 19. UAB was set to take Alabama State in the middle of a four-game in-state stretch for the Green and Gold.
More importantly, it was the first time that Magee would take the court donning the UAB jersey.
"I was so nervous to take the court for the first time. I couldn't feel my legs. It had been almost two years since I had played in a basketball game. It's not like I had been working out and playing. I had been rehabbing and getting healthy, unsure if I was going to be able to play ever again. I was really nervous."
But the nerves were no match for the love and support she was getting from her teammates. It was the same love and support that she received before she signed.
It was the reason that she chose UAB.
"My teammates were awesome. The whole week was 'Trista gets to play this week! Trista gets to play this week!' I was going to take a lot of minutes. Someone else's playing time was going to get shortened because I was going to play, or I hoped so, but my teammates were so selfless and cheered me on because they knew what it meant to me and what a big had overcome. They were there to celebrate that with me."
Game time.
"The game started and I get subbed in. I can barely feel my legs as I ran up and down the court. I probably passed up on four open shots and finally Miyah Barnes came over to me and said 'If you don't shoot the next time you are open I am going to scream at you.' So I did and it was awesome. I hit a couple more in a row and they were all smiling. It was so cool to see 12 people buy into my life and care about the things I have been through and overcome. It was like nothing I have ever been a part of."
Shoot she did as she finished her first game as a Blazer with nine points on an impressive 50 percent (3-for-6) shooting effort from behind the arc.
Magee has continued to be a staple for the Blazers' this season, coming off the bench averaging 6.3 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. She was also a key contributor in UAB's school record 3-point shooting performance against UTEP on Feb. 2, knocking down four of the team's 17 triples.
But what Magee knows more than anyone is that this team is not made up of just talent. It is made up of heart.
"People just think that our team is made up of a bunch of talented players that work hard. But a lot of teams have that. We have 13 individual people that are bought in to one goal and each other. It isn't just about winning a championship and making the NCAA Tournament, it is about seeing each other succeed and doing the best that they can do. It is incredible."
Magee has been a believer since her first day on campus. She has bought into the system and to the team's mentality.
And from day one, she knew that this team was going to be special.
"I got here last June, she added. "I had been here for two weeks and we had had one or two basketball workouts and I called my mom and said 'Mom, we are good. This team is good.' I did not know a lot about last year's season. I knew the team was young. I knew from this summer that this team was going to be good.
"I think if we keep staying on this course and keep doing the things that we are doing, I think the sky is the limit. There is no ceiling. Each and every one of us works so incredibly hard, you reap what you sow. We have incredible shooters. We have incredible talent. But, it hasn't come from just God given graces. It has come from time in the gym and people putting off distractions. Putting off other things that could come in the way of our team's success."
UAB women's basketball has a lot of excitement surrounding it right now. The team is off to its best start in program history and has broken multiple school records throughout the year.
"I am excited. I was excited in June. I was excited in November. I was excited on Dec. 19 and I am excited now. With each game, we grow and it is going to continue to be a special story and a special season and I am really looking forward to more people knowing who UAB women's basketball is."
It was a wild journey for Magee. Definitely not a journey she thought that she would have to make.
But after all of the ups and the downs, the pain and the suffering, she feels like she is a better person and player because of it.
"Looking back on it all, my injury was the best thing that ever happened to me," she added. "It showed me who I was. It gave me a chance to be Trista, not the basketball player. It gave me the opportunity to wrap my head around who I am as a person, not just an athlete."
Magee had every chance to stay down. She was almost done with basketball for good. But she persevered.
She didn't give up. She never gave up.
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's Basketball
Guard
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