More often than not, the discomfort in Bayleigh Torrance’s right hip isn’t enough to keep her off the basketball court.
Never one to sidestep a challenge, Torrance, a freshman forward on the Franklin College women’s squad, faces another one after the season is over when she undergoes hip surgery — a little more than four years after having a similar procedure on her left hip.
Torrance was diagnosed with a severe case of hip dysplasia as a freshman at Franklin Community High School.
Hip dysplasia is when the hip socket doesn’t fully cover the ball portion of the upper thighbone. Approximately one in every 1,000 babies are born with it. On both occasions, it caused Torrance to tear her labrum, the cartilage surrounding the acetabulum of the hip.
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“It was something that I was very, very skeptical about,” said Torrance, who was 14 when the first hip reconstruction was performed. “To fall in love with the game in the second grade and then have that completely ripped from you was devastating. I remember crying all of the time.
“Now when I look back on it, it’s a story that I can tell and I love telling, just about how I’ve overcome that.”
Torrance could have been done with the 2019-20 basketball season early and gotten a head start on her recovery and rehabilitation. The hard-nosed 6-footer never considered it. Neither did those who know Torrance and her fiery reputation.
“I want Bayleigh to succeed in whatever she does,” said Ron Torrance, her father. “Everybody is really proud of her, and for her to continue playing basketball after high school, especially after her first surgery, it’s a blessing.”
As a high school freshman, Bayleigh Torrance started to experience pain in her left hip during weightlifting sessions before the start of the 2015-16 season. She played one game, a three-point home loss to Mt. Vernon in the opener, and missed the remainder of the season after a December surgery at Community South Hospital.
"Her labrum was so torn at that point that Dr. (Presley) Swan said that she needed to stop basketball at that point," said Margaret Torrance, Bayleigh’s mother. "He thought if she would injure her labrum more during a game that she would have to go straight to the emergency room."
The surgery, performed by Dr. Swan, involved breaking Torrance’s pelvis and realigning her hip. Four titanium screws varying in length were inserted; they were eventually removed the following summer.
Torrance played for the Grizzly Cubs each of her last three seasons, averaging 4.9 points as a junior and 6.2 during the 2018-19 campaign. All the while, Franklin College coach Dana Haggenjos was looking beyond the statistics at Torrance’s passion and potential.
“We thought we got a gem when we got Bayleigh in the recruiting process. We thought she was the most underutilized person in Johnson County,” Haggenjos said. “One word to sum her up would be feisty. She has red hair, and there is definitely something to be said about that.
“Bayleigh is tenacious. A player who won’t go down without a fight. She can stretch you defensively with her perimeter shooting and make great moves on the block. She can rebound and she can defend the whole floor. We look forward to the day she’s healthy because that’s a turning point, I think, for our program.”
Torrance is finding a groove off the bench for Franklin College. She has now scored in double figures in her last three games, posting a career-best 14 against Manchester and 11 each against Rose-Hulman and Earlham, bumping her scoring average up to 6.3 points in just 11.8 minutes per game.
"We don’t necessarily have her on any restrictions," Haggenjos said. "Bayleigh has been dealing with this long enough that she knows her body better than any of us do. Obviously, we have some drills that are a little more physical than others, so we try to limit her reps on those.
“We just want to make sure we have a long season, and knowing she’s potentially having a surgery after the season, we don’t want to overdo it in games. It makes it a little bit schematic in trying to figure out how many minutes she can play in this game versus the next game.”
The Grizzlies close the regular-season schedule at home against Defiance on Feb. 22. Should they qualify for the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament, Torrance would likely have her surgery sometime in March at the earliest.
This procedure is likely to be performed by Dr. George Maiers at St. Francis Hospital in Indianapolis.
“I plan on being back in a couple of months, but since I have been playing on it I don’t know if I’ve damaged it more,” Torrance said. “I’m just talking it step by step at this point. I’m a little bit more comfortable with it. My first hip (surgery), it was terrifying.”
”There have been days when I’ve wondered why this is happening to me and why is God putting me through this. I also look at it as another battle I have to fight. It’s something I’ve done before, so why not do it again? It’s just another obstacle life has thrown at me, and I’m going to take hold of the reins and take control."
