Always in the moment

Selenak won’t let career-ending injury hold her back

By Umaymah Rashid
The Collegian

Fairy tales don’t always have happy endings.

The fairy tale that is the story of Fresno State volleyball player Cheryl Selenak proves that point.

After playing the game she loved throughout high school and college, Selenak’s competitive volleyball career came to an abrupt end after she injured herself before a meet against the University of Nevada Oct. 14.

The previous Wednesday, Selenak injured herself slightly but trained really hard to get better and was ready to play against Nevada that Saturday. She never got the chance.

“I was warming up and I jumped to hit the ball and when I came down I felt my knee shift from side to side,” Selenak said. “I felt it pop a couple of times and it hurt way worse than the first time, so I didn’t play.”

The next day, the doctor told her she had torn her ACL and that the injury was career ending.

Selenak said she wasn’t even able to listen to the doctor as he explained to her that she would need arthroscopic surgery to replace her ACL ligament with a cadaver ligament and possibly repair her meniscus.

“I just thought back to how my career started and everything that I had been through, how many matches I’ve played and I was hoping I didn’t take any of them for granted,” Selenak said.

Selenak comes from a family where all her sisters and her mother played volleyball.

The family’s love of the game has helped Selenak to become the star player she has been. She began playing volleyball at Downey High School where she was a two-year varsity letter winner and helped her team to a 35-7 record in her last two seasons.

She excelled at Golden West Community College where she played two positions and helped earn Golden West a 52-1 record and two state championships.

At Fresno State, Selenak has been captain and co-captain, was one of only three players to play in every match in 2005, and led her team in digs with a career high of 28 digs ranking eighth overall in the WAC.

Not only does Selenak perform on the court, she plays like a champ in the classroom too.

Selenak has received Fresno State honors by earning a spot on the 2005 Deans List as well as Transfer Academic All-WAC and Fresno State Scholar Athlete.

Since her injury Selenak continues to be a part of the team by attending all team practices, meetings and home games.

“That’s what you call loyalty, that’s what you call commitment and that is so hard to find in young kids now days,” family friend Polita Dart said.

Selenak said staying involved with the team helps to keep her strong.

“I know that I’m not ready to be done with volleyball and if the only thing I can do to be involved with my team is to watch volleyball, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Selenak said.

Volleyball coach Reuben Nieves said he believes that Selenak will continue to find ways to contribute to the team.

“She’s done it since the injury,” Nieves said. “She takes pride in it.”

Nieves said that the loss of Selenak is a loss that will definitely be noticed.

“It’s a pretty big blow to the team, Cheryl is a co-captain and unquestionably one of theleaders of the team,” Nieves said. “She’s also our best defensive player, unquestioned our best digger and our quickest player, the one who can cover the most court in the back row.”

Nieves described Selenak as proven winner and said that she is extremely reliable.

“I’m big on reliability, it’s a word that’s out there, but to coaches its huge, can we count on this person to do the right thing, to be where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there.” Nieves said. “Can we count on them for a consistent performance which only comes from consistent effort, those things are sometimes referred to as intangibles, but they’re really not either you have it or you don’t and Cheryl has it.”

Nieves said he believes the fact that Selenak is a good student allows her to be a great athlete and competitor as well.

“What it says to me is that she understands what a winner is,” Nieves said. “She understands that being a winner means being your best all the time, it means being the kind of person that makes others around you better, especially your teammates.”

Although her collegiate career is over, Selenak said life will go on and that she will continue to excel academically. She also plans to stay involved with volleyball and hopes to be a coach one day.

“I think she’s going to be a really successful person in her life because of her commitment, loyalty, values and morals,” Dart said.

Selenak’s parting message was aimed at people who are dedicated to something of value in their lives.

“To anyone who is doing something they love, I just hope they don’t take it for granted and realize that it can be taken away at any time,” Selenak said. “So live every moment and love every moment.”

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