{"id":280718,"date":"2025-11-13T01:21:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T01:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280718\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T01:21:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T01:21:19","slug":"43-year-old-returns-to-kc-college-basketball-24-years-after-career-ending-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/280718\/","title":{"rendered":"43-year-old returns to KC college basketball 24 years after career-ending injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Tressa Barnes thought injury ended her college basketball career 24 years ago.<\/p>\n

Diving along the sideline to make a pass for the Calvary Warriors volleyball team, Barnes suffered a torn ACL in her right knee.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy body went this way, and my knee went that way,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cIt just popped, and people in the crowd heard it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the second time she\u2019d torn the ACL in that knee.<\/p>\n

Doctors told her she could keep playing \u201cand have a knee replacement when you’re 30,\u201d which might impact her ability to be active with children, or she could give up competitive sports.<\/p>\n

43-year-old KC woman returns to college basketball 24 years after career-ending injury<\/p>\n

\u201cI grieved,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cAs any student athlete does, you grieve when you know that your career is over with. It’s like a death.\u201d<\/p>\n

But earlier this month, fate \u2014 and the pursuit of a master\u2019s degree in counseling \u2014 intervened, leading Calvary University\u2019s small gym to erupt with cheers during the Warriors women\u2019s basketball team\u2019s season opener when Barnes checked in with 3:39 remaining in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

On the day she turned 43, and only steps away from the spot on the same court where she\u2019d lain in a heap in October 2002, Barnes returned to the sport she loves as a 43-year-old graduate student.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember it was literally right here,\u201d Barnes said, pointing to a spot on the floor as I interviewed her Wednesday morning, \u201cand I was thinking, \u2018OK, I’m done.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes, who also teaches at Calvary and let me know about her comeback in a news tip to the station, was classified as a full-time graduate student when she re-enrolled for the fall semester.<\/p>\n

\"Tressa<\/p>\n

John Batten\/KSHB<\/p>\n

Tressa Barnes thought injury ended her college basketball career 24 years ago after multiples ACL tears, but she’s back in the game as a 43-year-old senior with the Calvary Warriors women’s squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI jokingly said to her, \u2018Oh, so I could play basketball?\u201d Barnes, who tore the ACL in her left knee after college, said of the registrar\u2019s office, \u201cand we kind of laughed about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But after relaying that joke to Warriors senior Tyonna Garcia and head women\u2019s basketball coach Cameron Coleman, it was no longer a laughing matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a little bit of arm-twisting,\u201d said Coleman, who was hired in April 2025 and also serves as assistant athletic director. \u201c… If you know anything about Tressa\u2019s journey, you know she\u2019s had some injuries, so she was a little bit hesitant about getting back on the court. But I just told her, you know, how much of a blessing she would be to these girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coleman was correct.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I was excited,\u201d Garcia said. \u201c… I think I was the first person she told that she had eligibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tyonna<\/p>\n

KSHB 41<\/p>\n

Tyonna Garcia<\/p>\n

She\u2019s had Barnes as a teacher and knew her from around campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just brings the light,\u201d Garcia said of Barnes. \u201cHonestly, she brings a light. She brings inspiration with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

And a high basketball IQ as a veteran of the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been amazing,\u201d Coleman said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got nicknames for her. They call her \u2018Mama T,\u2019 so she’s kind of taken a motherly role on our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

KSHB 41<\/p>\n

Cameron Coleman<\/p>\n

Barnes, now a stepmom to 8- and 13-year-old girls, embraces the role, even if joining the Warriors comes with a level of trepidation after three ACL tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery practice, every game, is just a thought process of, how am I going to move? What am I going to do?\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n

But checking into Calvary\u2019s 75-65 win against Randall University from Moore, Oklahoma, felt sublime.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust stepping in on the court, it literally took me back 24 years ago, and I was like, \u2018I’m here. This is a dream,'” Barnes said. <\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\"Tod<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[162483,162484,64,63,726,162485,162486,78426,162490,85,3276,162487,162488,162489],"class_list":["post-280718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-43-year-old-graduate-student","tag-acl-tear","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-calvary-university-warriors-womens-basketball-team","tag-cameron-coleman","tag-jackson-county","tag-return-from-injury","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tod-palmer","tag-tressa-barnes","tag-tyonna-garcia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}