The new year has already gotten off to a great start for Notre Dame senior Maddy Westbeld. She’s back playing basketball again after missing the first two months of the season.
Westbeld played in her first game of the season Sunday when the No. 3 Irish beat 17th-ranked North Carolina 76-66. She missed Notre Dame’s first 13 games while she recovered from a left foot injury. She had surgery in the end of August when she got back to school.
“Woke up this morning and went to my coffee shop and was just smiling,” she said in a phone interview Sunday. “It was a hard journey leading up to this point. This was the hardest part. This was ripping the band-aid off.”
On Sunday, she made her season debut with just over three minutes left in the first quarter. She played about three minutes each quarter as she was on a minutes restriction.
“Felt my best in the fourth quarter. I was waiting for the rest of the game, like when are we about to play?” Westbeld said laughing.
The biggest adjustment that the 6-foot-3 Westbeld had to make was coming off the bench. She had started all 120 games she played in over her four years at the school. The only game she had missed before this year was one when she had a concussion last season.
“it was really weird. I didn’t like it to be honest,” Westbeld said of the reserve role. “That’s just motivation to keep pushing.”
She understands that it will take some time for her to get back to where she wants to be. Her minutes restriction will go up hopefully each game.
Having Westbeld playing again makes Notre Dame deeper — something the Irish were lacking so far this season— and gives them a veteran presence on the court.
“She’s done a phenomenal job of getting herself ready. Kudos to Coach Knox and our performance team, getting her ready and strong and ready to perform,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said.
Injuries were always something that happened to somebody else as she was the one constant in the starting lineup over the years for the Irish. Playing through pain sometimes took its toll on the Ohio native.
“I’ve been playing through injury for a very long time,” she said. “I’ve never had a break this long and I am filled with gratitude and appreciate what I was able to put my body through.”
Having to sit out for so long can be tough on an athlete. Westbeld had a lot of help to deal with it. She always tries to find the positive and one of the silver linings of being sidelined was that she got closer to brother Ben.
He’s a senior in high school and a high level basketball recruit. Unfortunately he tore his ACL for the second straight year. He had surgery a few days before her foot procedure.
“He’s been through this and he was able to walk me through it,” she said. “He’s given me advice on days that I’m not feeling it.”
Westbeld felt bad that she wasn’t able to be there for him the first time around when he was injured.
“I never really experienced a surgery like that and am grateful that I can be there for him,” she said. “He’s my inspiration.
The two siblings started walking again the same day after their surgeries.
Westbeld decided to return for this season to help the program chase its first national championship since 2018. She’s part of the last class that was granted a bonus season for the coronavirus.
During her rehab, Westbeld used her time to be a become a better teammate by watching.
“I tried to get all my workouts and stuff done outside of practice so I could sit and be in practice,” she said. “Pick up on things that I wouldn’t be able to if I was playing.”
While the extra season didn’t get off to the start she hoped, Westbeld hopes it finishes in Tampa with a national championship.
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AP Basketball Writer Aaron Beard contributed to this report.
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