Hard In The Paint
Volleyball's Rachel Richardson rises above double hip surgery
Meredith Rieder, GoDuke The Magazine
Rachel Richardson is back. And she’s back stronger in body, mind and soul.
Six months ago, Richardson, a senior outside hitter for the Duke volleyball team, was struggling with immense pain in her hips. She was sleeping on the couch in her apartment to alleviate the pain because lying flat on her back or side in the bed through a night hurt too much. She couldn’t sit for extended periods of time without pain, and she could not get her legs into the most basic position of criss-cross applesauce. All at the age of 21.
“My quality of life had already gone down in a way,” said Richardson. “Class was so hard to go to after practices some days because walking hurt. Sitting, they would still be throbbing. So, my mood … I was a different person. I would say I became very unhappy because I was constantly in pain.”
She had been managing the pain she felt in her hips for so long, but it was starting to bleed into her steadfast faith in God and into her love for the sport of volleyball. She found herself simply managing to get through daily tasks and not enjoying the moments of life.
“I don't feel like my faith ever left,” said Richardson. “I feel like it got really weak though, and that is why life started feeling so hard. Because there was an inability almost to see past what I was experiencing in hope for something better. But I feel like the way my faith manifests in my life now has changed, because it's about more than just the future. I've learned how to live life with present faith, which has manifested in me looking for the good in the now.”
On the court, Richardson is having her best season, ranking second on the team with 2.55 kills per set and third in total attacks. Her hitting percentage has improved by 81 percent from .091 to .165 and she already has four double-digit kill performances in eight outings after just two in 29 matches in 2023.
Rewind one year, after having dealt with the pain throughout her career at Duke with incredible guidance from former athletic trainer Melissa Gresham and current athletic trainer Cole Archer, Richardson felt a strain in her quad and hip flexor in the final game against North Carolina. But this time it felt different.
“That was like the third time I strained my groin (playing at Duke),” Richardson said. “So, I already knew kind of what I would need to be doing (to recover), but I was having weird other pains. I really couldn't walk. It was like the actual movement of even moving my legs was putting me in so much pain. I remember, after the UNC game I burst out in tears thinking I don't even think I can make it to my car because I was in so much pain.”
Archer, seeing Richardson in agony, brought in the expertise of Drew Lukes, one of Duke’s physical therapists to make sure it was simply a hip flexor strain. It did not take long for Lukes to discover through a test of external rotation on both legs that Richardson had tears in both hip labrums.
Suddenly, Richardson went from thinking she was rehabbing a hip flexor strain over the holiday break to having to consider bilateral hip surgery.
Richardson and Duke’s team of medical professionals started with a conservative approach of rehabbing without surgery. Through diligent work by Richardson, the 5-9 outside hitter improved, and was even jumping higher than before the injury. However, the progress only lasted so long, and Richardson regressed to where she was previously.
So, the decision of whether to have surgery became more pressing with her senior season just six months away.
“It’s always a tough conversation because in the athlete’s mind it’s a given that I’m going to have surgery and I’m going to be back,” said Lukes. “That’s just not the case. I think we have a higher percentage here (at Duke) because we get to see them every day, but it’s never a given because once you cut, you don’t go back. And that’s kind of what we had talked about.”
“I feel like the process of making the decision to get the surgery seemed quick, but it was definitely a difficult decision,” Richardson said. “Drew played such a major role in it. I'm Christian and he is also Christian. So, I feel like in these big decisions for me, I always say a big part for me is I have to spend time in prayer, asking the Lord where he’s leading me in that situation and trying to find peace. That also just helps me commit 100 percent to a decision. Drew was one of the few people who I felt like took that seriously when I was bringing it up in conversation.”
The choice to pursue surgery for Richardson was at first about getting back on the volleyball court for her final season. However, in conversations with Lukes, she started to realize it was about her quality of life long term.
“He was the one who kind of laid it out like that, telling me, ‘If you decided to get the surgery you have to understand I'm not rehabbing you back to become a good volleyball player. I'm rehabbing you back to have a good life.’ That did encourage me, honestly, to get the surgery.”
“So that was a big conversation we had with her and her parents,” Lukes said. “That’s one of the first things I tell anyone. I am here as a (physical therapist) in a Division I setting, but I care about you as a human before I care about you as a volleyball player. I want you to be able, if you want to have kids, to be able to pick up your kids when you’re older. I want you to be able to be active for the next 50 years, not the next five or 10. Volleyball is the cherry on top.”
Through prayer and open conversation with Lukes, her parents and other athletes who had the same procedure, Richardson elected to undergo surgery. So, on April 1, 2024, the Ellicott City, Md., native became the most recent patient of Dr. Richard Mather III — one of the nation’s premier hip specialists.
“This hip arthroscopy is fairly new in comparison to ACL surgery and less studied than ACL surgery,” Lukes said. “There’s actually only a few surgeons in the world who are called high volume hip arthroscopy surgeons and those are the only ones who, as a PT, I would recommend going to. And we’re fortunate to have one of a handful here at Duke in Dr. Mather. That made the situation a little easier.”
The first week post-surgery is always the toughest and when athletes are often at their most vulnerable. In pain and unable to do the things they’ve always been able to just tell their bodies to do is humbling.
“I mean this in the nicest way possible, but they’re just so pathetic,” Lukes said about the first few days after surgery.
Richardson maintained her infectious energy and sense of humor as she approached the rehab process. She joked with Lukes that to explain the giant gauze around her hips, she was going to say she had a Brazilian butt lift. All jokes aside, Richardson also took this opportunity to start exercising her faith and reflect on her relationship with God.
“I think initially there wasn't an intentional mental approach,” Richardson said. “I'd say the minute I was unable to exercise my body physically was the minute I started exercising my faith. It also taught me the importance of, just like any muscle in your body, faith is something you have to continuously work on. Also, what this time taught me in terms of my relationship with God was that the only way to better relationships is to spend time in them. So yeah, the Lord created all the time in the world, and finally, I was able to take advantage of it and spend that time with him.”
Grounded and humble, Richardson doesn’t mention how diligent she was to the physical side of her rehab. Physical therapy was her favorite part of the day in the early weeks. Sure, her “workout” might just be trying to flex her quads, but she loved seeing the figurative and literal steps she was taking.
“There really was just a joy with being able to do things despite the physical feeling that I couldn't,” Richardson said. “So, I think in that moment, it was more ‘Oh my gosh we're making progress. It might be tiny, but we're already getting to make progress. So, for me, it was the feeling that I was already making advances towards getting back, no matter how small they were.”
“She was a joy to work with,” Lukes said. “She was an absolute pleasure. She asked good questions. She was curious, which I love. She worked really hard. I tell athletes what I do here actually is maybe one of the least impactful things for you. You see me one or two hours out of 24 hours. It’s really you being consistent with the things I give you to do when you’re not in here that really helps push rehab forward and she was meticulous about those little things. It paid off and made a big difference.”
As graduation came and went and campus emptied for the summer, Richardson was the constant in the Scott Family Performance Center Athletic Medicine office. She was intent on dedicating her summer break to joining her teammates back on the volleyball court come August.
“She taught me a bunch of lingo, and one of them was, ‘We’re going to go hard in the paint,’” Lukes said. “That was her thing. I don’t know what it means, but we went hard in the paint for rehab.”
Lukes, Archer and the entire Duke athletic medicine staff became her family. The 90 minutes to two hours she spent with them, six or seven days a week, allowed her to keep her sight set on the finish line.
“Honestly, the whole athletic medicine staff became my primary social group the whole summer,” Richardson said. “They definitely played a role in my sanity and Cole 100 percent was always someone who I could be the authentic Rachel Richardson in front of. It's nice to have someone like that, especially in a setting like college athletics, where so much of it seems performative.”
Richardson, renewed in body and spirit, continues to work on all aspects of herself. She has the twinkle in her eye again when playing volleyball and a self-confidence she hadn’t felt in a while. The confidence piece was and remains a work in progress for Richardson because, naturally, upon returning to the court she experienced struggles after four months away from the sport.
In those moments she turned to God, looked in the mirror and said, “Rachel, God put you here for a reason. God has begun a work in you He is not done with yet. Trust you are moving in the right direction regardless of what other people think. And it was really that last part, that regardless of what other people think, that was really big, because comparison is the thief of joy.”
Richardson quit comparing herself to her teammates and put her trust in God. Her skills and touch came back, and the pieces started to click into place midway through preseason. She officially completed her return Sept. 5 against LSU, firing eight kills against the Tigers.
“I finally believed,” Richardson said. “You can do this, you can do this, you can do this, you can do this. Then I did it. And it was like, ‘Aah, you're doing it!”
This story originally appeared in the 16.2 issue of GoDuke The Magazine – September 2024. Dedicated to sharing the stories of Duke student-athletes, present and past, GoDuke The Magazine is published for Duke Athletics by LEARFIELD with editorial offices at 3100 Tower Blvd., Suite 404, Durham, NC 27707. To subscribe, join the Iron Dukes or call (336) 831-0767.