Olson overcomes odds, owns one-of-a-kind career for ‘Jackets

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Evan O’Kelly Director of Communications O: (406) 657-2130 E: evan.okelly@msubillings.edu Tuesday, March 1, 2016 Olson overcomes odds, owns one-of-a-kind career for ‘Jackets

Five years into her career with MSUB, senior Janiel Olson overcomes an ACL and does it all from setting the school’s rebounding record, to earning GNAC Defensive Player of the Year, to being a one-of-a-kind leader for the ‘Jackets.

MSUB SPORTS – The first time Mary and Hal Olson set foot inside a college basketball gymnasium, a high-school-age Janiel Olson was by their side, eyes least wide of the three as she gathered in her surroundings at Alterowitz Gym on the Montana State University Billings campus.

Billings natives, Mary and Hal had never considered themselves sports fans, let alone athletes. Neither had played any sports competitively, and the territory they had entered seemed much more foreign to the owner of a local body shop and a 30-year banking industry veteran than it did to their daughter.

“We never had a connection to MSUB, but we came here when she was a junior or senior in high school to watch a game,” Hal remembered. “It was such a big change, the way that the team worked together. It was the first eye-opener that college was going to be a big step.”

Olson had offers at numerous other schools by her senior year, and freshly printed letters of intent begged for her signature. She even considered giving the United States Military Academy at West Point a shot, but Hal feared that if she

strayed to New York, completed school and the mandatory five years of service afterwards, he would never see his daughter again.

When Olson walked through the blue doors to Alterowitz Gym with her parents that evening, she carried an impressive resume from Billings West High School along with her. She was a four-year letterwinner in basketball, and played her way to first-team all-league and all-state honors in her prep career.

Although she never could have realized it at the time, that first evening at Alterowitz was an introduction to the place she would spend the most time over the next five years.

The place where she would learn what it meant to be part of a team and play for the people closest to you. The place where she’d grow into the best defensive player in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and help a team of unlikely heroes overcome unimaginable adversity and compete in one of the most memorable postseason runs in school history.

The place where she felt more alone and helpless than she could have possibly imagined, the game she loved taking away her livelihood as she knew it in an instant.

The place where she’d hold a clipboard on the bench for an entire season, gaining perspective and battling through the toughest year and a half of her life.

The place where the 5-foot-9 forward would defy odds and bring down more rebounds than any other woman in MSUB history.

The place that has her parents’ seats on permanent lease, Row D, Seats 17-20 on the far side diagonal from the Yellowjackets’ bench.

Mary and Hal Olson in attendance at Alterowitz Gym during a game in their daughter’s senior season with the ‘Jackets.

It is there that Mary and Hal have witnessed the growth of one of the best basketball players in MSUB history before their very eyes.

PLAYING PIG TO HOOPS ON THE WEST COAST

Olson remembers being in second grade, the thump of a leather basketball on the ground drawing her attention to the backyard where her father and older brother James were engaged in a rousing game of PIG. It wasn’t long before seven-year-old Janiel forced her way into the games, but the tears came quickly upon her inevitable defeat to her vertical superiors.

“They never took it easy on me,” Olson said with a smile. “When I was older in fifth grade, I got to practice with my brother’s team. I enjoyed playing against boys.”

By the time Olson reached middle school, her parents recognized the need for more formal instruction and entrusted her development to coaches Katie and Mike Smart with a local traveling basketball team. “Katie is one of the best coaches I have ever had, and is one of the first who figured out how to motivate me and get me to play hard,” Olson said. “Mike was the same way. I wouldn’t be half the player I am now if I didn’t get put on that team.”

Under the guidance of the Smarts, Olson developed into a versatile player who was ready for any position on the floor by the time she reached West High. As a senior, Olson helped the Bears to a Class AA state title and had developed a knack for rebounding through her persistent, diligent work ethic. “I never had one position that I was completely focused on excelling at,” Olson commented on shifting from 1-through-5 during her prep career. “Each year I worked on something different, and my position kept changing.”

While Olson’s high-school career prepared her well for college, nothing could substitute for the experience she had spending a summer with an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball team in California. During a trip to Arizona with her grandmother Jean, Olson was introduced to AAU coach Brian Crichlow during a camp at the University of Arizona.

When he offered Olson a spot on his team, she couldn’t wait to call her parents and inform them of her plans for the summer.

Mary and Hal were a bit slower to convince.

“She called us and said she was going to California to play,” said Mary. “We were pretty hesitant at first. I don’t care how old your kid is, you don’t want to let her go for three months in a place where she doesn’t know anybody.”

Hal agreed to travel to California with Janiel to scout the scene, and was quickly convinced upon arriving that his daughter would be in good hands. “Brian was just a first-class guy,” Hal said. “In a weekend’s time, she met a coach she would live with and nine new girls she had never played with before who she had to be on a team with. For her development and lifelong lessons, it was the best thing that could have happened to her.”

Landing in the middle of Los Angeles, Olson quickly adopted the nickname ‘Montana’ and was thrown into the fire in one of the most competitive leagues along the West Coast. The old-school, hard-nosed style of basketball quickly grew on Olson, who worked on sinking her jumper through hoops with metal chain-nets and battling for boards against players who showed no mercy.

“The first few weeks I was just getting worked on and beat up, and those girls were so tough,” Olson said. “But that’s a huge reason why I came back my senior year as a better rebounder and the ability to play serious defense.”

With newfound confidence that she could take on the toughest players on her opponents’ teams, Olson returned to Billings for her final year before college having taken her game to the next level.

Olson with West Coast Premier teammates Rachel Williams (left) and Brianna Johnson.

MSUB = HOME “She was aggressive even back then when I was at West High and she was in middle school. I was looking forward to her getting older and playing for me one day. She had been on my radar for years.” – MSUB head coach Kevin Woodin on his first encounters with Janiel Olson at youth basketball camps.

As Olson’s fondness for basketball grew, she began attending girls’ basketball games at West High and idolizing the players under the guidance of then-head coach Kevin Woodin. Now in his 12th year at MSUB and a four-time conference coach of the year, Woodin still freshly remembers characteristics Olson possessed that signaled she could excel at the NCAA Division II level with the ‘Jackets.

“I remember seeing Janiel break her nose as a sophomore and then watching her play in the state tournament with a mask on,” Woodin said. “I was impressed with how hard she continued to compete despite that injury. I started formally recruiting her during her junior year of high school.”

Though Woodin was unsure if he would lose Olson to the lure of a new adventure away from home at West Point, she ultimately committed to the ‘Jackets and became part of one of the top recruiting classes the veteran coach has ever had. Along with Olson, eventual All-American Kayleen Goggins, Quinn Peoples, Annie DePuydt, and Monica Grimsrud all committed to enter the program as freshmen together in the fall of 2011.

Olson and head coach Kevin Woodin embrace after she exits her final career game at Alterowitz Gym on Feb. 13, 2016.

“I had played against Kayleen and Monica before, and the summer before freshman year I played against Annie in the Treasure State Games,” Olson remembered with a smile. “I had this really annoying defender guarding me all game, and I had no idea that it was Annie. After the game Coach Woodin introduced us and that was the first time we had met.”

Immediately slotting in as a starter in MSUB’s lineup, Olson averaged 8.2 rebounds over 25.9 minutes in her first season while also contributing 6.0 points per game. She never looked back after that, earning honorable mention all-GNAC honors as a sophomore with 9.0 rebounds per game, and then developing into the GNAC Defensive Player of the Year and garnering first-team honors by leading the league with 9.7 rebounds per game as a junior.

“That court out there reveals a totally different person than who I am outside of it,” said Olson. “Getting rebounds requires hard work, and they are something you have to earn. It can be a dirty grind under the hoop, but I love to battle it out down there. I got so tired of being kicked down and told I wasn’t tall enough that I wanted to go in there and prove people wrong.”

INTO THE DARKNESS AND BACK “I didn’t see it happen, I just heard her go down and start screaming. There was no doubt in my mind I needed to be running out onto the court, and I knew what I’d find when I got out there,” – MSUB athletic trainer Lindsay Sullivan on the moment Janiel Olson tore her ACL. On Feb. 20, 2014, Mary and Hal gathered around a computer at their home in Billings to watch the ‘Jackets take on Western Oregon University in an evening GNAC game just as they had done numerous times before.

With the GNAC-leading ‘Jackets well on their way to victory, time wound down in the second half and the teams got set to shake hands at center court.

MSUB athletic trainer Lindsay Sullivan began to pack up her medical kit, assistant coach Jenny Heringer collected the team’s white board and checked her surroundings on the team bench, and Western Oregon’s broadcasters began wrapping up the evening’s game.

Then Mary heard something she’d never heard before. She’d been there for every tear of frustration her daughter had shed as she came back into the house on the losing side of a game of PIG. She’d been there for plenty of screams from the yard when her dad and brother refused to let her win.

But this was different.

“It was the last seconds, and the camera started buffering, and then we heard the scream,” Mary recalled. “I said to Hal, ‘that was Janiel.’”

The game clock read 0.4 seconds for more than 10 minutes, as Sullivan knelt over Olson and tried to breathe some sort of solace into a situation she knew couldn’t be much worse. The Anterior Cruciate Ligament in Olson’s left knee was gone, ripped away in one fell swoop as her season was effectively over.

The toughest months of Olson’s life awaited her, a time where she would find out what she was truly made of. The ‘Jackets returned home and closed the season with two wins, clinching the GNAC title and cutting down the nets on their home floor at Alterowitz Gym. “I told myself I was going to climb up the ladder and cut my own piece of the net,” Olson said. “I looked down and there were seven people standing around me to make sure I wouldn’t fall.

That was really hard because I was at the point where I couldn’t take care of myself at all.”

It was Olson’s first moment of realization that she no longer had the independence that had come to define her as a person. But with the season far from over, Olson was determined to do what she had always done and defy the doubt.

Earning a berth into the NCAA West Region Championships hosted at Cal Poly Pomona, Olson was adamant that she could contribute on the court in the transition phase between her injury and surgery. Inserted into the team’s first game to make a long-court pass in the dying seconds of a victory, Olson tasted accomplishment and for the first time since being hurt felt like she contributed something to the team.

In her second appearance however, a bad landing on a rebound attempt worsened her injury as her previously-intact Medial Collateral Ligament had given way leaving her with no ligamentous support in her knee. “Everyone knew that I was playing on an injured knee, and when it happened I tried to scoot myself off the court because I didn’t want people staring at me,” Olson said. “Lindsay and I had a deal that no matter what happened, I would walk off that court.”

Olson’s first week after surgery was a blur. The most basic life skills evaded Olson, and her routine CrossFit workouts and extra shooting sessions couldn’t have felt further out of reach. She knew that if she didn’t handle her recovery the right way, she might never have the chance to play basketball again.

Alterowitz Gym became Olson’s safe haven and prison cell all at the same time. In a world of uncertainty, the only guarantee was that Sullivan, DePuydt – who had also torn her ACL that season – and countless band exercises awaited her on a daily basis.

“As far as meeting expectations, Janiel was here every day for several hours a day,” Sullivan said. “I cannot imagine either her or Annie going through rehab and recovery without one another.”

“Lindsay would come in on holidays, and she was there for me every day,” Olson said. “Half the time I know I wasn’t the prettiest person to be around, but Lindsay was the one person who treated me like I was still the athlete I was before tearing my ACL. She didn’t let me make any excuses or feel bad for myself, even when I was crying or mad.”

Olson and DePuydt pose with their left-leg knee braces during their recovery from torn ACLs.

While Olson cites the rehabilitation and exhausting exercises as the toughest thing she’s ever had to endure, she was confident that her hard work would result in her returning to the court the following season. When she found out that her body was not going to be ready for the full-on contact in a basketball game, Olson felt her world sucked out from under her once again.

“In September I found out I was going to have to redshirt that season, and it really brought me down,” said Olson. “It became real when the team left for its first road trip of the season and they left me behind. In December I hit rock bottom.”

Never had Olson felt as purposeless as she did while missing her first season ever since she began playing. The full magnitude of her life-changing setback didn’t hit until the Yellowjackets took to the court with No. 22 absent from their lineup.

“It was actually a sense of relief because deep down I knew she wasn’t ready,” Sullivan commented on the decision for Olson to sit out for the 2014-15 season. “It wasn’t because we didn’t think she could go out and play, but she had spent the last eight months rehabbing, not getting ready to play a basketball game. You can only do so much to prepare for the rigors of what an actual game is going to be like.”

UN-BRACE YOURSELF Nineteen months after picking herself up off of the court at Kellogg Gym in Pomona, Olson played what felt like her first-ever basketball game. Hosting the No. 3 team in Olson poses with Sullivan in her first full the country in Cal Baptist, Olson started and scored one point with seven rebounds game in the summer before her senior season. in 23 minutes on Nov. 13, 2015 at Alterowitz Gym.

There was No. 22, back in the lineup where she was supposed to be, but it was no secret that it wasn’t Janiel Olson. Both legs fully wrapped in neoprene, the sense of hesitation lingered around her every move on the court. “I made it through all of the hard preseason workouts, but when I started playing games, I wasn’t playing like I used to,” said Olson.

Gone was the fearless warrior who laid out for every ball, willing herself to be better than her opponent through sheer toughness. She had done everything Sullivan had prescribed and more, but there was something Olson couldn’t shake that was holding her back.

“After one game she sat there in the locker room crying, telling me she needed to do her entire workout routine and more of all her exercises,” Sullivan said. “She said I’m not the same. I told her, ‘Jan, it’s not your leg or body, it’s your head. You need to play your style of game.’”

As the ‘Jackets prepared to host Saint Martin’s University in the first home game of 2016, Olson had a rendezvous with her old coach Katie Smart, who offered up the most simple yet important advice she had received since returning to the court: Lose the brace.

Having been cleared by her doctor and Sullivan to play without the brace, it took an extra push from the latter to force Olson to leave it down in the locker room on game day against the Saints. That night, Olson brought down a career-high 18 rebounds, and averaged a dozen over her next seven games.

Janiel was back.

“It was the last thing I needed to do to be as close as I could to the normal player I was before I got hurt,” Olson said regarding removing her brace. “The edge and ferocity came back. I started playing free and things started to change.”

GO AND GET IT “That’s just the way Janiel is. If you tell her she can’t, she’ll show you she can.” – Hal Olson on his daughter Janiel.

In the time Olson spent recovering from her injury, she managed to complete her bachelor’s degree and has started on MSUB’s master’s program in healthcare administration. Even on the days she felt most vulnerable, she forced herself to go to class and never lost sight of her goals.

On Wednesday Olson will head to Lacey, Wash., for the fourth GNAC Championship tournament of her life. This time, Mary and Hal will be there to watch the last part of their daughter’s career first hand. “It is really neat to see her back playing at the level she’s at now,” Hal said. “The physical part healed up quicker, but the mental side of it was the real issue. For her to come back and now set the school record for rebounding is just a testament to how hard she has worked year-in and year-out.”

Both parents agreed that when they see Olson hit the floor fighting hard for a rebound under the hoop, they can’t help but worry. But every elbow she absorbs and body she collides with is a reminder that there is no obstacle Janiel Olson cannot overcome.

Hal will undoubtedly reminisce this week back to the days of PIG, when Janiel refused to give up and ultimately started beating her dad and brother. “We always told them, if you want something, go and get it,” Hal said proudly. “Both of our kids have been determined to get what they want, and have worked hard to do so.”

Nine hundred and sixty-one times Olson has taken her father’s advice, gone out and gotten the ball after a missed shot.

The record-breaking number doesn’t even begin to tell her story.

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