Supernatural Dakota’s Izzi Fust added a stellar comeback story to her final season of high school basketball By: Mike Sawatzky Posted: 3:00 AM CST Saturday, Mar. 9, 2024

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This article was published 09/03/2024 (592 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Izzi Fust is redefining the term MVP.

The 17-year-old star of Dakota’s varsity girls basketball team fits the traditional meaning to a tee — she’s the most valuable player on the best team in the province. But she could also be up for most valuable patient honours owing to her apparent regenerative healing powers.

Fust, you see, is running the court at full speed barely four months after a freak play — she planted a foot awkwardly during her Evolve club team practice on Oct. 3 — that resulted in a dislocated left ankle and 12 broken bones in her leg.

The injury was as gruesome as it sounds, requiring surgery to insert an eight-inch steel plate and eight screws to stabilize the joint.

Her father, Paul Fust, remembers trying to comfort his daughter on the gym floor as they waiting for paramedics to arrive.

“She said, ‘Dad, you hit my heel!’ And I was like, ‘Those are your toes,’ because her foot was facing the wrong way,” he remembers. “It was really gross.”

Doctors originally suggested Izzi would be in a cast for one or two months and a walking boot for one or two months more.

She cut that to one month in a cast and two weeks in a boot before she could begin rehabbing her injury. She played her first game on Jan. 5, a mere 94 days later.

The physiotherapist supervising her recovery came to refer to her as the Wolverine, referencing the X-Men movie character with supernatural healing powers.

“Sometimes, it gets pretty stiff and it will hurt, but I know it’s just something that I have to push through and it’ll continue to get better,” says Izzi, who has been named at the No. 1 varsity girls player in the province by a panel of coaches in the Free Press poll.

“I know that some doctors told me that (the season) wasn’t gonna happen or I’d maybe be back for provincials, but in my head I was going to be back no matter what.”

“I know that some doctors told me that (the season) wasn’t gonna happen or I’d maybe be back for provincials, but in my head I was going to be back no matter what.”–Izzi Fust

At the time she was being rushed to hospital, the injury was severe enough that amputation of the foot was a possibility. Fortunately, the surgical repairs came off without a hitch.

A potential six-month layoff was reduced to three, thanks in no small measure to two or three early morning physiotherapy sessions per week.

“We thought she’d miss her whole Grade 12 year and then we were thinking, ‘Are we gonna have to send her to a prep school because is she gonna get recruited if she doesn’t play for a year?’” says Paul Fust, an assistant coach on Izzi’s team.

“So, it took her a little bit of time. I would say she’s 95 per cent healed. But still sometimes, in her brain, she’s more tentative than she would’ve been last summer.”

During her five-game absence, the Lancers lost their first game to a Manitoba opponent in almost three years — a 76-66 decision to the Garden City Gophers in the final of the Pembina Trails Bison Classic — but have gone unbeaten in their home province since.

Two other losses have come to the powerhouse Raymond (Alta.) Comets in a pair of out-of-province tournament finals.

Playing in 24 of Dakota’s first 29 games, Izzzy, a 6-foot-1 guard/forward, is averaging 17.5 points, five assists, 17. 5 rebounds, 4.5 steals and four blocks.

“She’s a mismatch problem,” says head coach Eric Sung, whose Lancers were 26-3 entering Saturday’s provincial AAAA quarter-finals. “She’s what every recruit, every player — anybody that’s coaching a team — wants to have. A player that is skilled in every aspect of the game. I use the terminology ‘global player,’ which means they’re able to do everything.”

“She’s what every recruit, every player — anybody that’s coaching a team — wants to have. A player that is skilled in every aspect of the game. I use the terminology ‘global player,’ which means they’re able to do everything.”–Eric Sung, head coach

The Lancers, with three of the top four players in the FP poll, are loaded with talent but Fust’s presence shines on the practise court and in games.

“I find that her leadership is very guided and direct,” says Sung. “But there’s empathy and care in the way she talks to each player. I find that she’ll talk to each player a certain way — she’s known them so long that she knows how to make sure the message gets across and the urgency behind it.”

After years as a much-sought-after university recruit, the stakes intensified last August when Izzi was named an all-Canadian after leading Manitoba to a fourth-place finish at the 17U nationals.

With more than 10 U Sports scholarship offers and interest from Ivy League schools, she made the decision last month to join her sister, Kyu, at the University of Regina next fall.

“It’s definitely been a long, tough choice,” says Izzi, who will play in the 2024 All-Canadian game in Toronto later this month. “I’ve been in contact with a few coaches.”

Playing with Kyu and the Cougars wasn’t the slam dunk many assumed. She came to the choice slowly and deliberately.

“I wanted to be able to come home whenever I wanted and I knew that going (to the U.S.) wouldn’t allow that,” she says. “So, I kind of knew early on I want to stay in Canada — and Regina was just a good fit for me.”

U of R coach Dave Taylor says Izzi’s diverse skill set should allow her to transition seamlessly to the U Sports level.

“I think she’ll make a high, high impact,” says Taylor. “When I recruited her it was with the idea that I think she can be in the running for rookie of the year, certainly in Canada West, if not the country. And I say that because she’s got a lot of different skill sets.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca