By: Dakota Breuker
March 6, 2023
Senior Justin Mcillwain also known as “JT” had his final football season cut short due to a knee injury, but worked hard to get back onto the basketball court to have one last ride.
JT was devastated after his injury during the football season. I asked JT what emotions he was feeling when his injury occurred. “Lots of anger and sadness, wondering why something like that would happen to me my senior year, McIllwain reflected.
But that didn’t stop him from working hard to recover for the upcoming basketball season. When I talked with JT he said that to help come back from his injury he had to go to physical therapy and take all of his workouts very seriously.
There were challenges he had to overcome when coming back from his injury. “When I first came back, although I was healthy, the muscles in my legs had fallen behind and I had to rebuild my strength and speed to keep up with the competition,” noted the high scoring senior.
He is a great athlete and it was very unfortunate that he couldn’t finish out his final football season, but, amazingly, he was able to work hard and get back onto the basketball court without missing too much time.
The 6’4″ senior had a great year on the court. In the team’s District Semifinal game, McIllwain scored not only a career-high, but a new program record, 44 points. Along with this incredible accomplishment, he joined a few others in the 1,000-point club. Sans a championship, that’s a great way to finish a memorable career.
While his career here at Hamilton might be over, he will continue to play basketball at Calvin University.