After 1,028 days spanning over two seasons, forward Ethan Menzies is back on the floor. As an All-American as a sophomore, Menzies was forced to miss the next two seasons with back-to-back pre-season ACL tears. Now returning with a few games under his feet, Menzies is finding his way back with one of the best teams in the country.
Going into the new year, Menzies was officially cleared to return to action. Against New Mexico Highlands University, the redshirt junior made his long awaited return to a huge ovation from the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) crowd.
“I got emotional, to be honest with you,” Colorado Mesa University head coach Mike DeGeorge said. “It was emotional for me and my heart was racing, I can’t imagine what it was like for him.”
Despite playing limited minutes, Menzies flashed the dominance he had in the 2020-21 season.
“I knew he was a little nervous when he went in, but as we see in practice all the time, he’s always finding guys, he looks like himself there in practice. So, just trying to get him back to the flow, he should be good,” guard Christopher Speller said.
Getting Menzies in the flow makes the Mavericks even scarier, which seems impossible as they are 15-2 and ranked seventh in the nation. As a freshman, Menzies was a solid role player, but became the featured player his sophomore season.
While being the focal point of the team, Menzies led the squad to the best record in program history going 21-2, winning the RMAC championship in the pandemic shortened season. The 6”7 forward averaged 15.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per-game while playing only 29 minutes a game, earning him All-American honors.
“I think after that freshman year, things kind of just slowed down for me. I think things weren’t really expected of me as much, just because I don’t think anyone really, even I didn’t really expect to have that much success,” Menzies said.
Like almost all the players for the Mavericks, Menzies credits much of his success in that year due to assistant coach Kyle Boucher. Boucher has been a member of DeGeorge’s staff all six seasons and has been a staple for player development. He and Menzies went to work that previous summer, working on his shot, buildinging strength and even helping his diet.
Poised for another dominant season with the new powerhouse that are the Mavericks, Menzies tore his ACL weeks before the season started which led to a grueling 12 month recovery process.
“It was a huge, huge letdown. I mean, the first thing we thought about was not even basketball. It was obviously an emotional thing when it happened, people had tears running down their face at practice, sprinting out of the gym to try to find Steve [Athletic Trainer Stephen Mundee]. The worst part was probably not having him around, with his leadership and friendship and everything like that. It was weird wearing a Mesa jersey and watching a Mesa game and Ethan [Menzies] not really being a part of it,” guard Levi Dombro said.
When the injury and surgery happened, Menzies remembers his support system, led by his family, teammates and girlfriend for maintaining his motivation amongst recovery.
“Every single person that’s in my life really supported me. Whether that be just driving me to class, getting food, helping me just do simple tasks around the house. You know, when I was on crutches, and I couldn’t really move that much. I mean, every single person played such a big part of my rehab,” Menzies said.
Even though the Mavericks’ projected best player in Menzies was out for the season, the team still went 26-10, making it the farthest in team history, all the way to the sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. Meanwhile, Menzies battled through rehab in efforts to be cleared for the next season.
Menzies was fully cleared by pre-season, and traveled to Durango to play a scrimmage in his first game back. Menzies went for a rebound, hyperextended his knee and was originally thought to have a torn meniscus. After later testing, an MRI confirmed that it was another torn ACL. This time, the injury caused two surgeries and an even longer recovery process than the first time.
Many athletes don’t recover the same after tearing their ACL, let alone twice, but Menzies was undeterred and attacked the rehab process again.
“I was always planning on coming back, just because it’s like, what else am I going to do. There’s always that thought in the back of my mind, like if my body doesn’t respond, I might just have to call it. But, I never really thought about it too much, I was always just like, you know, I’m gonna go to physical therapy, and do what I can do to make this thing work,” Menzies said.
Making it work, Menzies once again went through the daunting year-plus recovery journey.
“It’s a long, long process. The first three months, it’s not a lot going on. For rehab, you have to do range-of-motion stuff, flexion stuff, you have to wear a big ol’ brace, it’s not very comfortable and doesn’t look very good, and you have to learn how to walk again, which is kind of funny. Once you get past walking, get the brace off, then you start doing more strength stuff, so that when you start cutting and running your muscles are strong enough to withstand the load,” Menzies said.
Menzies went on to persevere through rehab, and was finally fully cleared at the start of 2024, the back half of Mavericks’ season.
At 6’7 and more of a true center, Menzies gives the squad a unique player in their never-ending 13 man rotation, while also having the potential to lead an offense like he had in the past. However, the offense is much different than it was in the past, and Menzies is learning his role for now.
“I think I’m a pretty good facilitator and passer, I can help move the ball a little bit more, and just being another inside presence. But I mean, again, I’m a big team-first guy, if I play two minutes, if I play 30 minutes, I’ll do whatever.”
With a 15-3 record, and the three losses coming to teams all ranked around the top five, CMU has a real chance at a national championship, and those chances only get better now with Menzies in the mix.
