- April 25, 2024
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Alex Loyd worked hard to ensure a big sophomore season at Seabreeze. But a shoulder injury ended his year before it got started. Now, the work continues.
BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER
Alex Loyd sat in the locker room at Seabreeze High School as a trainer popped his shoulder back into place. It had finally dislocated.
Since the summer, he had been getting his right shoulder tapped before games. He’d been fighting through the pain. Sometimes, while simply going up for a layup, he could feel it start to slip out of place.
“I decided to walk down and go in, and see how he was doing,” his father Chip Loyd said. “I knew he was in pain. ... He was just so upset. And it wasn’t because of the pain, and it wasn’t because of the shoulder.
“The first thing that came out of Alex’s mouth was, ‘I let my teammates down.’ And that’s where he was hurting the most. ... It was hard for me to understand that.”
It was early in the third quarter Nov. 20, in a game against Flagler Palm Coast -- the first game of the season. Loyd had already scored 14 points and was taking the ball up court when a defender came from behind to strip the ball. That’s all it took to end his sophomore run.
“We lost a leader,” head coach Mike Dye said. “That’s what we lost. He was a leader and by far one of the hardest working kids when he came in as a ninth-grader.”
Loyd, in the Sandcrabs’ two preseason games against Mainland and Atlantic, had scored 25 and 28 points, respectively. Dye said he was well on his way to averaging 20 points a game for the year.
“He worked out all summer in the gym, doing strength training and cardio,” his mother Debbie Loyd said. “He’s constantly working, practicing and playing, and trying to be better.
“So when this happened, you think about all the months you spend, in the offseason, preparing, and you come to the first game, ready. And he really put a lot of time and effort in. He was really looking forward to this season. So I know he’s disappointed.”
Loyd's shoulder began to bother him back in September 2010, so he had it checked out and underwent arthroscopic surgery for a Bankart tear.
The surgery was meant to repair a ligament, which would hopefully stabilize the shoulder. He rehabbed and got himself back on the court, but during this winter break, Loyd will likely have a second surgery.
This surgery won’t be arthroscopic. The doctors will have to open up his shoulder. The benefit of the more invasive procedure, in theory, is that it will offer a better view of the problem and help repair it for good.
Then, Loyd will be just three to six months of rest, healing and rehab away from being back on the court with no limitations.
But he’ll have a lot on his mind during those months in the training room.
“I’m always thinking and always trying to get better,” he said. “And when I can’t, when I’m injured, every day just passes, and I think, it’s another day I’m missing that I could get better.”
There was another time Loyd was sidelined with an injury. It was his freshman year — just last year— he had a foot injury. So, he did what came naturally to him, he worked on his shooting. He could still do that.
Now, with his right shoulder— his shooting shoulder — injured, Loyd, again, will do what comes naturally to him. He’ll work. His legs are fine, so he said he wants to be a better jumper when he’s back.
Basketball wasn’t always something Loyd habitually worked at, though. His earliest basketball memory is from when he was six years old.
“At the (YMCA), we had these, like, five-foot goals,” he said. “I was just dunking on those, because I was kind of tall. It was really fun because it was just dunking.”
But early in his basketball career, Loyd started playing up, for teams with older players. In games, he was a grade or two younger than his opponents, and proportionately undersized.
“It was sometimes discouraging,” he said. “But most of the time, I would always want to (compete), always had the fire inside me to just always try to block a shot. Even though the kid was taller than me, I’d always try and block (him).”
Now, when Loyd plays against players a year or two older, he doesn’t get discouraged. He was recently invited to camps at the University of Miami and the University of Central Florida.
He said he struggled at the UCF camp, but, at Miami, where he said he was one of only a few sophomores competing against juniors and seniors, he held his own.
“He’s going to be an outstanding athlete,” Dye said. “I look forward to watching him play throughout high school and into college.”
