Kaleb Addisu plays through rare leg injury to help lead Centennial in region playoffs

July 19, 2024

Sitting alone in the corner of the bleachers, Kaleb Addisu didn't bother to glance up at the celebration on the Centennial high court. He didn't have time. He peeled off his shin guard and extended his leg, revealing his ill-shaped tibia.

"Every time I see it, I actually tell him, 'That's disgusting,'" Eagles junior Corey Eudell said.

Addisu’s left shin is rounded like a bow and arrow. It’s a product of osteofibrous dysplasia, a rare congenital defect that commonly attacks the bones of shin. Fiber tissues under his left tibia push the bone upwards, causing it to harden and curve.

So, sure, Addisu would have liked to join the festivities after Centennial's Maryland 3A East region first-round win over Mt. Hebron last Friday. But he's under doctor's orders.

Soon, the junior forward was flanked by the team trainer and his mother, Aida Teke, as his teammates rejoiced with the Eagles’ fans on the court. His trainer had ice. His mother had a question.

“How’s your shin?” she said.

A self-described slasher, Addisu welcomes contact on the court like a running back. Changing his style might be easier on his shin, but it’d also make him a less effective player.

So Addisu trucks forward.

"It's play through it, or sit for the rest of his life," senior Elijah White said. "He chooses to play through it, and I really do respect that."

Addisu felt pain in his tibia as far back as sixth grade, but it wasn’t until he hit his growth spurt a couple of years later that his shin started to jut out from the rest of his leg.

It’s concealed during games under a special guard with four straps.

“One for the ankle, one for the bottom of the shin, one on the middle and one on top. I completely strap it in,” Addisu said. “I try to do it as tight as possible so I won’t feel anything at all.”

That method usually works, but at one point in the third quarter Friday, Addisu, who has started in all but two games this season, felt such a sharp pain he needed to come off the court.

The Eagles were trapping, and when a deflection poked the ball loose, Addisu was off and running. When he dove for the ball, however, a pair of Vikings defenders fell and landed on his shin, one on top of the other.

“I knew I had to come out right away,” Addisu said.

The Eagles’ trainer instructed Addisu to jump on one foot, shifting all his body weight to the bad leg. He feared having to sit out the rest of the contest, but after a three-minute rest prescribed by the trainer, he was back on the court.

Addisu scored a game-high 14 points in the 64-44 win, as No. 3-seed Centennial advanced to a second-round matchup with No. 7-seed Long Reach on Tuesday.

It’ll be a home game for the Eagles, meaning Addisu won’t have to deal with the Lightning’s fans. In Centennial’s only trip to Long Reach’s gym this season, the Lightning faithful heckled Addisu during pregame warm-ups for his guard.

“They’re like ‘What is on your shin? What’s wrong with you?,” White said.

Addisu said he didn’t take the taunting seriously; how were those fans supposed to know the whole story?

Eagles senior captain Steve Sedlacko said he first noticed Addisu's outgrowth last season. Addisu assured Sedlacko everything was fine, that it wasn't anything he couldn't play through.

But Addisu’s pain started to intensify toward the end of the season, so Teke took him to his specialist at Johns Hopkins. The X-Ray brought shock.

“She said ‘Oh my god, your shin is fractured,’” Teke said.

The doctor estimated the stress fracture had occurred five months earlier, meaning Addisu played the entire season on it. If he had landed the wrong way, the bone could’ve snapped in half.

“[It could’ve been] no more basketball,” Addisu said.

During the team’s end-of-the-year banquet, Addisu stood to Coach Chad Hollwedel’s left, his head drooping out of shyness when Hollwedel broke the news to the rest of the team.

“Half the people’s jaws’ dropped,” Sedlacko said. “We didn’t see the drop-off in energy, the drop-off in production.”

Addisu refrained from physical activity for two months, allowing for the stress fracture to heal.

It still hurts at times, though, and as he’s transitioned to the starting lineup this season, his insistence on playing through the pain has inspired his teammates.

Eudell tweaked his ankle during the team's 49-47 win over Oakland Mills on Jan. 20, and wasn't sure if he'd suit up for the following day's contest against Westminster.

“I was like, ‘Kaleb,’” Eudell said. “Looking at his shin, how far it goes out from his body, and I’m like, ‘OK, this ankle doesn’t matter.”

White echoed that sentiment.

“If he gets hit in his shin, it will hurt him. He just gets up, plays through it,” White said. “If the ball’s on the ground, he’s [going] to dive for it. He gets back up and plays 100 percent. I’m just like, ‘If he has an injury and he’s doing this, what’s stopping us?’”

When he first got the shin guard, Addisu was a nervous wreck. He’d adjust it whenever he subbed out, during timeouts and at the free-throw line. He eventually learned to trust it.

His stretching routine — done before all physical activity — helps. Though there aren’t any direct moves for the shin, he stretches out some of the surrounding muscles for 8-10 minutes.

For good measure, he pops an Advil before every game. He said his shin sometimes hurts the morning after particularly “hardcore” bouts, but he’s typically able to play freely and carefree.

He brought that attitude to the Long Reach game. Addisu insisted he didn’t take the taunts personally — “that’s high school basketball,” he said — but it still pushed him to prove the fans wrong.

Addisu scored just five points through the first three quarters, but something clicked in the fourth. He poured in eight of his 13 points in the frame, helping Centennial to a 61-53 victory.

As the home crowd’s frustration mounted, the typically stoic Addisu had some fun. As he ran back on defense after each of his buckets, he’d clap his hands and shoot a glare toward the student section. Then he’d smirk.

“It kind of felt good, [with] them thinking something like my shin would hold me back,” Addisu said. “It didn’t.”

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