munoz injury

SoCal High School & Prep Report

A Few Words From Victor Munoz On His
Injury: "I'll Be Back"--(January 15, 1998)

No this isn't about a bad Arnold Schwarzeneggar "Terminator" imitation. Last night we were at the Alemany v. Harvard-Westlake game, played at H-W in Studio City, and H-W's star point guard and McDonald's All-American nominee, Victor Munoz didn't play and didn't suit up either. Instead he sat on the bench in street clothes, with a pair of crutches nearby. In case you missed it, last week Victor suffered an injury to his left knee, the extent of which is still not fully known.

We spoke to Victor at some length last night, and he described how it happened: "I went up for a rebound, and when I came down, my upper body went one way and my knee went the other." Victor underwent an MRI earlier yesterday, and while he didn't have the results of the tests, he was still very optimistic about his condition, and his chances to return.

"I'll be back in about a month, hopefully just in time for playoffs," he said, smiling. "I'm still looking forward to playing this season, and other than using the crutches to take the weight off, I can move ok without them."

During half-time at the game last night, Victor was indeed walking without the crutches, and when both teams came back out from the locker rooms for the start of the second half, for their shoot-around warm-ups, Victor was standing under the H-W basket, grabbing balls as they came through the net, and passing them back to his teammates who were shooting. While he did look a bit stiff, he was walking and moving without any assistance, and didn't appear to be in any pain.

Coach Hilliard was also cautiously optimistic about Victor's return, telling us "You know, it's certainly possible he might be back. We don't really know how serious it is, but it's amazing the things doctors can do these days. And Victor is a very determined, dedicated guy, who will do what it takes to get himself back into the lineup as quickly as possible."

SoCalHoops wants to wish Victor a speedy recovery. And to all of you college coaches and scouts out there recruiting Victor (especially you guys from the Ivy League schools like Columbia and Princeton), he's still your man, the kind of player who can turn a program around and take it to the next level.

And he'll be back.

Count on it.