Reynolds rebounds from knee injury, excels in baseball

REDBAY–TyReynolds hasn’t picked out the spot yet, but promises it will be a place of prominence, a semi-shrine for one item that shaped so much of his senior season.

He carefully removed it from his locker in the final days of his time at Red Bay High School, vowing to safely stow it for memory’s sake.

Reynolds’ knee brace did its work well while he recovered from a major knee injury, allowing him to star on the diamond as a senior.

“I have it at my house right now. Actually, I think it’s in my truck now,” said Reynolds, the Florence TimesDaily’s small school baseball player of the year.

Reynolds suffered his knee injury a summer ago in a fashion that may not be surprising. Ah, summer basketball, with its rims so tantalizingly close, particularly for someone 6-foot-2 with fleeting hoop dreams.

“I was being not the smartest,” Reynolds said of his most-recent dunk attempt.

“It was pretty bad, but I didn’t know I tore anything right away,” he said. “I got up and I was walking fine, but it was swollen the next day.”

A doctor passed judgment, and Reynolds was off to surgery soon thereafter at the Andrews Clinic in Birmingham.

Months of physical therapy commenced with Reynolds already aware he wouldn’t be playing basketball as a senior, but hopeful and confident baseball season would await.

Reynolds, through the winter, remained a devout Red Bay basketball fan. He missed only a tournament in Tennessee and otherwise followed the Tigers all the way to the Class 2A Northwest Regional.

“It was really tough sitting on the bench watching my teammates play and getting to Wallace (State-Hanceville),” said Reynolds, who has not taken even a single, piddling dribble since.

“I haven’t played basketball,” he said. “I don’t want to risk it.”

When baseball started, Reynolds admits he was nervous when he first stepped to the plate in the season opener, knee brace in place.

“I was also just thankful I was able to get back from that knee injury and could play again,” he said.

Reynolds didn’t wait long for a significant highlight, either. In Red Bay’s home opener, its third game, Reynolds homered.

“I was thrilled, of course. I hit a home run,” he said, describing his stroll around the bases. “Just had to do it like I’ve done it before. I didn’t think about the knee. I just played the sport the best I could, to the best of my ability.”

By the end of the season, he had already chucked the knee brace into his locker, and Red Bay was on its way to a state quarterfinal appearance with Reynolds in a lead role.

After the year, he signed with Northwest Shoals Community College. That knee injury didn’t end his baseball future.

“I’m thrilled. I’m ready,” Reynolds said. “It’s going to be amazing. I’m thankful.”