SLIPPERY ROCK — Morgan Siebka doesn’t mind the dark, thick scar that runs across her right knee.

“It reminds me of what I’ve been through,” she said.

Siebka, a senior guard on the Slippery Rock High girls basketball team, had seen teammates and friends go down with knee injures before. She heard the tales of emotional swings, painful rehab and slow recoveries.

But she never really understood what it did to a player, physically and psychologically.

“I just never thought it would happen to me,” she said.

But it did.

On March 31 in the first half of her first AAU basketball game of the season, Siebka’s knee buckled.

An MRI revealed the extent of the damage.

“(The ACL) tore totally in half,” Siebka said, the memory putting a frown on her face. “It snapped and both ends curled up in my knee.”

It was then, when she heard the news and the grim prognosis that it may take as long as a year to fully recover, that the reality set in.

It had happened to her.

“I really was in shock,” she said.

Siebka is a three-sport star at Slippery Rock. In the fall, she is one of the fastest players on the soccer team. In the winter, she is a stalwart on both offense and defense and in the spring she is a member of the track and field team at the school.

It’s on the basketball court, though, where Siebka has really excelled.

Lightning quick and fearless when slashing to the hoop, she averaged 15.7 points and five steals per game as a sophomore to share the Butler County Girls Basketball Player of the Year award with Union’s Tina Lipps.

Last season as a junior, she scored 14.2 points per game to go along with 3.9 rebounds, 3.2 steals and 2.5 assists per contest.

The injury threatened to wipe out more than a season of those sports.

“I was there when it happened,” said Slippery Rock girls basketball coach Christin Miller. “I really didn’t think she would be ready until January.”

But there Siebka was on picture day Thursday, wearing her familiar jersey No. 11 and with just a compression wrap protecting her right knee.

She was cleared to play three weeks ago and is expected to start at point guard when the Rockets open the season Dec. 7 against Lakeview at the West Middlesex Tournament.

It was by no means an easy road to get there.

Siebka said there were many dark days. The darkest perhaps came in July when she was still not cleared to run.

“I just felt like I needed to do something,” Siebka said. “How can I get better if I can’t even run? That was the most frustrating thing. I was doing everything I was supposed to do. I listened. I didn’t push myself at all because of the chance of setting myself back and nothing was happening.”

Siebka, though, bounced back from those dark moments and stayed positive.

That didn’t go unnoticed.

“Morgan is the poster child for a person with an injury,” Miller said. “She didn’t let it deter her from being the basketball player she wants to be.”

What that player will be is anyone’s guess, even Siebka’s.

She has no idea what to expect when the games start to count next weekend.

“I think I’ll be 100 percent of the player I’m going to be. I don’t think I’m going to be 100 percent of the player that I was before the injury,” she said.

“I’ve changed a lot,” Siebka explained. “A lot of the aspects of my abilities have changed. Some I have gained and some I might have lost.”

Strength is one thing she has gained. Because she couldn’t run, Siebka hit the weight room hard to work on her upper body and the changes are noticeable.

Psychologically, Siebka said she still has some work to do.

“I’m going to have to get my confidence back, to know I can still do this,” she said.

Siebka is certainly motivated.

Losing a season of AAU has hurt her in college recruiting.

She also has heard the naysayers who believe she will never be as good as she was before the injury.

“I sort of have a chip on my shoulder,” Siebka said. “I feel like I have people to prove wrong.”

Shortly after tip-off next week, Siebka will get her answers.

A smile crosses her face when she thinks about what it will be like to play again after eight months away from the game.

“A lot of my coaches said my first shot of the game is going to be a brick really hard off the backboard because I’m going to have so much built up energy,” Siebka said, laughing. “I feel it’s going to be a relief. I’m going to be able to take a deep breath and say, ‘This is it. I’m back.’”