EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a series of profiles created by UMass’ Journalism 332 Sports Writing class.
Megan Olbrys recruited Taylor Derkack as the most important person on the sidelines: her lip gloss keeper.
Tasked with keeping Olbrys’ sacred lip gloss ready at all times, Derkack balances helping coach, motivating the team and “…sometimes they have me doing the shot chart, sometimes they have me doing like other things during the games to keep me involved.”
Along with charting and keeping a gloss on hand, she keeps the energy of the bench high, which is especially important as the team has gotten off to an 8-2 start to the 2025-26 season.
Some of the most common ways to tear your ACL are by contact, collisions, sudden stops, jumping and changing directions. The most common ACL tears occur taking part in sports, often when an athlete quickly changes direction or pivots, and the knee suddenly gives out.
Derkack knows this feeling. Last October, when she was preparing for her freshman season with UMass, she was on the court playing basketball with her teammates at one moment, and the next, she was sidelined.
Sports, especially basketball, are woven into Derkack’s life. She was born into an athletic family with both of her parents playing at Florida International University. Her dad played basketball, and her mom played soccer, and they made sure their three children carried the athletic gene.
“I like that it’s not just like a sport. It’s more like part of who I am, part of who my family is. … We’re known as being basketball players, being like a basketball family, which is, I like more than just it being like, just basketball, you know?” Derkack said.
Her mentality during her injury recovery was to just get through it, and she knew that it was going to be a tough nine months of recovery, but once those months were over, she knew she would be back doing what she loves.
The days were long and tough, but they went by fast, and the nine months crept up on her and caught her by surprise when she reached the recovery milestone. She was finally starting to practice again, and just as she was getting back into the swing of things, tragedy happened.
At nine months, Derkack tore her ACL again.
The clock reset.
“Everyone was, including our coaches, were devastated that she went down again,” coach Mike Leflar said. “But it was good for me, and I think our staff to see, like, that the rest of our team does feel like she makes an impact…whether she’s going over and giving someone a high five or trying to help a newcomer, you know, through a, maybe an adverse spot at practice.
“She’s not afraid to make her voice heard that way. She really is for like an injured player; she’s very low maintenance. You know she is probably like the best rehabber I’ve ever coached in 23 years.”
Derkack said that being sidelined and making her voice heard has helped her realize why coaches do what they do, and she can elaborate on the player perspective to her coaches.
“It’ll just help me in the long run, with understanding the game more…understanding myself… how I could do better when I get back,” she said.
Assistant coach Clare Fitzpatrick said she’s been impressed with the redshirt freshman’s progression.
“Where I would have thought that she would have had a few meltdowns and you know just be very upset about the problem, like what happened, and you know it was the complete opposite,” Fitzpatrick said.
The New Jersey native has embraced acceptance.
“I can go and cry and have a meltdown or whatever. And like, what’s that gonna do for me? Repair my ACL?”
She added, “I am playing at a Division I school, I get to use my weight room every day, I get to go to practice, I get to have free food every day. … if I were to complain about that, like, that’s just so, like, ungrateful. … I have so many things to be grateful for.”
Stuck on the sideline, Derkack has had to learn what it is like to be a cheerleader for not only her team, but for herself, too.
While her road to recovery is still months long, she is slowly counting down the days until she is cleared to play the sport she loves, at a school she loves with her favorite people in the world, her teammates.
