Dru Gylten has been playing basketball for as long as she can remember.
“Both of my parents played basketball in college,” Gylten said. “I was definitely born into the sport.”
A South Dakota native, Gylten was recruited to the University of Utah Women’s Basketball team in 2017. She played on the team until 2022, when she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, with a double minor in business and pediatric clinical research.
Even though Gylten graduated, she hasn’t yet left the court. She is now in her sixth—and final—year of collegiate basketball closer to home, at South Dakota State.
Gylten credits her longevity in the sport to University of Utah Health.
In September of 2020, she felt a pinching sensation in her hip and groin area. Thinking it was normal muscle soreness from her intensive training schedule, she hoped the issue would resolve itself. Unfortunately, things only got worse.
Gylten met with Travis Maak, MD about her injury. Maak is the head orthopedic team physician for the Utah Jazz, team physician for University of Utah Athletics, and associate professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Utah. Her MRI results showed a torn labrum, caused by an impingement in her hip.
“We first tried an injection at the site of the injury to see if that would help take the pain away,” Gylten said. “It didn’t really help, and the pain was still there.”
A seasoned athlete and competitor, Gylten had no problem pushing through a little bit of pain to try and finish the season.
“I’ve had more severe injuries,” she said. “I played from September until February, and that’s when it just got to be too much pain.”
At that point, Gylten decided it wasn’t worth it to finish out the final few months of the 2020-2021 season.
Gylten had hip surgery to fix her torn labrum on February 16, 2021. As for the recovery process, Gylten says she is glad she had Maak in her corner.
The thing I loved the most about Dr. Maak was his personality, and the fact that he works with the Utah Jazz and knows so much about basketball. He was very honest with me. He knew my position on the court and knew how I had to play. That helped him fine tune my recovery plan so that it was very specific to me and my needs.
